The Body Awareness Workbook for Trauma: Release Trauma from Your Body, Find Emotional Balance, and Connect with Your Inner Wisdom

by Julie Brown Yau PhD, Lisa Genova PhD (Foreword by)

Overview

Move past trauma, balance your emotions, and reconnect with your body’s innate wisdom in The Body Awareness Workbook for Trauma.

There is a piercing epidemic of trauma in the world today. Every few days there are reports of another tragedy, of more lives lost to gun violence, loved ones and family homes lost to floods, hurricanes, or fires. Women have come to speak openly about the trauma of sexual assault, and we are finally talking openly about the trauma inflicted on people of color, on transgender people, and immigrants. But now that this trauma is out in the open, how do we heal?

For years, we’ve understood the connection between trauma and mental health issues, such as depression and anxiety. But somatic psychology has recently shown that our bodies hold on to trauma, and trauma can manifest in physical symptoms, such as pain, hormone imbalance, sexual dysfunction, and addiction. In addition, we now know that developmental trauma—trauma that emerges when basic childhood needs are not met—can result in profound emotional stress and lead to serious diseases.

Building on this knowledge, this cutting-edge guide offers simple skills for connecting and calming your body, balancing your emotions, and rewiring old patterns of reactivity for better self-regulation. The mind-body approach in this book is designed to guide you away from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and trauma and toward posttraumatic growth. Using these exercises, you’ll learn how to reconnect and relate to your body—and yourself as a whole—in a new and healthy way.

If you’re ready to move past your trauma and rediscover your body’s innate capacity for healing, growth, vitality, and joy, this unique guide will help light the way.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781684033256
Publisher:	New Harbinger Publications
Publication date:	09/01/2019
Pages:	200
Sales rank:	256,887
Product dimensions:	7.90(w) x 9.80(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Julie Brown Yau, PhD, is a psychologist with more than thirty years of experience in somatic and spiritual traditions. Her unique approach blends clinical experience, psychology, physical and subtle body energies, and spiritual perspectives in discussing and healing trauma. She is director of education and program development at Compassionate Care ALS, where she incorporates her knowledge of somatic depth psychology, grief counseling, and contemplative practices to work with individuals and families facing catastrophic illness and death. Julie has a private practice in Laguna Beach, CA, working specifically with developmental trauma.

Lisa Genova, PhD, graduated valedictorian, summa cum laude from Bates College with a degree in biopsychology, and received her PhD in neuroscience from Harvard University. Genova has captured a special place in contemporary fiction, writing stories that are equally inspired by neuroscience and the human spirit. She is author of the New York Times bestselling novels, Still Alice, Left Neglected, Love Anthony, and Inside the O’Briens.

 

Table of Contents

Foreword v

Introduction The Journey to Post-Traumatic Growth 1

Chapter 1 Gently Explore Your Trauma Experience 9

Chapter 2 Calming the Fight-or-Flight Response 29

Chapter 3 Identifying Patterns of Dissociation to Regain Your Vitality 47

Chapter 4 Activate Your Recovery System with Breathing 65

Chapter 5 Let Your Innate Qualities Shine 81

Chapter 6 Embody and Integrate Your Emotions 93

Chapter 7 Navigating Emotional Overwhelm with Healthy Boundaries 113

Chapter 8 Working with Shame 129

Chapter 9 Imagine Your Trauma Differently 147

Chapter 10 Using Anger to Transform Your Consciousness 159

Chapter 11 Witness and Receive the Universe 171

Conclusion Your Daily Practice: The Key to Resolving Trauma 185

Acknowledgments 189

Notes 191

Interviews

Brown Yau resides in Laguna Beach, CA (Orange County).

