Cultural Competence in Trauma Therapy: Beyond the Flashback

Brown has been in practice as a clinician and forensic psychologist in Seattle since 1979, and has taught at Southern Illinois U., the U. of Washington, and the Washington School of Professional Psychology. Drawing on her extensive clinical experience and recent research, she offers an introductory examination of how psychotherapists can develop their capacity to deliver culturally competent treatment to survivors of trauma. After discussing culturally competent models of trauma treatment, she looks at a variety of factors in the experience of and recovery from trauma exposure--age, gender, ethnicity, social class, sexual orientation, disability, displacement, health, and spirituality--and then discusses strategies for engaging and supporting family, friends, and communities of trauma survivors both inside of and collateral to the therapy process, as well as vicarious traumatization and its effects on psychotherapists. Annotation c2008 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)