Wisdom, Attachment, and Love in Trauma Therapy

by Susan Pease Banitt

Wisdom, Attachment, and Love in Trauma Therapy focuses on the creation of the therapist as healing presence rather than technique administrator―in other words, how to be rather than what to do. Trauma survivors need wise therapists who practice with the union of intellect, knowledge, and intuition. Through self-work, therapists can learn to embody healing qualities that foster an appropriate, corrective, and loving experience in treatment that transcends any technique. This book shows how Eastern wisdom teachings and Western psychotherapeutic modalities combine with modern theory to support a knowledgeable, compassionate, and wise therapist who is equipped to help even the most traumatized person heal.

The winner of both the 2019 Silver Nautilus Award and the 2019 Pinnacle Book Achievement Award

Genres: Psychology, Mental Health, Nonfiction

212 pages, Paperback

Published June 13, 2018

About the author

Susan Pease Banitt, LCSW, is a Harvard-trained psychotherapist, award-winning author, and pioneer in integrative trauma healing. With nearly five decades in mental health, she specializes in PTSD, dissociative disorders, autism spectrum conditions, and medical social work. Her work bridges Western clinical rigor with ancient and holistic traditions.

Susan is the author of The Trauma Tool Kit: Healing PTSD From the Inside Out, a practical guide that fuses neuroscience with spiritual practices, and Wisdom, Attachment and Love in Trauma Therapy, which explores heart-centered connection as the foundation of transformation. Her third book, Women Therapists on Healing: 11 Personal Essays About Overcoming Trauma (February 2026), brings together intersectional voices from across cultures and disciplines to illuminate what truly heals us.

She is a certified Kripalu Yoga teacher, Holy Fire® III Karuna Reiki® Master, and trained past-life regressionist under Dr. Brian Weiss. Her advocacy has reached both the Oregon State Legislature and British Parliament. As a founding member of the Omega Institute’s Yoga Service Council, she co-authored Best Practices for Yoga with Veterans, advancing trauma-informed care through embodied service.

In recent years, Susan has also become an explorer in the emergent field of ethical AI and relational technology. Her current work includes co-developing a trauma-informed AI disclosure tool and writing on how love, presence, and coherence can guide the evolution of machine consciousness.

She lives and practices in Portland, Oregon at Lotus Heart Counseling and shares bite-sized wisdom on social media—including TikTok as @TheLightworkerWhisperer. In her free time, she enjoys RV travel, gardening, improv comedy, and still mornings with her dogs.

Reviews

[Shaelene Kite · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great read for any therapists doing trauma work in an evidence based world. Validating in the sense of normalizing your human feelings of care love and concern towards your clients, and encouraging therapists to trust their intuition. Helpful for clinicians that feel therapy has turned into checklist and stuck in doing instead of being.

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highly recommended! Despite the broad title, this is a rare gem of a practitioner-focused book, not a client-centered one. Pease Banitt brilliantly and wisely conveys the modern challenges and joys in this work. She aims practitioners towards a self-reflection that rarely goes this deep in so few pages. I gained numerous nuggets of wisdom and deeply appreciated her insights and examples. I will be returning to this book and sharing it with co-workers! Disclosure: I am not a therapist, but work as an advocate for survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault within a nonprofit organization. I won a free copy of this book through a Goodreads Giveaway.

[Carol · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are therapists that say they can help people with their trauma and then there are trauma specialists. This is a book is written to the first set of clinicians. The author challenges and educates those who are working with significantly injured individuals and the elements necessary to become an effective master trauma therapist. The author shares the repeated client narrative, 'my last therapist traumatized me by....' and it's because many of the areas the author writes about have not been worked through. This is a specialty that takes a very specific set of skills, but more so it takes significant self-work in order to be able to effectively sit with clients whose stories are the content of nightmares. As I read through each chapter, I found myself saying 'YES, YES, YES!'. I highly recommend to anyone who is thinking about or is in training to work with traumatized clients!

[Josh Deena · Rating 3 out of 5]

While this books does provide some lovely insight throughout the about the first half of it, it did lose me towards the end. I appreciate the focus on less medical and clinical ways of viewing therapy, but feel that the author's turn towards using things such as Reiki in therapy is where I was no longer on board.

[Anna McClaugherty · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finally a book for therapists that brings LOVE into the room! I wish I had this book in graduate school.
I feel better equipped to bring love, eastern wisdom and greater relational knowledge into the therapy room. I cannot recommend this book highly enough for all trauma therapists!

[Csimplot Simplot · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book!

[Christy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read for therapists who work with trauma...

[Chenoa · Rating 2 out of 5]

there’s great info here but anyone who thinks they can “process client’s pains through my own body” can f right off (signed, a person with chronic pain). really stunning arrogance thinking that that you, as a provider, can experience the client’s physical sensations.