Invisible Heroes

If you or someone you love has suffered a traumatic event, you know the devastating impact it can have on your life and your spirit. Life-threatening accidents, illnesses, assaults, abusive relationships-or a tragedy like 9/11-all can leave deep emotional wounds that persist long after physical scars have healed. Survivors become "invisible heroes," courageously struggling to lead normal lives in spite of symptoms so baffling and disturbing that they sometimes doubt their own sanity. Now there is new hope for the millions affected by posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Drawing on more than thirty years' experience as a therapist and on the most recent cutting-edge research, Belleruth Naparstek presents a clinically proven program for recovery using the potent tool of guided imagery. She reveals how guided imagery goes straight to the right side of the brain, where it impacts the nonverbal wiring of the nervous system itself, the key to alleviating suffering.Filled with the voices of real trauma survivors and therapists whose lives and work have been changed by this approach, Invisible Heroes offers: New understanding of the physical, cognitive, emotional, and behavioral effects of PTSD, who is most susceptible, and why symptoms can get worse rather than better with time Important insights into how the brain and body respond to trauma, why conventional talk therapy can actually impede recovery, and why the nonverbal, image-based right brain is crucial to healing A step-by-step program with more than twenty scripts for guided-imagery exercises tailored to the three stages of recovery, from immediate relief of anxiety attacks, flashbacks, nightmares, and insomnia, to freedom from depression and isolation, to renewed engagement with life A helpful guide to the best of the new imagery-based therapies, and how to incorporate them into an overall recovery planBelleruth Naparstek concludes with the inspiring words of survivors. Written and narrated by Belleruth Naparstek, this is the complete, uncondensed reading of Invisible Heroes: Survivors of Trauma and How They Heal - with a foreword by neurologist Robert Scaer.Track Names/Numbers:1. Foreword2. Introduction3. The Many Faces of Trauma4. A Life Threatening Illness5. A Survivor of Rape6. A Chronicler of Horror7. Frannies Undoing8. Worsening Symptoms9. Stone Metaphor1. Fierce Undoing Symptoms11. Acute Stress Reactions12. Symptoms Resurfacing13. The Retreat of Fairness14. Shattered Identity15. Who Suffers New Research16. Perpetrating Violence17. Survivor Traits18. Children19. Reactions Around Trauma2. Drinking and Intoxication21. Physical Effects - Chain of Events22. Blasted By Biochemicals23. The Freeze Response24. A Vicious Cycle of Kindling25. Cognitive Effects of Trauma26. Time Distortion27. Dissociation28. Psychic Opening and Precognition29. Emotional Effects: The Toll3. Terror Anxiety and Panic31. Rage32. Shame and Humiliation33. Despair34. Heart Ripped Open35. Behavioral Effects - Client Linda36. Avoidance and Isolation37. Disrupted Relationships38. Reenactments and Flirting39. Substance Abuse4. Impaired Volition41. How and Why Imagery Heals Gentle but Powerful42. Mom Blankies...43. The Right Brain Connection44. Fighting Trance with Trance45. Sidestepping Word Traps46. Serotonin47. Spiritual Connection48. Spontaneous Imagery49. Scripted Imagery Vs Self5. Scripted Imagery Vs Basics51. Pointers for the Listener52. Guided Imagery: Where to Start53. Guided Imagery - Stage One54. Guided Imagery - Stage Two55. Guided Imagery - Stage Three56. Other Imagery Therapies Alphabet Therapies57. TFT58. WHEE59. TIR6. VKD61. TPR62. Ten Ingredients for Healing - Ten Pronged Approach63. Healing the Wounds of War64. An Anchor Therapist65. Self Soothing Practice66. Surprise Blessing Gifts in the Rubble - Generosity67. Conclusion