Further Reading for Victim/Survivors & Facilitators

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Adams, Kathleen. The Way of the Journal: A Journal Therapy Workbook for Healing, Sidran, 1993.

The Way of the Journal teaches ten different journal techniques helpful to people in treatment for a wide variety of emotional difficulties.  The workbook teaches vital tools for creating a positive journal relationship, including balance, permission and choice making.  Developed while working with dissociative disorders patients at a national treatment center, The Way of the Journal can be used by all survivors, as well as anyone in pain who wishes to gain greater self-understanding self-understanding.

 

Breggin, Peter R. The Heart of Being Helpful: Empathy and the Creation of a Healing Presence. Springer, 1999.

Based on more than 30 years of clinical experience as a psychiatrist and a therapist, Dr. Breggin’s book, now available in an affordable paperback, illustrates the importance of developing a therapeutic bond–or healing presence–between helping professionals and their clients. The author provides useful vignettes, case studies, and personal insights to help both beginning and experienced therapists develop more empathy in therapeutic relationships. He asserts that the first step toward effective treatment is empathic self-transformation in the therapist. It is empathy and self-transformation.

 

Briere, John (Editor). Assessing and Treating Victims of Violence, Jossey-Bass, 1994.

Recent research has shown that a significant proportion of North American children are sexually, physically, or psychologically abused each year, and that the number of reports of adult rape, spousal abuse, and physical assault by strangers continues to grow. Beyond the epidemiology of societal violence per se is its impact on the mental health of those who live in our culture. Scientists and clinicians are beginning to trace the genesis of a number of psychological symptoms and disorders to childhood or adult traumatic events, many of which involve interpersonal violence. As a result, a new specialty of mental health practitioners has evolved, one specifically concerned with the assessment and treatment of psychological trauma. At the same time, however, the typical front-line clinician is bound to encounter children and adults who have been victimized and who present with complex post-traumatic sequelae. It is for the trauma specialist and the general clinician that this issue of New Directions for Mental Health Services was developed. Although the subject matter of this issue is disturbing, growing assessment and treatment technology gives us new hope for treating victims of violence.

 

Catherall, D.R. Back from the Brink: A Family Guide to Overcoming Traumatic Stress, Bantam, 1992.

A look a post-traumatic stress disorder as it affects individuals grieving a death helps family members of trauma victims to understand, confront, and relieve the feelings that accompany PTSD, while learning to restore equilibrium.

 

Coffey, Rebecca. Unspeakable Truths and Happy Endings: Human Cruelty and the New Trauma Therapy, Sidran, 1998.

In the course of her research for her book, again and again Rebecca Coffey heard from survivors that friends, family members, and even some therapists are generally unable to let them speak freely about what they remember and about the depths to which they are affected by their memories.  Seeking to stifle the rage and fear that hearing traumatic memories evokes, listeners blame survivors for the strength, relentlessness, and even content of their memories.  They render survivor’s personal truths completely unspeakable.  Indeed, the truths in memories of violence and degradation are unspeakably horrible.  But this book sets out to speak them. It contains detailed testimony of a score of trauma survivors.  The book is for victim/survivors and for their friends and family.  Coffey states that her book lives to help, and she hopes it will teach people to tolerate ambiguity, and rarify survivors’ subjective experience of human cruelty and infuse them with real bulheadedness about recovery and about their chances of being heard.  Coffey is neither a mental health professional nor a survivor.  She is a writer who specializes in health and mental health topics and hopes that her vantage point will help  survivors more able to speak unspeakable truths.

 

Colodzin, B. How to Survive Trauma: A Program for War Veterans and Survivors of Rape, Assault, Abuse, or Environmental Disaster, Station Hill, 1993.

