Overview

This volume focuses on the role that religion and spirituality can play in recovery from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other forms of trauma, including moral injury. Religious texts, from the Bible to Buddhist scriptures, have always contained passages that focus on helping those who have experienced the trauma of war. Many religions have developed psychological, social, behavioral, and spiritual ways of coping and healing that can work in tandem with clinical treatments today in assisting recovery from PTSD and moral injury. In this book the authors review and discuss systematic research into how religion helps people cope with severe trauma, including trauma caused by natural disasters, intentional interpersonal violence, or combat experiences during war. They delve into the impact that spirituality has in both the development of and recovery from PTSD. Beyond reviewing research, they also use case vignettes throughout to illustrate the very human story of recovery from PTSD, and how religious or spiritual beliefs can both help or hinder depending on circumstance. A vital work for any mental health or religious professionals who seek to help people dealing with severe trauma and loss.

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9781785928222

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Reviews

An invaluable robust resource for proven clinical methods of treating PTSD! The contributors have compiled a ground-breaking, comprehensive, and documented repository of research in the area of treating PTSD. The book takes a refreshing positive interdisciplinary approach. Religion and Recovery from PTSD adds a very important bonus by clarifying the difference between symptoms and treatment of PTSD contrasted with Moral Injury. It encourages all professionals to work together to help bring healing to our military members or others experiencing severe trauma with resulting PTSD and/or Moral Injury. Religion and Recovery is a repository of research providing extensive clinically proven practical tools and surveys that will be extremely helpful for trained mental health and chaplain professionals. I give my complete endorsement to this volume as an enormously valuable source of information for all personnel working with the treatment of PTSD and Moral Injury. This book is unique and should become a standard guideline for the understanding and treatment of PTSD for years to come! -- Samuel F. Adamson, DMin, MDiv, STM, MBA, MSc, Retired Chaplain, US Army and Veterans Affairs In Religion and Recovery from PTSD, the authors skillfully navigate a very difficult terrain. While outlining evidence-based clinical services, they simultaneously draw on the institutional memory of diverse religious and spiritual traditions in helping individuals recover from traumatic experiences. In so doing, this book serves as a valuable resource in supporting those affected by post-traumatic stress disorder. By harnessing the power of what gives our lives meaning and purpose, the authors show that recovery from PTSD is indeed possible. -- Marek S. Kopacz, M.D., Ph.D. Health Science Specialist, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs

An invaluable robust resource for proven clinical methods of treating PTSD! The contributors have compiled a ground-breaking, comprehensive, and documented repository of research in the area of treating PTSD. The book takes a refreshing positive interdisciplinary approach. Religion and Recovery from PTSD adds a very important bonus by clarifying the difference between symptoms and treatment of PTSD contrasted with Moral Injury. It encourages all professionals to work together to help bring healing to our military members or others experiencing severe trauma with resulting PTSD and/or Moral Injury. Religion and Recovery is a repository of research providing extensive clinically proven practical tools and surveys that will be extremely helpful for trained mental health and chaplain professionals. I give my complete endorsement to this volume as an enormously valuable source of information for all personnel working with the treatment of PTSD and Moral Injury. This book is unique and should become a standard guideline for the understanding and treatment of PTSD for years to come! -- Samuel F. Adamson, DMin, MDiv, STM, MBA, MSc, Retired Chaplain, US Army and Veterans Affairs In Religion and Recovery from PTSD, the authors skillfully navigate a very difficult terrain. While outlining evidence-based clinical services, they simultaneously draw on the institutional memory of diverse religious and spiritual traditions in helping individuals recover from traumatic experiences. In so doing, this book serves as a valuable resource in supporting those affected by post-traumatic stress disorder. By harnessing the power of what gives our lives meaning and purpose, the authors show that recovery from PTSD is indeed possible. -- Marek S. Kopacz, M.D., Ph.D. Health Science Specialist, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs In caring for Veterans with PTSD and moral injury, I have valued the strength of an interdisciplinary team sharing a common mission of treating the body, mind, soul, and spirit of those who have borne the battle. I'm delighted to see how the authors of Religion and Recovery from PTSD have captured the shared commitment of involving medical science and faith in serving the whole person. -- Chaplain Juliana Lesher, M.Div., Ph.D., BCC

Author Information

Harold G. Koenig, M.D. is Director of the Center for Spirituality, Theology and Health at Duke University Medical Cente, and has published extensively in the fields of mental health, geriatrics and religion. His research on religion, health and ethical issues in medicine has been featured on dozens of national and international TV news programs. He has given testimony before the U.S. Senate (1998) and U.S. House of Representatives (2008) concerning the benefits of religion and spirituality to public health. Donna Ames is a psychiatrist and Professor in Residence at the VA and UCLA in Los Angeles. She has worked for 30 years as a psychiatrist and was involved in psychiatric research for 7 years prior to her graduation from medical school. She is grateful and honored to serve Veterans every day. She is an accomplished researcher with over 100 publications, a sought after teacher and mentor and skilled clinician. Most importantly, she is a child of G-d, a wife, a daughter, a sister and a mother of 6 and grandmother of 6. Michelle Pearce, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Graduate School at the University of Maryland, Baltimore. Dr. Pearce is also a clinical psychologist who studies the relationship between religion/spirituality, coping, and health, as well as the integration of spirituality into the practice of psychotherapy. Her current research is on spiritually integrated cognitive processing therapy for moral injury and PTSD, as well as the development and evaluation of spiritual competency training for mental health professionals. She received her Ph.D. from Yale University and completed a post-doctoral fellowship in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) at Duke University Medical Center and a second fellowship in Spirituality and Health at the Duke Center for Spirituality, Theology, and Health. She is the author of the book Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Christians with Depression: A Practical, Tool-Based Primer.

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