Traditionally therapy with this group of clients focussed heavily on the trauma. This book takes the reader beyond that. For once a book is looking at more than just the trauma in the past as something to be dealt with. It shows the reader why difficulties today must be tackled in a different way when the client has a trauma history than with other clients. But it opens your eyes to ways to work with other clients too.

When I am asked to recommend a book for therapists with trauma clients this is the one I choose. It is the only book that helps one understand why everyday life is so difficult for such clients, something no other book does in such depth or in such a useful way. Reading this book is like waking up to what life is really like for this group of clients; you will never see a client in the same way again. Now you will know why they behave as they do, why making changes is so difficult and why what works with other client groups doesn't work so well when the client comes from an abusive or neglectful family.

Steve Gold shows clearly how incidents of abuse are set within a family context that does not provide the tools for dealing with everyday life in an effective manner. Because of the general family context in which ongoing abuse occurs, these clients have always lacked vital coping mechanisms and abilities that are usually learned during an adequate childhood. The model proposed gives one a framework to work effectively and help the client face both the fears of the past and the fears of today. It places the trauma processing within a therapy that enables the client to grow rather than staying focussed on trauma alone. It provides the reader with a model to use to effectively understand, assess and teach the vital abilities that were never taught in childhood. It opens your eyes to the context in which these clients developed all their strategies to cope, ones that do not help them now.

This is a book that mustn't be missed. It is one you will take off the shelf again and again. Whatever DSM category your client fits into, if they have problems that arose from a traumatic childhood this is the book to guide you. It is the most important book you will ever buy.