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Overcoming Trauma and PTSD: A Workbook Integrating Skills from ACT, DBT, and CBT
If you’ve experienced a traumatic event, you may feel a wide range of emotions, such as anxiety, anger, fear, and depression. The truth is that there is no right or wrong way to react to trauma; but there are ways that you can heal from your experience, and uncover your own capacity for resilience, growth, and recovery. Overcoming Trauma and PTSD offers proven-effective treatments based in acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) to help you overcome both the physical and emotional symptoms of trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This book will help you find relief from painful flashbacks, insomnia, or other symptoms you might be experiencing. Also included are worksheets, checklists, and exercises to help you start feeling better and begin your journey on the road to recovery. This book will help you manage your anxiety and stop avoiding certain situations, cope with painful memories and nightmares, and determine if you need to see a therapist. Perhaps most importantly, it will help you to develop a support system so that you can you heal and move forward.
200 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 2012
262 people are currently reading
342 people want to read
About the author
Sheela Raja
13 books11 followersSheela Raja, PhD is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist and the author of Overcoming Trauma and PTSD, the PTSD Survival Guide for Teens, the Resilient Teen, and the Sexual Trauma Workbook for Teen Girls. She is an Associate Professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago where she teaches Health Communication and Behavioral Medicine and the Director of the UIC College of Dentistry Resilience Center. She received her PhD from the University of Illinois at Chicago and completed internship and post-doctoral training at the National Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in Boston, MA.
Dr. Raja has a passion for making evidence-based psychology accessible. Her current research interests include examining the components of effective trauma-informed healthcare. She is a regular contributor to various print and national television media outlets, including the Huffington Post, CNN, HLN and the CBS Chicago morning news.
Dr. Raja has a passion for making evidence-based psychology accessible. Her current research interests include examining the components of effective trauma-informed healthcare. She is a regular contributor to various print and national television media outlets, including the Huffington Post, CNN, HLN and the CBS Chicago morning news.
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
August 18, 2019
Incoming TMI.
I have been to therapy several times, and while I enjoyed having a place to freely discuss things that I'm sure people in my personal life are sick of hearing about, therapy is expensive, and I've derived only moderate benefit from it. This includes going to a cognitive behavioural therapy group (meant for a mood disorder I turned out to be misdiagnosed with, which I found very trying, and not in a useful, progressive way).
It's been a couple years since I last had a therapist, but I have been in a mental tailspin the last few months, and this was exacerbated by the death of my father a couple of months ago, which brought up a whole host of old memories and issues.
It has been on my mind to go back to therapy again, but it is expensive. Since I've had cognitive behavioural therapy and dialectical behavioural therapy pushed at me so many times, I decided to give it another try with this book.
After reading it and reviewing a few of the worksheets, my feelings on all these methods are still...eugh.
I will give some of the worksheets a try, but it's all ground I've tread before, and it wasn't especially helpful then. This is also all very labour-intensive stuff, and while I realize therapy and improving mental health is going to take work, it also really emphasizes how mental health is a luxury of the financially privileged and neurotypical who both have the free time to complete this work and the cognitive focus and executive function to get it done.
Ultimately--and I have read some criticisms of cognitive and dialectical behaviour therapy that agree with me--these worksheets still really treat symptoms and not causes, and act as a kind of masking effect at best that loses effectiveness over time.
I don't really know what to recommend as a better therapy-related book--this is exactly the kind of things actual therapists have been telling me to read/do for years. I doubt one would come to harm from doing any of the exercises in here.
I don't expect miracles. Or anything at all.
So my nervous breakdown continues.
I have been to therapy several times, and while I enjoyed having a place to freely discuss things that I'm sure people in my personal life are sick of hearing about, therapy is expensive, and I've derived only moderate benefit from it. This includes going to a cognitive behavioural therapy group (meant for a mood disorder I turned out to be misdiagnosed with, which I found very trying, and not in a useful, progressive way).
It's been a couple years since I last had a therapist, but I have been in a mental tailspin the last few months, and this was exacerbated by the death of my father a couple of months ago, which brought up a whole host of old memories and issues.
