Vendor
	Mohrbooks Literary Agency Sebastian Ritscher
Categories
Psychology

POST TRAUMATIC SUCCESS

Fredrike Bannink

Positive Psychology & Solution-Focused Strategies to Help Clients Survive & Thrive

Resiliency-focused approaches to managing trauma. This is a book to help clients to transform what happened to them to make them better instead of bitter.

The first book on trauma to combine the theory and practice of positive psychology and solution-focused brief therapy with traditional approaches, this book veers away from a focus on pathology (what is wrong with clients and how to repair the worst) to a focus on what is right with them (and how to create the best)—that is, from post traumatic stress to post traumatic success. The three R’s of post traumatic success are: Recovery, Resilience and enRichment (post traumatic growth) - concepts depicted by the bamboo plant on the book’s cover. Trauma professionals will learn what it takes to help more survivors benefit more substantively from therapy and how to support their clients in developing longer-term resilience. By practicing the skills in this book, they can increase their clients’ self-efficacy and self-esteem, and make psychotherapy shorter in time, more cost effective and more lighthearted for their clients and themselves. Written for all professionals and students working with trauma survivors (both adults and children) and their families and friends, it equips readers with practical direction for adopting a more positive approach and expanding their range of available techniques. Over a hundred exercises, thirty-three cases, and forty stories are presented to illustrate and help incorporate this new approach into practice. It’s about time to turn the tide on treating trauma by shifting the focus from reducing distress and merely surviving to building success and positively thriving. Fredrike Bannink, MDR, is a clinical psychologist trained in solution-focused coaching and solution-focused mediation. She is the author of many publications on solution-focused therapy, solution-focused interviewing, and mediation, and a trainer for mental health team of Doctors Without Borders. She is based in the Netherlands.

Available products
Book Published 2014-10-13 by W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. - New York (USA)

Comments

Posttraumatic growth is one of the fascinating and inspiring themes within positive psychology. Bannink describes eloquently how positive psychology and solution-focused strategies can assist clients in coping successfully with traumatic events. A practical guide I highly recommend.

Bannink’s Post Traumatic Success finds a nice balance between problem and solution, challenges and change, damage and growth. Her application of the latest research and methods for strength- and solution-building can be used for therapists of any persuasion to enhance their effectiveness with people who have lived through extraordinary experiences and help them come out the other side 'strong at the broken places’.

The practical approaches you will find in this volume promise to bring the best of positive psychology to those who need it most.

Bannink’s Post Traumatic Success is a landmark work, and in my mind the most important book on treating trauma and post traumatic stress disorder in the last 20 years. The book offers a paradigm shift: From thinking about treatment as amelioration of the symptoms by focusing on the trauma — which isn’t always successful and can be a slow, painful process — to focusing on exceptions, strengths and resiliencies so that clients may thrive. Integrating current research in positive psychology and solution-focused brief therapy, the book offers concrete and specific interventions that can be used immediately in clinical practice. I highly recommend this book for new and seasoned therapists alike.

Dutch: Pearson Benelux

As always with Bannink, she has read widely around her topic. The overlap described between Positive Psychology, Solution Focus and other forms of psychotherapy, such as CBT, will be of particular interest to many practitioners. The text highlights the new future-focus being brought into Positive Psychology and includes many tried and tested exercises to increase the client’s resources. The many anecdotes and stories demonstrate the concepts well and add to the readability of the volume. There is something in this book to interest all psychologists and post-modern therapists.

This wise, generous, highly useful book belongs on the shelf of everyone who works with traumatized people. Therapists, health care providers, and trauma survivors themselves will draw courage and inspiration from Bannink's clearly described treatment techniques, uplifting case examples and stories, and invaluable practical information, all of which are thoughtfully introduced within the context of a well balanced, integrative treatment approach.