Trauma in the Creative and Embodied Therapies

Trauma in the Creative and Embodied Therapies is a cross-professional book looking at current approaches to working therapeutically and socially with trauma in a creative and embodied way. The book pays attention to different kinds of trauma - environmental, sociopolitical, early relational, abuse in its many forms, and the trauma of illness - with contributions from international experts, drawn from the fields of the arts therapies, the embodied psychotherapies, as well as nature-based therapy and Playback Theatre. The book is divided into three sections: the first section takes into consideration the wider sociopolitical perspective of trauma and the power of community engagement. In the second section, there are numerous clinical approaches to working with trauma, whether with individuals or groups, highlighting the importance of creative and embodied approaches. In the third section, the focus shifts from client work to the impact of trauma on the practitioner, team, and supervisor, and the importance of creative self-care and reflection in managing this challenging field. This book will be useful for all those working in the field of trauma, whether as clinicians, artists, or social workers.

Anna Chesner is co-director of the London Centre for Psychodrama Group and Individual Psychotherapy, where she trains psychotherapists and supervisors. Anna works in private practice in London as a UKCP registered psychotherapist and supervisor sissy lykou, MA, PGCert, Onassis Foundation fellow, is a UKCP registered psychotherapist, dance movement psychotherapist and supervisor, and the programme leader of the MSc in Contemporary Person-Centred Psychotherapy at Metanoia Institute. She practises in London privately and in community psychotherapy projects for children under five years of age and their parents/carers. She is also the clinical community and outreach lead of an innovative therapists' community, Stillpoint Spaces London.

Part 1 - Wider Perspective; 1: Sociopolitical perspectives on trauma in a world in crisis: 'the personal is political'; 2: Enacting testimony: trauma stories in playback theatre; Part 2 - Clinical Perspectives; 3: The unplayable piano: from discord to harmony: trauma, play therapy and the power of the non-verbal; 4: As time goes by... Music psychotherapy and trauma; 5: Healing trauma through embodied relating: Re-establishing rhythms of relating; 6: Psychodrama and healing the traumatic wound; 7: Building resilience: Developing embodied and relational resources in a Gestalt movement therapy group for women with borderline personality disorder and histories of profound trauma; 8: Dance movement psychotherapy: the body tells the unspeakable; 9: The warrior's journey; 10: Letting go of the spider; 11: An elemental relationship: Nature-based trauma therapy; Part 3 - The impact of trauma on the therapist and embodied supervisory approaches; 12: Secondary traumatisation and therapist illness; 13: Movement observation in trauma-centred case supervision