Trauma essentials: the go-to
guide
Babette Rothschild
WW Norton & Co 2011, £14.99
ISBN 978-0393706208
Reviewed by Omar Sattaur
This book would have been
a godsend in the agency I
worked for when the number
of referrals of victims of
torture began to increase,
and I found myself struggling
to help clients cope with
the debilitating symptoms
of PTSD. Ignorant of the
field, what I needed first
was the equivalent of a road
map rather than a detailed
pathfinder. Trauma Essentials
admirably lives up to its title.
It offers essential information
that any would-be trauma
therapist needs to know in
order to identify training
needs and reinforce
knowledge they already have.
What I like most about
this book are Rothschild’s
sensitivity towards
traumatised people and her
catholic approach to treating
trauma. The two are closely
linked and evidence her
good sense in working with
this diverse client group.
Her introduction – 10
Foundations for Safe Trauma
Therapy – sets the tone by
establishing the primacy
of the client’s safety, the
centrality of the therapeutic
alliance and, implicit in the
remaining eight chapters,
the importance of being
client-led rather than therapyled.
Rothschild reminds us
that ‘safe trauma therapy aims
to improve a client’s quality
of life. Stability and ability to
function normally in a secure
environment are essential to
accomplishing all other goals’.
She writes, ‘The therapist
must be prepared, at times
– or even for a whole course
of therapy – to put aside
any and all techniques and
just talk with the client.’
She explains what we
know about how the brain
processes trauma and
describes the psychological
and physiological effects
of trauma. Chapter eight
outlines current treatment
methods, summarising
the rationale and practice
of cognitive, somatic and
specialised therapies.
(For a snapshot of these
therapies in practice I would
recommend one of her earlier
books: The Body Remembers
Casebook: Unifying Methods in
the Treatment of Trauma and
PTSD.) But Trauma Essentials
also aims to speak directly
to clients and here, I believe,
it is less successful. Most of
the book is clearly addressed
to therapists although I can
imagine that, for a few clients,
selected pages explaining
how we process trauma
might be of great value.
Omar Sattaur is a BACP
accredited counsellor and
editor of EMDR Now, the
newsletter of the EMDR
Association UK and Ireland
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