Surviving Trauma

When tragedies such as hurricane Katrina strike, causing profound losses to individuals, families, and whole communities, we are confronted with an acute awareness of our common vulnerability to traumatic experiences. At such times we naturally wonder, “Could I survive such devastation? Am I strong enough to help myself and others endure such suffering?”

Inspiring! Even the deepest trauma can lead a person into a land of discovery.

Bert Kaplan – Artist

Karen Merriam’s Searching for Connection: An Exploration of Trauma, Culture, and Hope delves into the heart of traumatic experience, where important connections to safety, hope, and strength are severed. Through a series of personal accounts and case studies, Merriam develops a model of traumatic experience revealing the common factors that allow individuals and communities to survive and overcome horrific experiences. Merriam illustrates how even in the darkness of traumatic events personal and collective resources can be summoned to help oneself and others endure.

Illustrates that one can endure with dignity and survive with meaning, even in the face of terrible experiences.

Beverly Engel, M.F.T. – Psychotherapist and Author of Breaking the Cycle of Abuse.

Although it explores dark territory, Searching for Connection is ultimately a hopeful book and a testament to the human spirit’s will to endure. It does not provide pat answers, but its concrete analyses will provide reflective readers with much food for thought. An important contribution to our understanding of trauma and how to cope with it, Searching for Connection takes readers to the edge of experience and brings them back wiser and with a greater appreciation for the terror and wonder of the human condition.

Should be required reading for physicians and nurses, counselors and therapists, social workers and clergy, and everyone else involved in helping or caregiving.

David Van Nuys, Ph.D. – Emeritus Professor of Psychology, Sonoma State University

This is a book for all readers: reminding us of our strengths and helping us to understand our vulnerabilities.

The stories told in Searching For Connection are about people like you and me.

Bert Kaplan – Artist

Your copy of the book SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR $22.95 with FREE shipping and handling. Credit card orders: order online or call (800) 326-9001

Or mail payment to: Truthsayer Press P.O. Box 1244 San Luis Obispo, CA 93406

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Karen Merriam, MSS, LCSW, has been a psychotherapist specializing in the field of trauma for more than thirty years. She has been a member of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies since 1986 and has presented papers to that organization on the effects of catastrophic trauma. She has also been a guest lecturer on trauma across the United States, has appeared on television and radio interview programs, and has provided training and workshops for police officers, physicians, emergency workers, search and rescue personnel, and mental health and social service professionals.

Her previous publications include the 1984 book Talking It Out: A Guide to Groups for Abused Women, co-authored with Ginny NiCarthy and Sandra Coffman. She is certified as an Emergency Medical Technician, and from 1995 to 2001 she worked as a member of the California Rescue Dog Association and the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue K-9 Team with her English cocker spaniel, Babe.

Currently, she trains volunteers for the Community Crisis Response Program of Hospice of San Luis Obispo County and also chairs the Santa Lucia Chapter of the Sierra Club. In both roles she puts into practice every day her dedication to preserving the dignity of all life, human and non-human.