It has been on my mind to go back to therapy again, but it is expensive. Since I've had cognitive behavioural therapy and dialectical behavioural therapy pushed at me so many times, I decided to give it another try with this book.
After reading it and reviewing a few of the worksheets, my feelings on all these methods are still...eugh.
I will give some of the worksheets a try, but it's all ground I've tread before, and it wasn't especially helpful then. This is also all very labour-intensive stuff, and while I realize therapy and improving mental health is going to take work, it also really emphasizes how mental health is a luxury of the financially privileged and neurotypical who both have the free time to complete this work and the cognitive focus and executive function to get it done.
Ultimately--and I have read some criticisms of cognitive and dialectical behaviour therapy that agree with me--these worksheets still really treat symptoms and not causes, and act as a kind of masking effect at best that loses effectiveness over time.
I don't really know what to recommend as a better therapy-related book--this is exactly the kind of things actual therapists have been telling me to read/do for years. I doubt one would come to harm from doing any of the exercises in here.
I don't expect miracles. Or anything at all.
So my nervous breakdown continues.
July 3, 2017
This is a very short book with exercises from various psychological traditions (ACT, DBT, and CBT). It's usable as a reference, but it doesn't have a lot of detail about how trauma works or how to think about it. It's also very focused on violent trauma (war, violence, natural disasters, etc) rather than the CPTSD stuff that's more relevant to me. Think of it as a tool rather than a book, for practice rather than insight.
July 28, 2018
Honestly didn't learn anything in this book that you wouldn't get from most CBT/DBT books or from having a basic understanding of trauma.
July 13, 2023
Життя в Україні - це ПТСР (є війна, є "військово-воєнний стан" з "відкритими кордонами" чи "немає" першої, другого, третіх). Поэтому чтение подобной литературы - само собой разумеющееся. Что ждёт население Украины по мере "возвращения" людей с фронта - людей, добровольно, но традиционно безответственно туда отправленных их же собственными родственниками, друзьями и близкими, не говоря уже о всевозможных должностях и профессиях, в полномочиях каковых подразумевается сохранение жизни и здоровья людей, систематически лишаемых "избранниками" и собственными проекциями возможности и ресурсов для сохранения жизни и здоровья независимо от специалистов.
Але життя в Україні вже не може бути не ПТСР, якщо довіряти 34 рокам досвіду, третя частина якого може "офіційно" вважатися усвідомленим. Потому чтение такого рода изданий - это попытка обнаружить хоть один объективный повод для экстраверсии в границах, каковые остаются глубоко интуитивными, а потому вытесняемыми, как неприменимые в условиях Тоталітаріату Прозорості. Когда тела облачаются внутренностями наружу, то о каком ПТСР может идти речь? Трамва обращается формой существования и очень может быть нуждается в своеобразном гэпе (на манер гендерного), когда речь вдруг неожиданно начинает идти о Мире за пределами трамвы (the Great Abyss of Beyond).
"Україна - це героїчний ПТСР" нагадує цитату зі святкового посту Олени Зеленської, але слід зазначити, що якщо Примадонна щось подібне, навіть після зайвого фужеру, в пост-травматичній глибині якого можна було роздивитися чорну та білу плитку (плітки), розташовану у несвідомому протиріччі із шаховим порядком, промовляла, пошепки, у якості блідої пародії на "британський гумор" - то саме з того самого моменту Україна перетворилась на Res trauma. Newborn East-European Traumocracy. И если существовать травмированным, не прорабатывая испытанного, предположительно противопоказано, то быть травмой в сути своей, проецируемой институциями Контроля-Исповеди-Славы "глубине" - то, что [Жижек] прописал.
