Social Trauma

Aftershock is about the real war against terror - the struggle for a world in which nobody lives in fear of atrocities perpetrated by human beings. Every day, people who push against violence and injustice or pull for peace and freedom must face their own fears. Many activists also must struggle with "aftershock," the physical and emotional reverberations of frightening, horrifying, or otherwise traumatizing experiences endured in the course of their activism.

Racism from the dominant culture continues to impact our society in the 21st century. Discrimination and prejudice also occur among Black, Indigenous, and people of color based on factors such as skin complexion and hair texture. This complicates the issue beyond race and allows practices such as colorism to spread via internalized racism like a virulent social contagion.

This book supports children who experienced chronic, complex, and generational trauma in unique ways to normalize and validate their feelings. It provides a therapeutic tool to clinicians to engage with the child while doing the trauma work in the therapy room.

Over the last decade, Kevin Dedner has been on a mission to explore this powerful and troubling question, shining an unconventional spotlight on the impact of racism on mental health. In his debut book, The Joy of the Disinherited, Dedner articulates his call for urgent change: We must knock down the invisible barriers that make it harder for Black people to get the mental health care they need and deserve.

Riveting, honest, and raw, I Can Take It From Here recounts Lisa Forbes's harrowing journey into darkness—including a fourteen-year-long stint in a maximum-security prison—and her fierce resolve to understand the effects of the trauma she endured, to take personal responsibility for her actions, and to ensure that her history does not dictate her destiny.

Black Americans' resilience during centuries of racially motivated violence is beyond remarkable. But continuing to endure this harm allows for generations of trauma to fester and grow. Healing has to be the priority going forward. For decades, Tracey Michae'l Lewis-Giggetts clung to her upbringing in the church, believing that racial reconciliation would come through faith and discipline, being respectable, and doing what's right. But when her cousin became the victim of a white supremacist's hateful rampage, her body and soul said, "no more."

The Joy Thief is a story that helps children and adults to discover more about a subject that is often difficult to understand. Demonstrating the subjectivity of trauma, The Joy Thief highlights how a seemingly ordinary occurrence can have a significant impact upon the well-being of a child, particularly if left unaddressed. Challenging the idea that trauma occurs only during more "serious" incidents, The Joy Thief leads us to conclude that such occurrences, or rather our responses to them, may be more significant for children's mental health.

What is it like to suffer Religious Trauma Syndrome while still inside a high demand religious organization? What causes Religious Trauma Syndrome, and what are the risks that come with continuing participation? A Voice from Inside presents the rare voice of a critical insider of the Watch Tower Society, offering an account of the experience, how people are struggling, and what can be done to survive and move forward.

As life hurdles challenge and test our existence - or whatever you may call your ability to believe - there are manmade options available in the form of a drug in which some of us elect to escape, drown out, pause, or simply ignore. But whatever you deem it, the mind has been called "power" of man to respond as it is uniquely designed.

Encourage the vulnerable, difficult, and fun communication necessary to build strong relationships and fortify them against dysfunction, divorce, or separation. Do your everyday conversations feel like an endless cycle of repeat? Does silence dominate your time together? Every relationship goes through its phases, some harder than others, but that doesn’t mean you should simply accept that you are powerless and passively sit by and wait for the phase to run its course. What if you could turn that loop in your throat into a spiral of loving, honest, and exciting connection?