Help Your Addiction Therapy with 3 Helpful Books

The connection between trauma and addiction has always been present, even if we have not always been aware of it. An encouraging trend towards trauma-informed care in the addiction therapy world is helping to shed more light upon the relationship. Trauma is such a profoundly personal phenomenon. It often takes years for people to become aware of their own trauma and its effects. Moving from there to being able to speak openly about it with others can take even more time. Understanding what is classified as trauma and how it can create fertile ground for addiction is an important milestone in your recovery. In fact, reading about trauma and addiction is one of the best things you can do to help boost the effects of addiction therapy.

In this article, Promises Brazos Valley touches on three books that can help you connect the dots between trauma and addiction.

The Body Keeps the Score

“The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Treatment of Trauma” by Bessel van der Kolk is chock full of helpful facts to broaden your understanding. You will learn to identify what is classified as trauma. It also includes some enlightening perspectives into the roots of trauma that could benefit any addiction therapy program. Van der Kolk concludes each point with hopeful insights and information about the latest evidence-based methods of trauma treatment in addiction therapy. Among the core themes is the fact that trauma is universal and that it manifests in physical symptoms. It can be especially helpful in identifying symptoms that are frequently trauma-related.

Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents

In “Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents: How to Heal from Distant, Rejecting, or Self-Involved Parents,” author and clinical psychologist Lindsay C. Gibson, Psy.D., helps the reader understand the impact Adult Children of Alcoholics (ACA) relationships have. Using simple and concise language, she breaks down the cause-and-effect relationship between alcoholic and emotionally unavailable parents and their children. Even more importantly, Gibson provides hopeful narratives. These real answers help the recovering person heal the psychic wounds they sustained growing up in an emotionally dysfunctional family. A must-read for anyone who considers themselves a survivor of this challenging type of family environment.

Trauma and Addiction: Ending the Cycle of Pain Through Emotional Literacy

Author Tian Dayton, MA, Ph.D., serves as director of The New York Psychodrama Training Institute. She has dedicated most of her career to the study of addiction therapy for trauma and emotional sobriety. The author of 15 books on trauma, addiction and related subjects is one of the leading proponents of psychodrama as a therapeutic tool for trauma recovery. In “Trauma and Addiction: Ending the Cycle of Pain Through Emotional Literacy,” she explores how psychodrama (e.g., roleplaying) in a controlled environment can provide trauma patients with a new perspective. Dayton explains how this addiction therapy modality produces breakthroughs, even among patients struggling to progress in their treatment. Citing case studies and specific examples, we get an inside look at how this powerful therapeutic tool smashes obstacles to progress in trauma recovery.

Trauma-informed addiction therapy at Promises Brazos Valley specializes in providing trauma-informed addiction therapy. We use practical, evidence-based approaches to foster recovery. If you or someone you love is living with substance use or mental health disorder, please contact Promises Brazos Valley at 800-393-0391.