Шила Раджа совершила в 2012 году в Калифорнии то, что следовало бы предпринять каждому специалисту в каждом городе населением более 40 тысяч (единомышленников) на территориях всех стран, принимающих активное (ресурсно-кадровое) участие в конфликтах, развязываемых вне реальных интересов подавляющей части (скажем, 88%) населения планеты, вокруг которой продолжают неустанное вращение одна звезда, один спутник и ещё несколько соплеменниц, вокруг чьих просторов своё либо отвращалось либо вращаться в недалёком будущем начнёт. Она скомпилировала необходимые, рекомендуемые и максимально практичные шаги на пути преодоления режима усвоенной политкорректности. Кому-то обязательно однажды захочется сказать спасибо Обаме.
Але життя в Україні вже не може бути не ПТСР, якщо довіряти 34 рокам досвіду, третя частина якого може "офіційно" вважатися усвідомленим. Потому чтение такого рода изданий - это попытка обнаружить хоть один объективный повод для экстраверсии в границах, каковые остаются глубоко интуитивными, а потому вытесняемыми, как неприменимые в условиях Тоталітаріату Прозорості. Когда тела облачаются внутренностями наружу, то о каком ПТСР может идти речь? Трамва обращается формой существования и очень может быть нуждается в своеобразном гэпе (на манер гендерного), когда речь вдруг неожиданно начинает идти о Мире за пределами трамвы (the Great Abyss of Beyond).
"Україна - це героїчний ПТСР" нагадує цитату зі святкового посту Олени Зеленської, але слід зазначити, що якщо Примадонна щось подібне, навіть після зайвого фужеру, в пост-травматичній глибині якого можна було роздивитися чорну та білу плитку (плітки), розташовану у несвідомому протиріччі із шаховим порядком, промовляла, пошепки, у якості блідої пародії на "британський гумор" - то саме з того самого моменту Україна перетворилась на Res trauma. Newborn East-European Traumocracy. И если существовать травмированным, не прорабатывая испытанного, предположительно противопоказано, то быть травмой в сути своей, проецируемой институциями Контроля-Исповеди-Славы "глубине" - то, что [Жижек] прописал.
Шила Раджа совершила в 2012 году в Калифорнии то, что следовало бы предпринять каждому специалисту в каждом городе населением более 40 тысяч (единомышленников) на территориях всех стран, принимающих активное (ресурсно-кадровое) участие в конфликтах, развязываемых вне реальных интересов подавляющей части (скажем, 88%) населения планеты, вокруг которой продолжают неустанное вращение одна звезда, один спутник и ещё несколько соплеменниц, вокруг чьих просторов своё либо отвращалось либо вращаться в недалёком будущем начнёт. Она скомпилировала необходимые, рекомендуемые и максимально практичные шаги на пути преодоления режима усвоенной политкорректности. Кому-то обязательно однажды захочется сказать спасибо Обаме.
August 17, 2022
Overcoming Trauma and PTSD by Sheela Raja is a workbook that incorporates elements of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), and dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT).
The book begins with an explanation of the effects of trauma, including how trauma memories, which are emotionally charged and situationally accessible, are different from verbally accessible memories. It then moves on to fundamentals of ACT, CBT, and DBT, and there are recommendations of specific strategies to try for various symptoms.
There’s a chapter on managing anxiety, and the author presents both the CBT approach of challenging difficult thoughts and the ACT approach of accepting them. She explains that one may work better than the other in different contexts, so it’s good to have both in your toolbox. I definitely prefer that kind of pragmatic approach to the more rigid must-challenge-thoughts approach that some CBT-oriented books take.
There’s also a chapter that addresses avoidance and exposure, and the author suggests that writing can be a useful part of systematic desensitization. The chapter on managing re-experiencing symptoms covers topics like mindfulness, grounding, and imagery rehearsal for nightmares (which involves practicing an alternate ending). The book also provides tips on when to seek help from a therapist and how to find one.
This is a short book—the epub version I got from the library was 105 pages. It’s set up as a workbook with clearly laid out worksheets, and while the exercises themselves would take time to work through, the written content is a quick and easy read. I think this book is most likely to be helpful for people who’ve experienced trauma but don’t have full-blown PTSD, or for people who want to try to manage on their own before seeking therapy and are looking for some basic guidance to get started. It’s probably not going to be all that helpful for people with complex trauma or severe PTSD, and that’s not really the intended audience anyway. I think it makes a reasonably good introductory book, and I liked the blending of strategies from ACT, CBT, and DBT.
