ABSTRACT
This self-help book complements Counselling for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (3rd edition, Scott and Stradling 2006). When clients first arrive for counselling, their feelings are often mixed. On the one hand they are relieved that at last help might be forthcoming and on the other hand they reproach themselves that it should have come to this, ‘baring your soul to a total stranger’. Because the counselling offered is most usually individual, it can implicitly underline a client's belief in their ‘oddness’. This self-help book serves as an antidote to the client's sense of isolation. Most traumatised clients will be able to identify with one or more of the case examples and will at least get their bearings on the directions they might go. The counsellor's task is to provide detailed directions and sustenance for the journey, recruiting where possible significant others as quasi-therapists in the community.
