The Body in Mind (#285, 30 min.)
Wounds That Won’t Heal (#274, 30 min.)
Numbing the Pain (#255, 30 min.)
It’s Not About the Food (#268, 30 min.)
Counting the Cost (#245, 30 min.)
Understanding Self Injury (#240, 30 min.)
Success Stories (#262, 30 min.)
True/Not True (#236, 30 min.)

These seven programs are intended for adult survivors of child abuse, their families and friends, clients in therapy, and general audiences. Condensed from our clinical training series, these 30-minute videos contain a greater proportion of interviews with adult survivors of child abuse, as well as therapist discussion related to client issues.

Purchase price: $39.50 for one DVD
$35 each for more than one DVD
$240 for the set of eight DVDs (save $40)
TO ORDER phone or fax 800-345-5530

The Body in Mind:
Healing Trauma’s Lasting Imprint

"All the chemicals that were secreted originally to ensure your safety continue to get secreted, but because the situation is over, all these actions that your brain and body are programmed to do have nowhere to go, and you start reacting as if you were back there at the trauma...you keep having physical reactions that have nowhere to go, that are inappropriate for the current time."– Bessel van der Kolk, MD

Many therapists have found that working with clients to identify where and how they hold trauma in their body, and helping them to release it, can help trauma survivors to befriend their body. This program discusses and shows examples of various somatic approaches, including yoga, model mugging, and play therapy.

Wounds That Won’t Heal:
The Adverse Childhood Experiences Study

"Two of us [siblings] are very overweight. Two of us are on medication for depression. Two of us are on blood pressure medication. My brother…has now just found out that he has diabetes. I mean, these are hugely expensive problems, that I think are directly related to what happened to us as kids"– Molly Fisk

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), though well concealed, are unexpectedly common, and have a profound effect on adult health. Three men and five women, adult survivors of ACEs, describe their experiences and the effects later in life. Condensed from The ACE Study, released 2005.

Numbing the Pain:
Substance Abuse and Psychological Trauma

"I just knew that a lot of things I thought about, if I took drugs and alcohol, it’d numb it, or make it go away for a period of time. But when I came back down, it was still there. It was still there." – Dave Gratton

This program explores the functions of substance abuse in trauma survivors’ lives, and the difficulties faced in therapy by clients with both problems. Two men who experienced combat trauma, and two women who are adult survivors of child abuse, discuss their work in overcoming these effects. Condensed from Trauma and Substance Abuse, released 1998.

It’s Not About the Food:
Eating Disorders and Childhood Trauma

"What my eating disorder did for me, which is why I held onto it for so many years, was that I really feel like it just numbed all the feelings that I was experiencing inside…I kept them internally and just let them build up. The purging for me was a huge release of those emotions. It was almost like a drug."– former patient

Eating disorders serve many functions in the lives of trauma survivors. Seven women, adult survivors of traumatic experiences, describe the challenges and benefits of therapy that addresses trauma and eating disorders in an integrated way. Condensed from Trauma and Eating Disorders, released 2003.

Counting the Cost:
The Lasting Impact of Childhood Trauma

"People think that because it’s sexual it just has to do with your body. And it does have to do with your body, of course, and your sexuality, but it…messed up my head about what is real and what isn’t real."– Leona Tockey

This video examines the complex effects of severe childhood trauma, including dissociation, somatic symptoms, and difficulties in relationships. Two women and one man, adult survivors of child abuse, and a woman who survived severe childhood illness, describe how these experiences affected their lives. Condensed from Severe Early Trauma, released 1995.

Understanding Self Injury

"It’s a humiliating state to be in, because it feels very much out of control. I literally could not get it under control for about a year of my life."– June Covington

This video discusses the various forms of self injury, and its function as tension reduction, punishment, trauma reenactment, and rage expression. Three women who are adult survivors of child abuse describe their experience of and recovery from self-injuring behaviors. Condensed from Self Injury, released 1994.

Success Stories:
Healing from Childhood Trauma

"There was some point at which I found myself being able to not have to identify with my feelings…they were a separate entity from me. And I had these feelings and then they flowed through me and they were gone."– Fran Henry

Psychotherapy can make an enormous positive difference in the lives of trauma survivors. Four women and one man, adult survivors of child abuse, describe the challenges they faced and the goals they achieved during the course of treatment. Condensed from Successful Trauma Therapies, released 2000.

True/Not True:
When Memories Can Be Trusted

"I wasn’t crazy, I wasn’t thinking strange thoughts, I didn’t have some unusual biochemical disorder…all of the different symptoms were coming from the trauma that I had experienced."– Barb Jackson

This program explores how dissociation can serve as a defense against overwhelming stress, how the mind processes and stores traumatic events, and how such events can come into conscious awareness years after they occur. One woman and two men, adult survivors of child abuse, describe their experiences of dissociation and memory retrieval. Condensed from Trauma and Memory, released 1993.