Parenting Trauma

In medieval times, uncharted waters were marked on maps as Here Be Dragons to signify that no one knew what dangers might lie ahead. Melanie Shankle quips that the years spent raising our teenage daughters could be labeled the same due to the uncertainties before us. Filled with personal stories and written in the same whimsical and honest style Melanie is known for, Here Be Dragons will have you both laughing out loud and crying—as you confront the challenges of raising your own strong, independent daughter while fighting dragons along the way.

Empower yourself to transform relationships and thrive … even if anxious attachments and toxic cycles have marred your past. Do emotional swings and relationship hurdles constantly weigh on your mind? Are you worn down by repeated conflicts or struggling with trust that seems impossible to build? Do you want to break free from the cycles of emotional hurt, moving towards genuine connection and growth? These struggles are far more common than you think!

With this workbook, you'll learn proven-effective skills that integrate self-forgiveness with acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), compassion-focused therapy (CFT), functional analytic psychotherapy (FAP), and relational frame theory (RFT). You'll develop the self-compassion and self-acceptance needed to overcome the sense of shame and guilt that's keeping you from a meaningful life. You'll also gain a new perspective on your life's story, empowering you to get in touch with your values and make an ongoing commitment to self-forgiveness.

As an award-winning stuntwoman, Kimberly Shannon Murphy was intimate with pain. For years, she propelled her body through dangerous spaces—medicating the trauma of her childhood sexual abuse with the adrenaline rush that came from pushing herself to the absolute limit. But as Kimberly learned, no matter how much you suppress your past, it always catches up with you.

If you experienced physical or emotional abuse, neglect, or abandonment as a child, you may struggle with unhealthy relationships as an adult. Hurtful attachments with our caregivers in early childhood can lay the foundation for toxic relationships. Those experiences can even affect the way we handle conflict, our feelings toward sex, and our expectations of our partners. But this doesn't mean you can't change. This book will help you gain a greater awareness of the trauma bonds that prevent you from getting the love, safety, and security you desire.

The journey towards self-discovery and healing can feel lonely and overwhelming, especially when it seems like nothing has worked so far. But what if you could discover a holistic way of living, one where trauma, anxiety, and pent-up emotions are replaced with tranquility and unshakable self-love?

Do you yearn to unleash your true self, shatter chains of past patterns and deepen self-love? Then embark on a profound and wondrous journey with me to discover who you truly are.

Author, mental health expert, and professor David Bedrick helps us understand how shame shows up—and offers a revolutionary, stigma-free model to help us unshame and release its hold on our happiness. Shame is more than feeling guilty, sad, or responsible. It develops when we experience a trauma but can’t access the tools or freedom to express how we feel—or are denied the ability to ask for the care we need. It shows up when we aren’t witnessed—whether by a loved one, our community, our culture, or anyone from whom we need to hear.

How to break free from the grip of anxious attachment, master emotional regulation, and build secure relationships, even if childhood trauma still holds you back. Do you overthink every interaction, fearing rejection or abandonment? Anxious attachment Style, often rooted in Trauma bond dynamics and childhood trauma, can feel like a never-ending cycle of fear and insecurity. But these patterns aren’t permanent—you have the power to rewrite your emotional story and cultivate the secure relationships you desire.

Since Stephen Porges first proposed the Polyvagal Theory in 1994, its basic idea-that the level of safety we feel impacts our health and happiness-has radically shifted how researchers and clinicians approach trauma interventions and therapeutic interactions. Yet despite its wide acceptance, most of the writing on the topic has been obscured behind clinical texts and scientific jargon.

In The Joy Reset, Dr. McDonald helps listeners identify barriers that prevent them from accessing joy—hypervigilance, emotional numbing, fear of loss, conditioning, guilt, and shame—and then redefines positive emotions as those tenacious, gritty, often tiny experiences that appear within the darkest moments and form the very foundation of psychological resilience.

Too often, survivors of trauma are left feeling hopeless, exiled from normal social interactions, and destined for heartbreak in any relationship they attract. Through her work with clients, and her own experiences, Dr. Copley developed a roadmap for healing the toxic emotions that come from being bonded by trauma in relationships. In Loving You is Hurting Me, Dr. Copley guides you through your trauma origins and into a life rich with meaning, loving connection, and inspiration.

Somatic trauma therapist and positive psychology coach Caroline Strawson wants to show you that your past is not your life sentence. No matter what’s happened in your life, you can find joy, light, and happiness again. Integrating her own lived experience of narcissistic abuse with trauma-informed practices and positive psychology interventions, this audiobook will help you heal and begin to feel like yourself again.

From over 25 years of clinical experience, Manuela Mischke-Reeds, MA, LMFT, has created the go-to resource for mental health therapists who want to incorporate somatic techniques into their daily practice. Highly-effective for clients dealing with trauma and stress disorders, somatic psychotherapy is the future of healing the entire person-body and mind.

At age twenty-two, Nadine married Jordan Belfort, the nefarious stockbroker portrayed in the Hollywood blockbuster The Wolf of Wall Street. Their marriage began as a fairy tale, but once they were bonded, Jordan’s “mask” began to slip, and acts of infidelity, narcissistic abuse, insatiable greed, and uncontrollable drug addiction became Nadine’s nightmare. The horrific relationship gave Nadine the inspiration to become a psychotherapist specializing in narcissistic abuse, trauma bonds, and complex PTSD.

Do you feel insecure, jealous, or anxious in your relationships? Do you have a deep fear that people will abandon you? Have you stayed in a toxic situation because you didn't believe you deserved better? If so, you may have an anxious attachment style—a way of coping with difficult situations or emotions that is often rooted in an adverse childhood experience (ACE), such as neglect or abuse. Fortunately, there are ways to heal this anxious attachment, and even transform it into an earned secure attachment.

Authenticity coach Kat John finds many of her clients reach out for advice in their thirties, forties and beyond, feeling lost and unable to recognise themselves. When work, families, relationships and trauma have sent their lives in a direction that makes them wake up and wonder, How did I get here? They want, and need, to find the path back home to their authenticity. Having overcome her own struggles, from eating disorder and drug addiction to chronic pain and an unexpected brain surgery, Kat has walked the talk of learning how to live a life of connection and fulfilment as her real self.

Understanding how our brains and bodies actually work is a powerful tool in mitigating the anxiety generated by unpleasant physical and emotional symptoms that we all may experience from time to time. Here, Robert Scaer unravels the complexities of the brain-body connection, equipping all those who are in distress with a plausible explanation for how they feel.

The #MeToo movement brought worldwide attention to sexual violence, but while the media focused on the fates of a few notorious predators who were put on trial, we heard far less about the outcomes of those trials for the survivors of their abuse. The conventional retributive process fails to serve most survivors; it was never designed for them. Renowned trauma expert Judith L. Herman argues that the first step toward a better form of justice is simply to ask survivors what would make things as right as possible for them.

Break free from the chains of your past, reclaim your life, and embrace a future filled with resilience, growth, and happiness. Do you tend to avoid getting too close to others, because you have this overwhelming dread and fear that they are going to leave you? Or perhaps you gravitate toward unhealthy relationships, because it’s what you’ve seen growing up?