Whether it is suddenly losing a loved one, finding out your spouse is having an affair, learning that your child is using drugs, or discovering that a child has a major illness, shock is the body's way of saying, I can’t deal with this right now and I need a moment to collect myself.” When people experience trauma, they can be both damaged and shocked. While trauma is recorded in us psychologically, shock is recorded physiologically. This is why we can have both emotional and physical responses long after a traumatic event. Overcoming Shock explains the physiology of shock and how shock can control our responses to life. It shows how it impacts our lives and how it can be effectively treated. Zimberoff and Hartman explain that it is important to understand that nearly everybody experiences shock at one time or other in their lives. Overcoming Shock explores the effects of shock on our lives, including its profound impact on miscommunication, abuse in relationships, tenacious addictions, depression, mental illness, and even spiritual seeking. Here are proven tools for successful treatment and real-life examples of people who have overcome the debilitating patterns caused by shock and trauma.

Overcoming Shock: Healing the Traumatized Mind and Heart

Health, Fitness & Dieting

Hartman, David

Zimberoff, Diane

Mental Health

New Horizon Press

This book teaches people to connect their non-productive present-life circumstances with the source causes, and provides tested methods to change those that can and should be changed. The reader will begin to discover hope that healthy change is possible and gather determination to seek help to make those changes. This book identifies the victim, rescuer and persecutor personalities set forth in earlier ground-breaking work (and bestsellers) by Eric Berne, Claude Steiner and Thomas A. Harris. “Breaking Free…” builds upon this sturdy foundation of conflict resolution and takes the reader to the next level of healing. The easy-to-understand descriptions of the Victim Triangle help the reader to see how and why this may apply to him or her. There are a number of personal questionnaires and self-evaluation tests. For example, the reader can take a Victim Triangle Self Diagnosis Test, which is often helpful in motivating readers to seek and receive the healing they need and desire. The book describes through clear and dramatic case histories the connection between these victim patterns and most addictive behavior. This book presents a working model of what actually causes such self-deprecating behavior as alcoholism, sexual addiction, eating disorders, domestic violence, and the exhaustion of over-commitment seen in workaholics. Fascinating case histories assist the reader in recognizing this syndrome and how it may be wreaking havoc in their own lives and relationships. After careful consideration of causes and behaviors, the book provides simple tested treatment techniques that have been found to be extremely effective by thousands of clients. This is where “Breaking Free From the Victim Trap” breaks free of outdated methods and introduces a unique combination of healing techniques that virtually anyone can access. There is a clear explanation of the powerful benefits of hypnotherapy as well as an introduction to the Personal Transformation groups that have been established to treat this syndrome. The numerous case histories of real people who have healed the victim patterns in their lives offer hope and inspiration to those who seek healing and resolution. The book provides the reader with foundational concepts and tools for personal change. To those seeking treatment and to those providing treatment, clear choices are offered to provide the suffering person with new self-affirming behaviors. This book offers a holistic approach to personal growth and spiritual advancement.

Breaking Free from the Victim Trap: Reclaiming Your Personal Power

Self-Help

Relationships

Wellness Press

This book is the story of one woman’s yearning for God, and at the same time it illuminates the universal relentless longing of all human beings for connection with their Source. I am reminded of three poetic statements of that yearning, one from the Muslim tradition, one from Judaic, and one from Christian. Eight hundred years ago, the Sufi mystic Rumi wrote the poem "Love Dogs": One night a man was crying, Allah! Allah! His lips grew sweet with the praising, Until a cynic said, “So! I have heard you calling out, but have you ever gotten a response?” The man had no answer to that. He quit praying and fell into a confused sleep. He dreamed he saw Khidr, the guide of souls, In a thick, green foliage. “Why did you stop praising?” “Because I’ve never heard anything back.” “This longing you express is the return message.” The grief you cry out from Draws you toward union. Your pure sadness That wants help Is the secret cup. Listen to the moan of a dog for its master. That whining is the connection. There are love dogs No one knows the names of. Give your life To be one of them. Ultimately, we all give our lives to be something, and we all cry out from grief. To what end? Union, or exile? Another approach to exploring and understanding this human dilemma is presented by Rabbi DovBer, Maggid of Mezritch (?-1772), in the following well-known analogy. The human experience of exile is comparable to a father who conceals himself from his son. Not that the father does not want to be together with his son, but rather the purpose of the concealment is to awaken within the son a desire and yearning to find his father. After all, when the son is constantly in the presence of his father, his desire to be with his father is not revealed, for "continuous pleasure is not pleasure." There arises a situation, however, when the son ceases searching for the Father. He claims that "the signs of our redemption we have not seen, and there is none among us who know how long” (Psalms 74:9). He, therefore, concludes that G-d must have forsaken us and he loses hope and discontinues his search for G-d. When the Father sees that the son is no longer seeking him, then the exile truly begins. As long as the son is searching for the Father, this constitutes a preparation, a beginning, and a spark of the redemption -- for the search for Redemption is what is occupying the son. Therefore we must increase in light, and not just any light, but specifically the light of simcha (joyousness). Since simcha "breaks all boundaries and limitations," it breaks through the person's limitations, the limitations of this world, and the limitations imposed by this dreadful darkness. Union, or exile? We live on the verge of eternity, and every moment brings a new opportunity to choose. Jesus captured the universal law in this way: “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled” (Matthew 5:6). Those who yearn for spiritual unfoldment and growth in their connection with God will attain it, as long as they continue to be focused on satisfying this compelling hunger rather than squandering the opportunity by falling into distractions. Emmet Fox (1886-1951) summarizes this beatitude: provided we are truly wholehearted in our efforts, provided, that is to say, that we really are hungering and thirsting for righteousness, then, at last, we shall surely be filled. It could not happen that a wholehearted search for truth and righteousness, if persevered in, should not be crowned with success. God is not mocked, nor does He mock his children.