This practical manual by an experienced trauma therapist offers a wide variety of therapeutic methods for dealing with Post-traumatic Stress Disorder as well easy-to-understand explanations for why post-traumatic symptoms occur. Post-traumatic Stress Disorder may afflict not just war veterans but anyone who has suffered a severe physical or emotional assault.  Dr. Colodzin’s view is that most post-traumatic symptoms were once in fact adaptive reactions to the situations in which they developed, but are no longer appropriate to a changed live situation.  The book is for individuals suffering from Post-traumatic Stress, their friends, families, and therapists. It offers techniques to help overcome its often paralyzing effects: from anxiety, depression, and rage to flashbacks, insomnia, nightmares, and substance abuse.  It will help anyone understand what a traumatized person is experiencing.

 

Figley, C.R., Bride, B.E., and Mazza, N. (Editors). Death and Trauma: The Traumatology of Grieving, Taylor and Francis, 1997.

This text gathers together the most efficient and effective tools to ease the pain of grief and promote the natural process of bereavement. Information included covers: conceptual synthesis; effective coping with specific contexts; and generic treatment approaches.  The book applies the most useful theoretical models to the bereavement experience, and in turn acknowledges the utility of generalizing bereavement models to other traumatic experiences; in doing so, the two fields can enrich each other. Similarly, the volume’s final purpose is to identify and apply the most useful and effective approaches in traumatology literature to the study, diagnosis, and treatment of traumatic stressors other than death.  It can help us understand how death effects survivors of homicide and murder.

 

Flannery, R.B. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: The Victim’s Guide to Healing and Recovery, Crossroad, 1992.

In doctor’s offices, therapy sessions, and in the courtroom, the term Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is being discussed with increasing frequency as the crippling effects of this severe life stress are identified. This is the first book for victims (and their families) that describes what PTSD is, including the linkage between addiction and this kind of trauma, and shows how to marshal the skills of stress-resistant persons to recover from its debilitating effects. The causes of PTSD are many, all associated with violence and abuse. They range from rape and battering and child abuse to the horrors of combat or calamities like natural disasters and auto and airplane crashes. These traumatic events are overwhelming in their impact and destroy the victims’ sense of being in control of their lives, and alter attachments to others. If left untreated these disruptions, along with physical symptoms such as being unable to relax, being easily startled, or having recurring nightmares or intrusive memories, form this medical condition.  Although an expert in the treatment of stress, Raymond Flannery writes with great clarity for the lay-person, and offers real hope that recovery and healing is possible. Therapists and counselors will find this book to be of great assistance in their efforts to help victims.

 

Hindman, Jan. Just Before Dawn: From the Shadows of Tradition to New Reflections in Trauma Assessment and Treatment of Sexual Victimization, Alexandria, 1989.

Just Before Dawn provides a new reflection in evaluating the trauma suffered by sexual victims.  Finally, effort has been put forth to depart from a traditional system of evaluating offenders, creating a “renaissance” of new dimension concentrating on the “robbery of childhood” and other effects.  The welcome result is a more effective and comprehensive Trauma Assessment and Treatment plan, leading the victim from the power of the offender to finally breaking the “trauma bond.”   Just Before Dawn is founded on data and development concerning sexual abuse victim ranging in age from infancy to the elderly.  Over a sixteen year period, victims were assessed and monitored through a combination of modalities.  A methodical, comprehensive system of assessment is the product of this necessary publication.

 

Hoffman, B.F., Rochon, J.P., and Terry, J.A., Thorsen, Annelis, K.  The Emotional Consequences of Personal Injury: A Handbook for Psychiatrists and Lawyers, 2nd Edition,  Butterworths, 2001.

While written for the Canadian legal audience perusing civil remedies to injury, this book also gives insight into the effects violent physical violation and injury has on the criminal victim/survivor.   Chapters of interest include: Overview of Emotional Trauma and Disability; The Behavioural and Emotional Consequences of Personal Injury; Common Psychiatric Diagnoses Following Injury; Chronic Pain Disorders; and Clinical Aspects of Closed Head Injuries.  It also provides insight to civil remedies for victims, which may be available for victim/survivors in addition to the criminal cases and could provide facilitators with insight into the experiences victim/survivors are having in this arena.   Defines and clarifies the psychiatric and medical issues and outlines the relationship between physical and emotional injuries.   Includes chapters on Litigation of Sexual Abuse, and Mental Health and Psychiatric Assessment of Traumatized Children.

