Trauma Counseling, Second Edition

The only comprehensive text to focus on trauma, stress, crisis, and disaster counseling from a clinical practice perspective


This overarching text, intended both for mental health practitioners-in-training and for practicing clinicians, focuses on the impact of stress, crisis, trauma, and disaster on diverse populations across the lifespan as well as on effective treatment strategies. The second edition is newly grounded in a "trauma scaffold," providing foundational information that therapists can build upon, step-by-step, to treat individuals affected by more complex trauma events. This resource newly addresses the mental health implications of COVID-19, which has had an enormous impact on multitudes of people since the beginning of the pandemic, its repercussions likely to continue for some time into the future. The text also is updated to provide the most recent diagnostic information regarding trauma in the DSM-5. Two new chapters address the confluence of crises related to anthropogenic climate change and the effects of mass violence.


This unrivalled resource emphasizes stress management and crisis intervention skills as important building blocks for working with more complex issues of trauma and disaster. It underscores the idea that trauma must be approached from multiple perspectives and in multiple dimensions encompassing individual, community, societal, and systemic implications along with multicultural and diversity frames of reference. The text integrates the latest findings from neuropsychology and psychopharmacology with an emphasis on Polyvagal Theory. Additionally, the text highlights the importance of clinical supervision in trauma care and examines ethical dimensions and the need for self-care among trauma counselors. Purchase includes digital access for use on most mobile devices or computers.



New to the Second Edition:


Reconceptualizes the text with the concept of a "Trauma Scaffold" as a foundation upon which to understand and develop treatment for increasingly complex trauma events
Addresses the COVID-19 pandemic and its profound effect on the mental health of vast numbers of people
Includes two new chapters on the confluence of crises related to anthropogenic climate change and the effects of mass violence
Includes PowerPoint slides to accompany an updated Instructor's Manual



Key Features:


Delivers both introductory and advanced clinical information addressing complex trauma
Addresses trauma from a bioecological framework with emphasis on trauma-informed practices, multicultural pluralism, diversity, and social justice
Considers neurobiological responses to trauma with new research and the contributions of Polyvagal Theory
Examines individual, familial, community, society, and systemic understandings of stress, crisis, trauma, and disaster
Includes a wealth of resources for further study, text boxes, and case studies to reinforce learning