The book begins with an explanation of the effects of trauma, including how trauma memories, which are emotionally charged and situationally accessible, are different from verbally accessible memories. It then moves on to fundamentals of ACT, CBT, and DBT, and there are recommendations of specific strategies to try for various symptoms.
There’s a chapter on managing anxiety, and the author presents both the CBT approach of challenging difficult thoughts and the ACT approach of accepting them. She explains that one may work better than the other in different contexts, so it’s good to have both in your toolbox. I definitely prefer that kind of pragmatic approach to the more rigid must-challenge-thoughts approach that some CBT-oriented books take.
There’s also a chapter that addresses avoidance and exposure, and the author suggests that writing can be a useful part of systematic desensitization. The chapter on managing re-experiencing symptoms covers topics like mindfulness, grounding, and imagery rehearsal for nightmares (which involves practicing an alternate ending). The book also provides tips on when to seek help from a therapist and how to find one.
This is a short book—the epub version I got from the library was 105 pages. It’s set up as a workbook with clearly laid out worksheets, and while the exercises themselves would take time to work through, the written content is a quick and easy read. I think this book is most likely to be helpful for people who’ve experienced trauma but don’t have full-blown PTSD, or for people who want to try to manage on their own before seeking therapy and are looking for some basic guidance to get started. It’s probably not going to be all that helpful for people with complex trauma or severe PTSD, and that’s not really the intended audience anyway. I think it makes a reasonably good introductory book, and I liked the blending of strategies from ACT, CBT, and DBT.
May 28, 2020
Overcoming Trauma and PTSD is more of a compilation of therapy worksheets designed for the general public rather than a volume with more info and insight on the nature of trauma. It combines three evidence based approaches such as Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Dialectical Behavior Therapy, and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to provide various exercises to teach skills and coping techniques for managing symptoms. While helpful and easily adaptable for use in therapy, I was questioning the intended audience of the book. While catered toward helping people with PTSD, there's a lot of therapy related terminology (about ACT, DBT, and CBT) that would suggest this might be better to read while seeing a therapist. Give this is a brief read, it doesn't go into the nuts and bolts of each approach, so it reads more like a collection of symptom management than transformational change. You can't look at a person as just symptoms, rather a being with a subjective experience within a context. And firstly, what caused the trauma? I don't like this books narrow scope to view trauma as only ones that were life-threatening given there are more subtle and overlooked traumas (e.g. attachment), but maybe that was beyond the scope of this book. Overall, this was a quick read with an ample amount of worksheets to use if you're inclined to follow ACT, DBT, and/or CBT.
June 18, 2023
This title is good if you want to find out more about a possible trauma or ptsd. Every chapter introduces the general topic and adds a worksheet so that the reader can find out more about possible traumatic experiences and symptoms.
What I liked were the worksheets and the concise explanations. They were to the point and if you only suspect that you might have experienced trauma, this book could be a good starter.
What I did not like was that it was a bit too short. I’d have liked more detail, since all of what can be found in this book is also part of other titles that might deliver the same in greater detail. Nevertheless, the language is clear and appropriate, the explanations are also clear and easy to understand, and this is a book that could help people looking for some basic answers.
4 out of 5 stars
What I liked were the worksheets and the concise explanations. They were to the point and if you only suspect that you might have experienced trauma, this book could be a good starter.
What I did not like was that it was a bit too short. I’d have liked more detail, since all of what can be found in this book is also part of other titles that might deliver the same in greater detail. Nevertheless, the language is clear and appropriate, the explanations are also clear and easy to understand, and this is a book that could help people looking for some basic answers.
4 out of 5 stars
December 28, 2024
Donated it. No book helped.
Hard to read when your (convicted to jail) abuser made a website asking for $$ a service dog for himself - for his "ptsd" apparently caused by you. Lots of verbage there. As if an over-the-top, emotion-laden tale of woe wouldn't tip off anyone to a shady individual, but unfortunately most people are very gullible/easily fooled. Most people do not fact-check anything. It's what these bad guys count on - your naivety.