 

Kaufman, Gershen. Shame: The Power of Caring, Schenkman, 1985.

Shame: The Power of Caring probes a neglected dimension of the human experience.  ‘To feel shame is to feel seen in a painfully diminished sense. The self feels exposed both to itself and to anyone else present. It is this sudden, unexpected feeling of exposure and accompanying self-consciousness that characterizes the essential nature of the effect of shame.’ Contained in the experience of shame is the piercing awareness of ourselves as fundamentally deficient in some vital way as a human being.  It is a classic in exploring how shame takes hold and how to overcome it.

 

Kaufman, Gershen. The Psychology of Shame: The Theory and Treatment of Shame-Based Syndromes. Springer, 1996.

Shame is examined from the perspective of affect theory.  The affect of shame is important because no other affect is more disturbing to the self, none more central for the sense of identity.   Examined are the psychodynamics of shame both in interpersonal relationships and within the self’s inner life, and shame’s impact on normal as well as pathological development.  Further examined are haw the self is shaped by three central, interactive processes: affect, imagery and language.   Part II explores psychotherapeutic intervention

 

Lauer, Teresa. The Truth About Rape: Emotional, Spiritual, Physical, and Sexual Recovery From Rape, RapeRecovery.com, 2002.

The Truth about Rape is based on the author’s own rape experience and journey through healing as well as her professional experience providing counseling to other rape victims.  Material presented can be used by rape victims alone, or with a therapist.  It is organized around four major areas of healing: emotional, spiritual, physical, and sexual.  It contains excerpts from more than fifty therapy sessions between the author and her therapist.  It also answers more than forty Frequently Asked Questions about rape and recover, each from the perspective of both a rape victim and a professional therapist.

 

Lord, Janice Harris. Beyond Sympathy: What to Say and Do for Someone Suffering an Injury, Illness, or Loss, Pathfinder, 1988.

When a loved one loses a loved one it is difficult to know what to say. Sympathetic words seem so inadequate to express the sense of loss we share. How can we get beyond the sympathetic words to actually do something that will help with the grieving process?  Offers practical suggestions and examples of how to help those who are hurting physically and emotionally.   “What do you do?,  What do you Say?, To the parent whose child has been killed?, To your neighbor whose husband has cancer?, To a friend who has been raped?, To someone going through a divorce?, To a victim of AIDS?, To the neighbor being abused?, To the family of a suicide victim?”  These and many other areas are covered in this book.

 

Lord, Janice Harris. No Time for Goodbyes: Coping With Sorrow, Anger, and Injustice After a Tragic Death (7^th edition), Compassion Press, 2014.

Janice Harris Lord’s definitive and beloved guide is now available in its 7th edition, completely enhanced and updated. Survivors grieving the tragic death of a loved one will find here deep understanding and insight as well as detailed practical information on dealing with legal and financial issues. Eloquent comments from survivors are combined with the author s many years of research and experience to make this an incredibly helpful resource. No Time For Goodbyes is used extensively by grieving families as well as numerous professionals and organizations.

 

Maguire, M., and Corbett, C. Effects of Crime and the Work of Victim Support Groups, Aldershot, U.K., 1987.

This British study examines the problems of crime victims and assesses the effectiveness of the rapidly expanding volunteer groups that offer victim services. The results of a 1984 survey of all victim support programs in England and Wales revealed a rapidly expanding movement, with strong growth in the number of programs, the size of areas covered, the number of volunteers, and number of referrals received.  Data from interviews with crime victims and from the 1984 British Crime Survey address the long-term and short-term effects of victimization and victims’ needs for support and assistance. An examination of the ‘filtering processes’ whereby the number of victim clients for services is narrowed to those actually contacted or visited suggests that ‘automatic’ referral systems are more effective than ‘selective’ systems in providing a regular flow of cases. Some problems in the internal structure of victim service schemes include confusions in the roles of coordinator and committee members, the excessive load carried by coordinators, and the loss of volunteer morale. Interviews with a sample of 265 victims of rape, robbery, burglary, and ‘snatch’ theft explored the effects of the crimes on the victims, the help they received from victim programs, and their reaction to a visit from a volunteer. 18 tables, appended miscellaneous findings, and 173-item bibliography.

