HEALING JOURNEYS: How Trauma Survivors Learn to Live Again

A psychologist and certified trauma expert, Daniels established and directed a crisis-counseling center at JFK airport for employees and their families for three months after the September 11 World Trade Center attack. Her anecdotal narratives of how survivors of that event found different paths toward healing can equally be applied to traumatic incidents such as enduring serious illness or domestic violence. Harrowing stories are related of survivors and those who lost loved ones on that day; Daniels herself escaped from an office on the 62d floor of One World Trade Center and offers her own narrative. But beyond those stories, Daniels details, in clear practical language, coping strategies such as breathing exercises, the use of imagery, journal writing and reaching out to others for help during all stages of recovery. Of particular impact is a chapter of how to deal with the threat of suicide after trauma and ways to help children and adolescents heal. Daniels shows that recovery is very individual, that it does not always take a linear path and that regression does not mean failure. (May)