I managed with non faked trauma all these years. No specially trained dogs that should be for the disabled/first responders/veterans, no malingering, no darvo, no radio or tv ads, no lying to hundreds of different types of people.
The dog we had to give up to a shelter due to our no power/heat/hydro home, uncoincidentally had the same name as the company, which is 4 hrs away. Also published on q107 radio station to cause me to tell the bastard off, and allow him to cry harassment.
Paws4Rob. Circa 2016-current. Give today.
Hard to read when your (convicted to jail) abuser made a website asking for $$ a service dog for himself - for his "ptsd" apparently caused by you. Lots of verbage there. As if an over-the-top, emotion-laden tale of woe wouldn't tip off anyone to a shady individual, but unfortunately most people are very gullible/easily fooled. Most people do not fact-check anything. It's what these bad guys count on - your naivety.
I managed with non faked trauma all these years. No specially trained dogs that should be for the disabled/first responders/veterans, no malingering, no darvo, no radio or tv ads, no lying to hundreds of different types of people.
The dog we had to give up to a shelter due to our no power/heat/hydro home, uncoincidentally had the same name as the company, which is 4 hrs away. Also published on q107 radio station to cause me to tell the bastard off, and allow him to cry harassment.
Paws4Rob. Circa 2016-current. Give today.
April 28, 2022
Read for work to get some exercises for acute stress disorder that were relevant for a client. This could incorporate trauma-informed practice as some stuff I disagreed with. This is a very basic level book. I went in for some self-help exercises and that's what I came out with. I liked some more than others. I may reference it again in the future.
February 1, 2020
Quite helpful
This book takes the time to explain facts and lay out step by step instructions for various scenarios. The worksheets are also quite helpful, but i feel the cost could be more reasonable.
This book takes the time to explain facts and lay out step by step instructions for various scenarios. The worksheets are also quite helpful, but i feel the cost could be more reasonable.
April 23, 2018
This book would likely be the most helpful for a person who has just begun their journey towards wellness, but even I found some diamonds in this book.
December 29, 2018
Great read, easy to follow, helpful
I liked the layout of the book, as it was easy to follow.
It felt nice to have someone explain this in more depth and provide resources.
I liked the layout of the book, as it was easy to follow.
It felt nice to have someone explain this in more depth and provide resources.
September 12, 2019
This book was helpful! I liked that it didn't have a lot of medical jargon that went on and on. It really helped me understand trauma and press.
July 14, 2022
Some useful exercises and explanations, but a really outdated view of trauma - this is pre-EMDR and predates the idea that talking about trauma can actually be more traumatizing.
September 3, 2023
Not as helpful as I expected, but a good primer for the subject.
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July 16, 2024Available at the TAMU-SA Library:
https://tamusa.on.worldcat.org/oclc/8...
https://tamusa.on.worldcat.org/oclc/8...
September 4, 2024
Short concise and brilliant!. without any fluff.
If you are in a lot of pain, this should be one of the books that you should read.
If you are in a lot of pain, this should be one of the books that you should read.
October 23, 2013
Really helpful book to work through trauma stuff I've had to deal with.
I tried it on my own for a little while and then did some of the exercises while I was in therapy too.
The author is very nonjudgemental and she realizes that it's tough for people to recover from things that have happened to them and that it's OK if things take time.
I know of a few friends who will probably find this helpful too.
Overall, a very good workbook!
I tried it on my own for a little while and then did some of the exercises while I was in therapy too.
The author is very nonjudgemental and she realizes that it's tough for people to recover from things that have happened to them and that it's OK if things take time.
I know of a few friends who will probably find this helpful too.
Overall, a very good workbook!
October 15, 2014
I thought this book was very easy to follow and understand. I found the exercises useful and the examples made me feel I wasn't so alone in my struggles.
July 12, 2022
Just finished my 27th book of the year!!!!! It had some good points but it was a little too dumbed down for me... too basic. 3 out of 5 stars...
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews