Overview
This book offers a critical examination of the field of trauma work using a decolonial lens, recentering narratives and approaches to healing in a more inclusive, culturally responsive way than that offered by dominant Eurocentric approaches. As trauma is a universal experience, a colonized paradigm for responding to trauma re-introduces problematic dynamics of domination and subjugation that are inimical to healing. Decolonizing Trauma Healing offers a new paradigm for how psychologists and other mental health providers can learn to properly understand and work with people whose lives, psyches, and souls have been damaged by exposure to trauma. Dr. Laura S. Brown introduces her decolonial, humble, culturally responsive (DHCR) model of trauma healing practice. It urges readers to abandon the concept of cultural competence and other approaches that maintain a Eurocentric perspective, in favor of a decolonial method that re-centers the sufferer's lived experience, with an understanding of the subtle ways in which the colonial mindset underlies the causes of trauma as well as our traditional conception of trauma healing. As a member of a colonized and marginalized culture, as well as in her work as a trauma healer, Dr. Brown serves as an inspiration for readers who want to understand why the traditional approach to trauma care has been insufficient, and all those who are ready to do the work needed to bring the field to a new level of clarity and rigor.
Full Product Details
Author: Laura S. Brown
Publisher: American Psychological Association
Imprint: American Psychological Association
ISBN: 9781433840630
ISBN 10: 1433840634
Pages: 387
Publication Date: 12 November 2024
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Professional & Vocational
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming
Availability: Not yet available
This item is yet to be released. You can pre-order this item and we will dispatch it to you upon its release.
Reviews
Brown has wrestled with the daunting task of finding language to illuminate what is almost entirely invisible—the prevailing social conditions we are immersed in that promote and foster trauma and traumatization. Those of us in the trauma field are just as submerged in these frameworks as anyone else, blinding us and radically limiting our effectiveness. That Brown took on this challenge in the first place is nothing less than heroic. That she succeeds is awe-inspiring … and, for those who dare to listen to her, powerfully mind-expanding. -- Steven N. Gold, PhD, Professor Emeritus, Nova Southeastern University, Fort Lauderdale, FL; licensed clinical psychologist in independent practice, Plantation, FL; author of Contextual Trauma Therapy and Not Trauma Alone; Editor-in-Chief of the APA Handbook of Trauma Psychology Brilliant! This book is for everyone interested in healing trauma. Laura S. Brown delivers a powerhouse in decolonizing trauma therapy. -- Lillian Comas-Díaz, PhD, Clinical Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, George Washington University, Washington, DC Kudos to Dr. Laura Brown for her manifesto, Decolonizing Trauma Healing: Toward a Humble, Culturally Responsive Practice, in which she builds and expands upon her 40 years’ worth of scholarship, clinical and forensic practice, activism, and lived experience in trauma psychology. This book integrates a vast amount of information. It is a call to approach healing interactions with suffering individuals in a more humble, person-centered, and culturally responsive way that centralizes the traumatizing impact of social pathologies associated with colonization. Although as Dr. Brown recognizes, not all will agree with her approach, her ideas deserve close attention as they have the potential to move the frontiers and establish new methods of trauma psychology. -- Christine A. Courtois, PhD, ABPP, Delaware Licensed Psychologist and Board-Certified Counseling Psychologist; author of Healing the Incest Wound: Adult Survivors in Therapy; coauthor of Treatment of Complex Trauma: A Sequenced, Relationship-Based Approach In this gorgeously written book, Laura S. Brown first exposes the ways the practice of trauma therapy despite good intentions—has so often colluded with the oppressive and colonizing forces inherent in the harm of trauma. Then she offers an alternative approach for healers, one that humbly and repeatedly examines the political, intersectional, existential, and neurobiological realities that are inextricably linked to trauma harm and trauma healing. Once you start reading you won’t want to put it down, because Decolonizing Trauma Healing is deliciously eloquent, brilliant, wise, and teeming with authenticity and compassion. -- Jennifer Joy Freyd, PhD, Professor Emerit, Psychology, University of Oregon, Eugene
Author Information
Laura S. Brown, PhD, ABPP, has practiced trauma work in Seattle, Washington, living on unceded Duwamish land, since 1976. A speaker and author on decolonial, liberatory, intersectional feminist therapy theory and practice, she offers workshops and trainings to professionals around the world as well as for the general public on such topics as trauma work, self-care for trauma workers, cultural responsivity, and the ethical challenges of this work. She is the past-president of the APA Division of Trauma Psychology.
