Treating Adult Children of Relational Trauma - by Tian Dayton (Paperback)

About the Book

"Psychodrama is one of the most effective treatments of PTSD and developmental trauma that I am familiar with, and Tian Dayton has written a terrific manual to serve as our guide." - Bessel van der Kolk, MD, professor of psychiatry at Boston University School of Medicine, president of the Trauma Research Foundation, and author of the #1 New York Times bestseller The Body Keeps the Score "In this treatment guide, Tian Dayton has provided us with an unparalleled approach for treating relational trauma. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is treating the pain of unhealed attachment wounds." - Peter Levine, PhD, developer of Somatic Experiencing(R) and best-selling author of Waking the Tiger Help clients respond to stress as the adults they are today, not the wounded children they once were. Because early attachment ruptures undermine trust and fuel disconnection, adult children of relational trauma often resist the very vehicles that would help them heal - feeling, naming, and sharing the contents of their inner world with another human being. In Treating Adult Children of Relational Trauma, world-renowned psychologist, author, and psychodramatist Dr. Tian Dayton expertly weaves together the very best of what works in psychodrama, sociometrics, and addictions treatment to create her unique, experiential approach to treating the ever-nuanced impact of early relational trauma. Grounded in the principles of interpersonal neurobiology, polyvagal theory, and somatic experiencing, this treatment guide includes 85 structured interventions that innately "warm up" the limbic system and allow space for healing in real time. Using Dr. Dayton's easy-to-follow, step-by-step approach, clinicians can help clients: - Repair, rather than reenact, painful relational trauma dynamics in their lives - Experience the safety of healing through connection, movement, and engagement with others - Feel empowered to become active shareholders in their own recovery

Book Synopsis

"Psychodrama is one of the most effective treatments of PTSD and developmental trauma that I am familiar with, and Tian Dayton has written a terrific manual to serve as our guide."

- Bessel van der Kolk, MD, professor of psychiatry at Boston University School of Medicine, president of the Trauma Research Foundation, and author of the #1 New York Times bestseller The Body Keeps the Score

"In this treatment guide, Tian Dayton has provided us with an unparalleled approach for treating relational trauma. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is treating the pain of unhealed attachment wounds."

- Peter Levine, PhD, developer of Somatic Experiencing(R) and best-selling author of Waking the Tiger

Help clients respond to stress as the adults they are today, not the wounded children they once were.

Because early attachment ruptures undermine trust and fuel disconnection, adult children of relational trauma often resist the very vehicles that would help them heal - feeling, naming, and sharing the contents of their inner world with another human being.

In Treating Adult Children of Relational Trauma, world-renowned psychologist, author, and psychodramatist Dr. Tian Dayton expertly weaves together the very best of what works in psychodrama, sociometrics, and addictions treatment to create her unique, experiential approach to treating the ever-nuanced impact of early relational trauma. Grounded in the principles of interpersonal neurobiology, polyvagal theory, and somatic experiencing, this treatment guide includes 85 structured interventions that innately "warm up" the limbic system and allow space for healing in real time. Using Dr. Dayton's easy-to-follow, step-by-step approach, clinicians can help clients:

- Repair, rather than reenact, painful relational trauma dynamics in their lives

- Experience the safety of healing through connection, movement, and engagement with others

- Feel empowered to become active shareholders in their own recovery

Review Quotes

"Psychodrama is one of the most effective treatments of PTSD and developmental trauma that I am familiar with, and Tian Dayton has written a terrific manual to serve as our guide. Psychodrama helps to make our inner world visible and manifest what we struggle with, not so much by words, but by actions, making the invisible observable and measurable. Operating in a space where important people from our past are recreated in the living present, and where we can experience and manifest our confused inner world, we can finally say the words that were never spoken, and allow feelings to emerge that could not be expressed back then. Working with others in a three-dimensional space, as psychodrama does, can not only uniquely create a timeless experience where past and present can merge to help us reconfigure our mental alignment, but also provide profound reparative experiences."

- Bessel van der Kolk, MD professor of psychiatry at Boston University School of Medicine, president of the Trauma Research Foundation, and author of the #1 New York Times bestseller The Body Keeps the Score

"We store the imprint of trauma in our bodies as 'snapshots' frozen in the nervous system that tell the story of how the body-mind experienced trauma. Therapists need to understand what the living, sensing body is telling us in order to help clients heal. Tian Dayton's approach to embodied therapy using psychodrama informed by Somatic Experiencing(R) allows the body's unspoken voice to come forward and be heard. In this treatment guide, Tian has provided us with an unparalleled approach for treating relational trauma that confirms what we know to be true: Bringing the body into healing is a crucial component of recovery. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is treating the pain of unhealed attachment wounds."

- Peter Levine, PhD, developer of Somatic Experiencing(R) and best-selling author of Waking the Tiger

"Tian Dayton has done the field a tremendous service in making the active, experiential components of psychodrama and sociometry available to the layperson in the form of sociometrics. In my role as chief clinical officer at Phoenix House, she worked with me and several trainers in getting sociometrics to the staff in over 100 treatment programs. The clinical staff consisted primarily of entry-level staff and still they were able to implement the skills of sociometrics in the form of feelings floor checks, timeline work, letter writing, social atoms (on paper), and other activities with fidelity and competence. Importantly, the staff embraced these activities with enthusiasm and excitement. These skills profoundly increased the engagement of the staff and transformed the level of clinical services provided at the treatment programs. I can't thank Tian enough for having the amazing intellect that was able to transform components of psychodrama and sociometry - skills that take years to learn - into the easy-to-implement sociometrics that get clients out of their seats and into the here and now!"

- Deni Carise, Phd, adjunct clinical professor at the University of Pennsylvania

About the Author

Tian Dayton, MA, PhD, TEP, is a senior fellow at The Meadows, the author of fifteen books, and the creator of Relational Trauma Repair-Sociometrics (RTR-S). Dr. Dayton was a professor of psychodrama at New York University. She is a fellow of the American Society of Group Psychotherapy and Psychodrama (ASGPP) and the former editor-in-chief of The Journal of Psychodrama, Sociometry, and Group Psychotherapy. She has received numerous awards, including the Marty Mann award, the Mona Mansell award, the Ackerman/Black award, and the ASGPP's lifetime achievement award, scholar's award, and president's award.