 

Matsakis, Aphrodite. I Can’t Get Over It: A Handbook for Trauma Survivors, New Harbinger, 1992.

A step-by-step guide taking the reader from a definition of Post-trauma Stress, through the emotional experience, to the challenging process of healing. The book deals with a range of traumatic events, including car accidents, rape, sexual abuse, natural disasters and war.

 

Mawby, R.L., and Gill, M.L. Crime Victims: Needs, Services, and the Voluntary Sector, Tavistock, London, 1987.

What does crime do to its victims?  Does the state do enough to help them?  How much can the voluntary organizations do? “Crime Victims” provides the first comprehensive review of victimization and the policies of Great Britain aimed at ameliorating its effect.

 

Miller, Laurence. Counseling Crime Victims: Practical Strategies for Mental Health Professionals, Springer, 2008.

Combining insights and lessons from the fields of criminology, victimology, trauma psychology, law enforcement, and psychotherapy, this book presents an integrated model of intervention for students and working mental health professionals in the criminal justice system.

 

Morris, David J. The Evil Hours: A Biography of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Houghton Mifflin, 2015.

“In the tradition of The Emperor of All Maladies and The Noonday Demon, a moving, eye-opening exploration of PTSD. Just as polio loomed over the 1950s, and AIDS stalked the 1980s and ’90s, post traumatic stress disorder haunts us in the early years of the twenty-first century. Over a decade into the United States’ “global war on terror,” PTSD afflicts as many as 30 percent of the conflict’s veterans. But the disorder’s reach extends far beyond the armed forces. In total, some twenty-seven million Americans are believed to be PTSD survivors. Yet to many of us, the disorder remains shrouded in mystery, secrecy, and shame. Now, David J. Morris — a war correspondent, former Marine, and PTSD sufferer himself — has written the essential account of this illness. Through interviews with individuals living with PTSD, forays into the scientific, literary, and cultural history of the illness, and memoir, Morris crafts a moving work that will speak not only to those with the condition and to their loved ones, but also to all of us struggling to make sense of an anxious and uncertain time.”–Publisher information.

 

Nathanson, Donald L. (Editor) The Many Faces of Shame, Guilford, 1987.

For almost a century the concept of guilt, as embedded in drive theory, has dominated psychoanalytic thought. Increasingly, however, investigators are focusing on shame as a key aspect of human behavior. This volume captures a range of compelling viewpoints on the role of shame in psychological development, psychopathology, and the therapeutic process. Donald Nathanson has assembled internationally prominent authorities, engaging them in extensive dialogue about their areas of expertise. Concise introductions to each chapter place the authors both historically and theoretically, and outline their emphases and contributions to our understanding of shame. Including many illustrative clinical examples, the book covers such topics as the relationship between shame and narcissism, shame’s central place in affect theory, psychosis and shame, and shame in the literature of French psychoanalysis and philosophy.

 

Pennabaker, J.W. Opening Up: The Healing Power of Expressing Emotion, Guilford, 1997.

This book would appeal to readers interested in understanding the relationship between emotional and physical health, and in minimizing the harmful effects of stress.  Anyone who has ever entrusted a troubling secret to a journal, or mourned a broken heart with a friend, knows the feeling of relief that expressing painful emotions can bring. This book presents astonishing evidence that personal self-disclosure is not only good for our emotional health, but boosts our physical health as well.

Psychologist James W. Pennebaker has conducted controlled clinical research that sheds new light on the powerful mind body connection. This book interweaves his findings with insightful case studies on secret-keeping, confession, and the hidden price of silence. Filled with information and encouragement, Opening Up explains:  Why suppressing inner problems takes a devastating toll on health;   How long-buried trauma affects the immune system;   How writing about your problems can improve your health; Why it’s never too late to heal old emotional wounds; When self-disclosure may be risky–and how to know whom to trust.

