In recent years, the field of ‘trauma work’ has grown exponentially and the increased interest in these matters offers many possibilities. This wide-ranging, thoughtful and practice-based book provides clear explanations about how to use narrative ideas to respond to adults, couples and/or children who have endured traumatic experience. Key themes include:
* ways of ensuring that children (and adults) are not re-traumatised during counselling;
* ‘double listening’ – to listen not only to the story of trauma but also to the story of how the person has responded to the experiences they have endured;
* new approaches to ‘trauma de-briefing’;
* ways to unearth and acknowledge the values, skills and knowledge of those who have experienced multiple traumas;
* creative methods for responding to workers’ experience; and
* ideas for taking care not to replicate forms of psychological colonization when understandings about trauma work are ‘exported’ across cultures.