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Surviving and Transcending a Traumatic Childhood

The Dark Thread

• By Linda Skogrand, John DeFrain, Nikki DeFrain, Jean Jones

• Price: $55.95
• Binding: Hardback (also available in Paperback)
• Pages: 212
• Published by: Routledge
• Publication Date: 14th May 2007
• ISBN: 978-0-7890-3264-5

About the Book

A powerful guide to transcending childhood trauma—from the people who’ve done it

It’s like a dark thread woven through a piece of cloth: You can’t pull it out without unraveling the whole thing. And it shows up here and there among all the other threads.

Surviving and Transcending a Traumatic Childhood: The Dark Thread weaves together 90 stories of survival to create a silver lining of hope for those struggling to heal from childhood trauma. This unique book documents the endless challenges facing children and adults who have been subjected to physical, emotional, and psychological abuse, and examines the proactive coping strategies that have made their recoveries a success. Each poignant story reveals an amazing capacity for growth and an ability to adapt emotionally that offers a positive spirit to others suffering abuse.

Surviving and Transcending a Traumatic Childhood: The Dark Thread examines how 90 people who have experienced childhood trauma and abuse have been able to rise above the suffering to not only endure, but prevail. In their own words, trauma survivors discuss what happened to them as children and the process they went through to become healthy, happy adults. Their stories are heartfelt, heartbreaking, and sometimes surprising in the variety of traumatic experiences, the intensity of the stress, and the number of people who were forced to deal with multiple issues in childhood, including sexual and physical abuse, alcoholism, neglect, and violence. The stories told in Surviving and Transcending a Traumatic Childhood: The Dark Thread explore:

• when the trauma began
• common feelings associated with trauma
• therapy and support groups
• getting married
• escaping abuse
• the role of religion and spirituality
• significant people who provided help
• types of homes where abuse occurred
• the positive effects of surviving trauma
• school life
• patterns of survival
• and much more

Surviving and Transcending a Traumatic Childhood: The Dark Thread also includes a list of resources that might be helpful to those in the process of transcending trauma and a self-study guide for developing a deeper understanding of the healing process.

Table of Contents

• Foreword (David H. Olson)
• Acknowledgments
• Chapter 1. Introduction
• Importance of the Topic
• About the Study
• About the Participants
• Intended Audience
• Organization of the Book
• Chapter 2. Surviving As Children
• Beginning of the Trauma
• Common Feelings Associated with Trauma
• People Who Helped
• Factors That Helped
• Conclusion
• Chapter 3. Transcending As Adults
• Spirituality
• Therapy and/or Support Groups
• Getting Married
• Escaping from the Abuse
• Looking Forward, Not Back
• Conclusion
• Chapter 4. School
• It Was a Sin to Overeat
• My Nickname Was “The Retard”
• Once There Was a Seedling in the Forest
• Life Is What You Make It
• Chapter 5. Religion and Spirituality
• I Was Sexually Abused by My Father and My Mother Tried to Kill Me
• Inside I Was Dying
• Evil and Sin Are Ignorance Acted Upon
• Chapter 6. Pariah or Paragon
• Nothing Is As Important As Loving Somebody and Having Somebody Love You
• The School Kids Called Us “The Crazy Gene Sorenson Kids”
• You Can Be the Sum of Your Own Choices and Not the Product of Your Past
• Chapter 7. People Who Helped
• I Blame My Parents, My Brothers, and God
• I Almost Died Before I Realized That the Only Person Abusing Me Now Was Me
• Chapter 8. It Made Me a Better Person
• What Was, Was, It Cannot Be Changed. What Is, Is, But It Can Be Changed. What Comes, Comes, Be on the Offensive
• From Angel Child to the Devil’s Child by the Age of Six
• I Have Seen the Dark Side of People; I Am Even More Determined to See the Light
• I Am a Walking Miracle; It Helps Me Believe in Other Miracles
• Chapter 9. What We Have Learned
• What Happened
• When It Happened and When It Ended
• Common Feelings Associated with Trauma
• People Who Helped
• Factors That Helped During Childhood
• Who They Are Today
• Factors That Helped During Adulthood
• Helping Children Survive and Adults Transcend
• Appendix A. Selected Readings
• Appendix B. A Self-Study Guide
• References
• Index

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