 

Peterson, Marilyn. At Personal Risk: Boundary Violations in Professional-Client Relationships, W.W. Norton & Co., 1992.

This book addresses boundary violations through the lens of the professional-client relationship, drawing examples of misconduct from law, medicine, religion, education, and psychotherapy–professions which oblige the professional to place the client’s needs first. Professional misconduct is commonly defined by content (for example, sexual harassment or misuse of client funds); this practice eclipses the injury to the relationship itself and ignores, dismisses, or normalizes violations that do not fit within the specific categories of malfeasance or codes of ethics. At Personal Risk expands the spectrum of behaviors that are hurtful to clients by redefining violations as a process of disconnection that occurs within the relational context.

 

Rock, P. Helping Victims of Crime: The Home Office and the Rise of Victim Support in England and Wales, Clarendon, U.K., 1990.

This book examines the evolution of Government policies toward victims of crime in the United Kingdom, and follows the author’s View from the Shadows, which detailed official responses to the victims’ movement in Canada. It attempts a fourfold task: to show how central institutions fostered what the Home Office came to regard as significant policies for victims of crime in England and Wales; to use those examples of policy-making to scout the topography of the criminal justice system; to make comparisons between the system and its Canadian counterpart; and, above all, to give the origins and early history of the National Association of Victims Support schemes. This book will be of particular interest to students and scholars of sociology, criminology, social behavior, social institutions and social administration.

 

Ryan, William. Blaming the Victim, Random House, 1971.

The classic work that refutes the lies we tell ourselves about race, poverty and the poor. Here are three myths about poverty in America:– Minority children perform poorly in school because they are “culturally deprived.”– African-Americans are handicapped by a family structure that is typically unstable and matriarchal. – Poor people suffer from bad health because of ignorance and lack of interest in proper health care. Blaming the Victim was the first book to identify these truisms as part of the system of denial that even the best-intentioned Americans have constructed around the unpalatable realities of race and class. Originally published in 1970, William Ryan’s groundbreaking and exhaustively researched work challenges both liberal and conservative assumptions, serving up a devastating critique of the mindset that causes us to blame the poor for their poverty and the powerless for their powerlessness. More than twenty years later, it is even more meaningful for its diagnosis of the psychic underpinnings of racial and social injustice.

 

Rybarczyk, Bruce, and Bellg, Albert. Listening to Life Stories: A New Approach to Stress Intervention in Health Care. Springer, 1997.

Listening to Life Stories: A New Approach to Stress Management in Health Care is about a simple storytelling process, the Life Narrative Interview (LNI), that research shows can help medical patients have a better experience during a hospital stay. By focusing on positive life experiences, the LNI helps a person reconnect with their high points, defining moments, and finest hours. Remembering those positive experiences helps buffer the feelings of vulnerability and helplessness that so often accompany life difficulties such as change, loss, or medical illness and treatment. The process for administering the LNI can be taught to hospital volunteers, and a low-cost volunteer program can be created to increase patient satisfaction with their hospital experience. In this reprint of our original book, we discuss the research supporting the use of Life Narrative Interviews and describe the skills necessary to conduct them with medical patients, people having difficulty, or with family members or friends who would simply enjoy talking about the positive experiences of their life.

 

Schiraldi, Glenn R. The Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Sourcebook, Revised and Expanded Second Edition: A Guide to Healing, Recovery, and Growth, Lowell House, 2016.

For the millions who suffer from the effects of a traumatic experience, this book offers help and hope and provides the diverse elements needed for lasting recovery. Trauma can take many forms, from the most disturbing of circumstances such as witnessing a murder or violent crime to the subtle trauma of living with the effects of abuse or alcoholism. Deep emotional wounds often seem like they will never heal, but Schiraldi has helped and witnessed survivors recover, grow, and find happiness.  The Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Sourcebook was first published just before 9/11.  Since that time we have greatly deepened and refined our understanding of PTSD and its effective Treatment.  This revised and expanded edition has been updated throughout to reflect new discoveries that will help those with PTSD and those who care about and for them and.  It introduces survivors, loved ones, and helpers to the remarkable range of treatment alternatives and self-management techniques available today to break through the pain and realize recovery and growth.

