Endorsements for
Restoring Hope and Trust:
An Illustrated Guide to Mastering Trauma
By Kay Kelly, LSCSW, Lisa Lewis, PhD, and Jon Allen, PhD
“Restoring Hope and Trust is by far the best written resource available for clients suffering from complex PTSD. Most of the authoritative texts in this area are written for therapists and other professionals. As a result, we often have had little to offer to clients seeking to learn more about their difficulties. This book fills that void with state-of-the-art information, exercises, and thoughtful suggestions. Restoring Hope and Trust is best used in the context of an ongoing treatment, and will surely offer welcome support to both clients and their therapists.”
—James Chu, MD, Chief of Hospital Clinical Services, McLean Hospital; Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School.
“In this modest but powerful book, persons struggling with the painful residue of trauma will find solace from ideas that are comprehensible, reassuring, and clarifying. These ideas promote a perspective that avoids blame, self-pity, frustration and despair, and effectively utilize self-study questions that focus the reader’s attention on ways to apply these concepts to his or her own distress.
The authors’ unusual discussion of such gifts of assertiveness, integrity, humility, courage, and sensitivity that managing negative emotions can give us is imaginative and compelling. These ideas introduce a much-needed balance in the thinking of troubled persons by depathologizing negative feelings—an essential step in mastering trauma, and indeed, emotional distress from other sources as well.
This concisely written text is easily read, but these seemingly simple ideas cry out to be read again and again. Repeated reading will reward the reader with a genuinely fresh understanding of the impact of trauma on the human mind. As the authors rightly suggest, this book will benefit not only trauma sufferers, but also those who care for them, and those professionals wishing to conduct psychoeducational trauma groups in their communities. It deserves a wide distribution.”
—Roy W. Menninger, MD, Chairman Emeritus and Past President, Menninger
“This pithy guide with its eloquent stick figures will be a wonderful resource for trauma education groups, especially those that focus on emotional containment. Because the authors trust us enough to explain the theoretical underpinnings behind each practical suggestion, we end the book wiser not only about ourselves, but also about animal behavior, the human brain and the developmental building blocks of self-esteem.”
—Jean Goodwin MD, MPH, Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, University of Texas Medical Branch
“Writing from the premise that clear information about trauma and human adaptation will help and empower survivors, the authors cover key topics in the eleven chapters of this informative workbook. Restoring Hope and Trust is a useful resource for survivors and those who want to help them. The information the authors offer encourages hope and compassionate self-understanding - critical ingredients for healing. They also outline practical steps toward healing and clear concepts that can be used as tools on the journey of healing, alone or in collaboration with therapists and other helpers.”
—Karen W. Saakvitne, PhD., co-author of Risking Connection: A Training Curriculum for Working with Survivors of Childhood Abuse