Editorial Reviews

‘The world breaks everyone, and afterward, some are strong at the broken places,’ Ernest Hemingway wrote. In The Body Awareness Workbookfor Trauma, Julie Brown Yau provides practical advice based in solid science on how the broken places can become stronger, and how they can heal. This book should be read widely—for who hasn’t experienced psychological or physical trauma in our tumultuous world?”
—Larry Dossey, MD, author of One Mind

Larry Dossey

In recent years, more of us are discovering the centrality of presence in establishing a balanced and meaningful life. But what is not always understood is how much the existence of traumatic issues in our history can thwart or shut down our ability to stay present. Julie Brown Yau has been exploring this topic for many years, looking at what has been most helpful for people, and seeing how different kinds of trauma respond better to different approaches and therapies. Julie provides a compassionate and practical overview of the diverse forms of trauma, and findings on the most effective methods for working through them. I predict this book will become a classic—both for lay readers seeking help in working through their own difficulties, and for professionals seeking a more complete understanding of this emerging field. Highly recommended.”
—Russ Hudson, coauthor of The Wisdom of the Enneagram and Personality Types

Russ Hudson

This is an unusually intelligent and intricately helpful book. Unusually intelligent in the evidence it gives of its author’s familiarity with the complex territory of trauma and its effects on our lives, as well as her ability to write about it with grace and skill. It is intricately helpful because the author gives so many highly refined methods for helping oneself navigate the ravages trauma wreaks on our lives and relationships. The Body Awareness Workbook for Trauma is an inspiring blend of grounded theory and effective practice.”
—Don Hanlon Johnson, PhD, professor in the department of somatics at the School of Professional Psychology and Health at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco, CA

Don Hanlon Johnson

The Body Awareness Workbook for Trauma focuses on the essential missing piece: Spirituality. Trauma is an existential crisis as much as it is psychophysical. The spiritual component is the fulcrum of healing that synthesizes the coherency of self and existence. With this focus, stable, long-lasting healing and transformation is possible.”
—Uma-parvathinatha Saraswati, spiritual lineage holder Shri Vidya, an ancient integrated system of consciousness development based on Vedic science

Uma-parvathinatha Saraswati

The Body Awareness Workbook for Trauma is an incredible resource for anyone working through trauma, especially childhood trauma. Julie Brown Yau expertly: 1) Creates a frame of safety, compassion, and hope. 2) Identifies virtually every important component of trauma recovery, which allows people to successfully take small yet meaningful steps toward positive change. 3) Integrates a unique blend of practices from mind-body and spirit to directly help people to improve their lives. While this workbook is written for the general public, every therapist who works with trauma should read it. I highly recommend it.”
—Robert Schwarz, PsyD, DCEP, author of Tools for Transforming Trauma, and executive director of the Association for Comprehensive Energy Psychology

Robert Schwarz

In this comprehensive and deeply insightful guide, Julie has synthesized her vast knowledge and experience in working with trauma with a profound sense of grace and compassion. This is not a dry, theoretical book about trauma, but rather an essential companion for an inner inquiry into all the aspects in which trauma might be coloring the experience of ourselves, others, and the world. This is a step-by-step guide for reclaiming our inherent aliveness and feeling at home in our bodies while authentically expressing our essential self.”
—Zaya Benazzo, cofounder of Science and Nonduality

Zaya Benazzo

As a clinical psychologist and teacher for those experiencing trauma, I understand how trauma can disconnect us from ourselves, others, and the world around us. I’m therefore truly grateful for Julie Yau’s new offering, The Body Awareness Workbook for Trauma, in which she provides us with skillful exercises and tools for being able to meet, greet, proactively respond, repair, and heal through trauma. Julie’s workbook is valuable and powerful for enabling us to both heal through trauma, and feel connected within ourselves wherever we are, whomever we’re with, with whatever circumstances are arising in our body, mind, world, and relationships.”
—Richard Miller, PhD, founder and chairman of the iRest Institute, and author of The iRest Program for Healing PTSD

Richard Miller

I don’t see any way through the labyrinth of life without incurring developmental and/or shock trauma. Julie Brown Yau’s new book is a powerful and effective way to uncover, heal, and transform through the conscious engagement with your personal trauma. This is an extraordinary fusion of science and spirituality, a work with tremendous value for anyone wishing to become free and live life to the fullest.”
—Ron Hoffman, founder and executive director of Compassionate Care ALS, and author of the memoir, Sacred Bullet

Ron Hoffman