 

Schneider, John M. Finding My Way: Healing and Transformation Through Loss and Grief, Seasons, 1994.

Finding My Way examines the universal human experience of loss and grief from a transformational model; that any loss can ultimately transform our lives in ways we could have never imagined. The author, John M. Schneider, PhD, is a clinical psychologist and professor emeritus with over forty years experience in working with peoples’ losses and has formed a unifying model for understanding the nature and process of grief that vastly expands previous concepts (such as Kubler-Ross’ five stages). Grief does not follow pre-determined stages, but rather proceeds along some common phases and confronts us with three fundamental questions: what is lost?, what remains?, and what is possible? Schneider’s model is also based in clinical research using an inventory he developed over thirty years, the Response To Loss Instrument.

 

Spungen, Deborah. Homicide: The Hidden Victims: A Guide for Professionals, Sage, 1997.

Social scientist, victim advocate, and the mother of a murder victim – Deborah Spungen is well acquainted with all facets of what she defines as “the blackest hell accompanied by a pain so intense that even breathing becomes an unendurable labor.” In Homicide: The Hidden Victims, Spungen illustrates just how and why family members become co-victims when a loved one is murdered, and she poignantly addresses the emotional, physical, spiritual, and psychological effects of such traumatic events. The timely information and innovative modalities discussed in this book make it ideal for mental health and criminal justice professionals, pastoral counselors, social workers, and victim advocate.

 

Tedeschi, R.G., and Calhoun, L.G. Trauma and Transformation: Growing in the Aftermath of Suffering, Sage, 1995.

This book explores the uses of suffering, including religious and psychological roots, along with the negative consequences of trauma.  It reviews the process of psychological growth from trauma as found in the research and illuminates what personality characteristics help with successful coping. It shows tasks and cognitive processes that often occur when coping with trauma, and ultimately how growth happens by introducing  a model for coping with trauma.  It gives insights into how victims can be provided support and what interventions may help. It concludes with research directions and guideposts for people challenged by trauma.   The authors use a cognitive framework to explore all this by focusing upon changes in belief systems reported by trauma survivors.

 

Underwood, Thomas L., Edmunds, Christine (Editors). Victim Assistance: Exploring Individual Practice, Organizational Policy, and Societal Responses, Springer, 2002.

Based on the acclaimed professional certificate program, Advanced Institute on Victim Studies: Critical Analysis of Victim Assistance, this book identifies core content areas essential for practitioners working with crime victims.  Chapters include: Concepts of Victim Assistance; Exploring Attitudes toward Violence and Victimization; Barriers to Service; Psychological and Physiological Impacts of Stress; Trauma and the Crime Victim; The Justice System and Victim; Victims of Sexual Abuse and Assault–Adults and Children;  Victims of Criminal Death;  Violence within Family Systems; Hate & Bias Crimes; and Victim Advocacy & Public Policy.  Each chapter concludes with an analysis and application section, including representative scenarios and key questions for review.

 

U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Attorney General. Guidelines for Victim and Witness Assistance, Washington, D.C., 2011 (Rev. May 2012).

The purpose of this document, the Attorney General Guidelines for Victim and Witness Assistance (AG Guidelines), is to establish guidelines to be followed by officers and employees of the U.S. Department of Justice (Department) investigative, prosecutorial, correctional, and parole components in the treatment of victims of and witnesses to crime.  In 1982, Congress directed the Attorney General to promulgate the first AG Guidelines, which have been revised periodically to reflect changes in the law. (See 18 U.S.C. § 1512 note (1984) (Federal Guidelines for Treatment of Crime Victims and Witnesses in the Criminal Justice System)).  These AG Guidelines supersede the Attorney General Guidelines for Victim and Witness Assistance (2005 ed.).   https://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/olp/docs/ag_guidelines2012.pdf

 

Van der Kolk, Bessel A., McFarlane, Alexander C., and Weisaeth, Lars, (Eds). Traumatic Stress: The Effects of Overwhelming Experience on Mind, Body, and Society, Guilford, 2007.

