Decolonizing Trauma Healing

Brown has wrestled with the daunting task of finding language to illuminate what is almost entirely invisible—the prevailing social conditions we are immersed in that promote and foster trauma and traumatization. Those of us in the trauma field are just as submerged in these frameworks as anyone else, blinding us and radically limiting our effectiveness. That Brown took on this challenge in the first place is nothing less than heroic. That she succeeds is awe-inspiring … and, for those who dare to listen to her, powerfully mind-expanding. -- Steven N. Gold, PhD, Professor Emeritus, Nova Southeastern University, Fort Lauderdale, FL; licensed clinical psychologist in independent practice, Plantation, FL; author of Contextual Trauma Therapy and Not Trauma Alone; Editor-in-Chief of the APA Handbook of Trauma Psychology
Brilliant! This book is for everyone interested in healing trauma. Laura S. Brown delivers a powerhouse in decolonizing trauma therapy. -- Lillian Comas-Díaz, PhD, Clinical Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, George Washington University, Washington, DC
Kudos to Dr. Laura Brown for her manifesto, Decolonizing Trauma Healing: Toward a Humble, Culturally Responsive Practice, in which she builds and expands upon her 40 years’ worth of scholarship, clinical and forensic practice, activism, and lived experience in trauma psychology. This book integrates a vast amount of information. It is a call to approach healing interactions with suffering individuals in a more humble, person-centered, and culturally responsive way that centralizes the traumatizing impact of social pathologies associated with colonization. Although as Dr. Brown recognizes, not all will agree with her approach, her ideas deserve close attention as they have the potential to move the frontiers and establish new methods of trauma psychology. -- Christine A. Courtois, PhD, ABPP, Delaware Licensed Psychologist and Board-Certified Counseling Psychologist; author of Healing the Incest Wound: Adult Survivors in Therapy; coauthor of Treatment of Complex Trauma: A Sequenced, Relationship-Based Approach
In this gorgeously written book, Laura S. Brown first exposes the ways the practice of trauma therapy despite good intentions—has so often colluded with the oppressive and colonizing forces inherent in the harm of trauma. Then she offers an alternative approach for healers, one that humbly and repeatedly examines the political, intersectional, existential, and neurobiological realities that are inextricably linked to trauma harm and trauma healing. Once you start reading you won’t want to put it down, because Decolonizing Trauma Healing is deliciously eloquent, brilliant, wise, and teeming with authenticity and compassion. -- Jennifer Joy Freyd, PhD, Professor Emerit, Psychology, University of Oregon, Eugene