Voices of Trauma: Treating Psychological trauma Across Cultures

Today’s political climate has made refugee mental health a growing public health issue. Synthesizing insights from psychiatry, social psychology, and anthropology, this book sets out a framework for therapy that is as culturally informed as it is productive. An international panel of 23 therapists offers contextual knowledge on PTSD, coping skills, and other trauma sequelae as they affect survivors of traumatic events. Case studies from Egypt to Chechnya demonstrate various therapeutic approaches. Authors explore the balance of inter- and intrapersonal factors in reactions to trauma and dispel misconceptions that hinder progress in treatment and provide profound examples of mutual trust and empathy, even how the wounded may heal the therapist.

Voices of Trauma gives clinical and counseling psychologists, psychiatrists, psychotherapists, rescue and social workers, the necessary tools to create healing on a global scale.

Boris Drozdek, M.D., M.A., is psychiatrist at Psychotrauma Centrum Zuid Nederland/Reinier van Arkel groep, ’s-Hertogenbosch, the Netherlands, an international centre for treatment of victims of political and war violence. He is leading the residency training in social psychiatry, collaborating with different NGO’s in post-war areas, teaching and giving trainings in psychotraumatology and transcultural psychiatry on a regular basis in the Netherlands and abroad. He is international director of the International Summer School of Psychotrauma in Dubrovnik, Croatia. He is author of several scientific publications and chapters to books and, together with John P. Wilson, editor of the Broken Spirits: The Treatment of Traumatized Asylum Seekers, Refugees, War and Torture Victims (New York: Brunner-Routledge, 2004).

John P. Wilson, Ph.D., is currently Professor of Psychology at Cleveland State University in Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.A.. He is a founding member and Past President of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies (ISTSS) and a Fellow of the American Institute of Stress. He is a Diplomate and Fellow of the American Academy of Experts in Traumatic Stress, a Fulbright Scholar and the International Director of the International Summer School of Psychotrauma in Dubrovnik, Croatia. Dr. Wilson is the author of ten books and over 30 monographs and chapters on traumatic stress syndromes. Research and clinical work developed by Dr. Wilson have led to consultations with different national and international agencies like the U.S. Army and Navy, Department of Veterans Affairs, The White House and The World Health Organization, where he developed mental health programs during the war in Bosnia in 1994/ 1995., and more recently in Croatia to aid victims of war trauma.