This bestselling classic presents seminal theory and research on post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Together, the leading editors and contributors comprehensively examine how trauma affects an individual’s biology, conceptions of the world, and psychological functioning. Key topics include why certain people cope successfully with traumatic experiences while others do not, the neurobiological processes underlying PTSD symptomatology, enduring questions surrounding traumatic memories and dissociation, and the core components of effective interventions. A highly influential work that laid the foundation for many of the field’s continuing advances, this volume remains an immensely informative and thought-provoking clinical reference and text. Originally published as a hardcover in1996, the new preface to the 2007 paperback edition situates the book within the context of contemporary research developments.

 

van Wormer, Katherine. Counseling Female Offenders and Victims: A Strengths-Restorative Approach. Springer, 2001.

This books considers the many aspects of how the criminal justice system can be reshaped to address the needs of victims of violence and offenders who themselves are often the victims of abuse. It presents a new model that offers an integrated framework to combine tenets of social work’s strengths framework with the restorative justice model. It looks at the restorative justice of female crime victims and the treatment of women in prison in the context of human rights issues. The book can be used as a text to help prepare students for jobs doing direct practice with offenders and victims. Chapter 1 provides the theoretical and historical overview of a gendered analysis of women’s experience in the legal justice system. Chapter 2 delves into the fundamentals of establishing a treatment relationship as preparation for practice of strengths-based therapy with victims and offenders. Chapter 3 looks at the topic of victimization and Chapter 4 presents interventions. Chapter 5 considers the nature of women’s crimes. Chapter 6 presents the results of a survey of 74 federal and state prison facilities in the U.S. that incarcerate women. Chapter 7 discusses counseling the female offender. (Contains over 650 references.)

 

Wilson, John P., Harel, Zev, and Kahana, Boaz. Human Adaptation to Extreme Stress: From the Holocaust to Viet Nam, Plenum, 1988.

While this book is primary focused on extreme stress from war based trauma, violence, and injury,

This book is one additional indication that a new field of study is emerging within the social sciences, if it has not emerged already. Traumatic stress studies is the investigation of the immediate and long-term psychosocial consequences of highly stressful events and the factors that affect those consequences. This definition includes three primary elements: event, conse­quences, and causal factors affecting the perception of both. This collection of papers addresses all three elements and collectively contributes to our understanding and appreciation of the struggles of those who have en­dured so much, often with little recognition of their experiences.

 

Worden, J. William. Grief Counseling and Grief Therapy: A Handbook for Mental Health Practitioners. Routledge, 2009.

In this updated and revised fourth edition of his classic text, Dr. Worden presents his most recent thinking on bereavement drawn from extensive research, clinical work, and the best of the new literature. Besides addressing a number of new topics, the book includes the best vignettes from the first three editions to bring bereavement issues to life for students and practitioners.

 

Young, Marlene A. Victim Assistance: Frontiers and Fundamentals, National Organization for Victim Assistance, 1993.

Monographs and training materials instruct readers in how to be an effective victim advocate and counselor. A paper on the psychological trauma of crime victimization explains the crisis reaction and long-term stress reactions. This is followed by a paper on crisis intervention. It instructs readers in the techniques and skills that can ease the trauma of victimization. Another paper describes the techniques and procedures of supportive counseling and advocacy for crime victims. Five papers discuss the specialized services needed by the following types of victims: child victims, victims of family violence, sexual assault victims, survivors of homicide victims, and victims of bias crimes. Other papers instruct readers in procedures and techniques for organizing victim services in various environments; cross-cultural service delivery and victim assistance in schools and universities are discussed. Papers on the following general topics pertain to victim- advocacy organization and operations: public speaking, group facilitation, the development and evaluation of training programs, work with volunteers, staff management, fundraising, work with the medical community, and victim services as a profession. Figures and bibliographies accompany the papers.

 

Young, Marlene A., and Stein, John H., (Editors). 2001: The Next Generation in Victim Assistance, National Organization for Victim Assistance, 1994.

A follow up to the above work on Victim Assistance published by NOVA.

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