Trauma Healing
Editors Kay Sudekum Trotter and Jennifer Baggerly sent the final manuscript of Equine-Assisted Mental Health for Healing Trauma to the publisher today, which will be available through Routledge this fall. The chapter authors were invited to contribute to this publication, and it is an honour to have been contacted with this request. I have two chapters in the book:
- Integrating Somatic Experiencing and Attachment Theory into Equine-Assisted Trauma Recovery
- Treating Structural Dissociation Through Equine-Assisted Trauma Therapy: Working with the Parts System (co-authored with Ilka Parent)
To quote the summary by Dr. Trotter:
This book dramatically demonstrates the process of trauma healing by examining transcript analysis of case studies drawn from clinical practices with traumatized children and adults. Book chapters address:
- The effects of childhood trauma on the limbic system
- Gaining an understanding of the impact of the trauma on an individual and on the family dynamic
- Understanding family members’ and individual healing process
- Advances in the field of neuroscience
- Somatic and cognitive focused components of trauma treatment
- Treating defensive actions (fight, flight, freeze; attachment cry; guarding against attachment loss)
- Structural dissociation and trauma therapy
- Underpinnings of attachment theories, psychotherapy, and neurobiology in trauma clients
- Utilizing the experiential, somatic (mind-body focused) and relational aspects of equine-assisted therapy
- Attachment-based healing components of EAT rhythmic movement
Additional authors include Nina Ekholm Fry, Tim Jobe and Bettina Shultz Jobe, Kate Naylor, Kathleen Choe, Kirby Wycoff, Sarah Jenkins, Rebecca Bailey, Geeza Kovacs, Rob Pliskin, and Philippa Williams.
More information to follow on how to order once the books are in print and ready to go.
Equine Welfare
No less exciting are the books that came out last fall before launching this blog. The 1st International Symposium for Equine Welfare and Wellness took place in Germany in July 2017, focusing on the role and wellbeing of the animals in equine-assisted interventions. Those of us who presented at the symposium were invited to submit chapters for the Compendium that was published as a result, to make the information accessible to a broader audience. Additional authors also submitted articles, which resulted in the Compendium being split into two very thorough volumes.
My two chapters are:
- Applying a Trauma Lens to Equine Welfare (in Volume 1)
- How Somatic Experiencing and Attachment Principles can Increase Safety and Welfare in Equine-Assisted Interventions and Horsemanship Approaches (in Volume 2)
The proceeds from the sale of the Compendium go to funding equine-assisted therapy research and programs for clients in need.