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.
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.
Foreword writer 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.
PRAISE
“‘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
“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