Longing for Belonging: Pilgrimage of Transformation

Psychology & Counseling

The focus in psychology and psychotherapy for most of the twentieth century was on repairing the negatives of symptoms, traumas, disorders and deficits. Then around the turn of the century a refreshing movement began to gain credibility: Positive psychology and positive psychotherapy. Positive psychotherapy contrasts with standard therapeutic interventions for symptoms of mental or emotional dysfunction by increasing positive emotion, engagement, character strengths, and meaning rather than directly targeting negative symptoms. This developing trend is a direct descendent of the humanistic psychology movement and transpersonal psychology which evolved in the second half of the twentieth century. A further development in this continuum adds the dimension of adult development for optimal functioning into as yet unrealized potential: life coaching. Coaching hypnosis is the deliberate use of hypnotic strategies and principles as an adjunct to accepted coaching process. The inclusion of hypnosis, NLP techniques, and hypnotic strategies and principles in coaching is not only appropriate but highly effective. We will document some of the neuroscience reasons for this. Hypnosis creates a state of dual effect: relaxation yet responsiveness. The conscious mind is calmed, enabling access to the unconscious mind - 'trance logic' - a way of reasoning that does not follow the rules of 'normal' logical processes. Through this mechanism, an individual may have experiences and interpret them in ways that transcend their conscious rational belief system, opening new perspectives and expanded horizons of what is possible. Hypnosis: a new dimension in coaching.

From Therapy to Life Mastery: Coaching as a Natural Next Step from Hypnotherapy

Abraham Maslow discovered a natural evolution of adult development, moving through meeting increasingly subtle human needs to self-transcendence and ego surrender. One’s ego surrenders by quieting, recognizing itself to be a sibling to other aspects of the psyche rather than a parent or an overlord, and acknowledging the rightful leadership of the ultimate organizing principle within, the Transpersonal Self. The quieting can follow the course of balance, seeking a “quiet-enough ego”, or of growth, seeking an “ever-quieter ego.” Either choice brings increasing tranquility amidst the challenges of life in today’s world because, paradoxically, an experience of ego surrender and of letting go increases an individual’s internal locus of control, the deep knowing that what happens to them is a consequence of their own actions. Transpersonal Psychology helps people by escorting them through the layers of their personal work: repairing damage done by early abuse and neglect, becoming accountable for one’s own shadow, meeting and befriending the archetypal inhabitants of one’s unconscious, and developing one’s optimal functioning to fulfill one’s destiny. Progress all the way to your highest potential, to the higher stages of ego development, what Abraham Maslow called “transcending self-actualization” and what Carl Jung called “individuation.” Transpersonal self-actualization is opening our visionary potential, clearing away the blocks that have kept us from seeing our own true light. Our shadows provide sanctuary for our fears, but also point the way to our greatest strengths. Create a vision for the future, and develop strategies for achieving that vision. An expanded worldview propels you to higher levels of meaning, life purpose, and identity - your real, true identity. Develop mindfulness, a witness perspective, taoistic receptivity, transcendence through humility, resilience and serenity. Experience the higher stages of ego development - “transcending self-actualization” or “individuation”.

Self-transcendence and Ego Surrender: A Quiet-enough Ego or an Ever-quieter Ego