Handbook of Post-Traumatic Therapy

This handbook provides both a conceptual and practical framework for diagnosing, treating, and assessing post-traumatic stress in survivors of violence, abuse, war, ethnocultural problems, political torture, and disaster. The in-depth clinical experience of Williams and Sommer helps define a variety of theories and methods for treating children, adults, families, and other groups with various types of post-tramautic stress disorders. They point to specific new kinds of therapies and types of interventions, and discuss new developments and trends for the treatment of post-traumatic stress. This reference volume, with its lengthy bibliography, is designed for students, teachers, and practitioners in the fields of psychology and psychiatry, social work, medicine, and public health.

Mary Beth Williams is a private practitioner in the Trauma Recovery Education and Counseling Center in Warrento, Virginia, and a school social worker in Falls Church, Virginia. She has conducted research with sexual abuse survivors, and received her PhD in human and organizational systems development from the Fielding Institute in Santa Barbara, California. Her recent publications include Violence Hits Home: A Sourcebook on Treatment of Family Violence (1990) and many professional journal articles on post-traumatic stress disorders.

John F. Sommer, Jr. is executive director of the Washington, D.C. Office of The American Legion. He has co-authored articles and facilitated research projects dealing with Agent Orange effects on Vietnam Veterans. He has been involved in ongoing POW/MIA investigations, has testified before Congressional Committees, and has made three recent trips to Vietnam and other areas of Southeast Asia. He is a member of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, and is co-chair of the Ethics Task Force/Committee of ISTSS. He has presented nationally on a variety of trauma-related topics. Mr. Sommer served in the U.S. Army in Vietnam as a combat medic, and Noncommissioned Officer in Charge of a Battalion Station. He currently chairs the Department of Veterans Affairs Advisory Committee on the Readjustment of Vietnam and Other War Veterans.