John N. Briere, PhD, is Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Psychology at the Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, where he consults and teaches in the ER, burn unit, and inpatient psychiatry, and Center Director of the USC Adolescent Trauma Training Center’s National Child Traumatic Stress Network. A past president of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, he is recipient of the Robert S. Laufer Memorial Award for Scientific Achievement from ISTSS, and the Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Science of Trauma Psychology from the American Psychological Association’s Division 56, and has been designated Highly Cited Researcher (Behavioral Sciences) by the Institute for Scientific Information. He is author of a number of books, articles, and psychological tests in the areas of trauma and interpersonal violence, and has a long-standing interest in the clinical applications of meditation, mindfulness, and compassion. His website is johnbriere.com.
I found this both remarkably informative (the book provides an excellent synthesis of current literature on child abuse research) and liberating when thinking about past and present clients. Briere has a special talent for making sense of the internal experience of child abuse survivors... An excellent book which should be on the bookshelf of counsellors or therapists working with adolescents or adults' - Counselling and Psychotherapy, The Journal of the British Association for Counselling and Psychothreapy This volume considers the unique and overlapping long-term effects of all major forms of child maltreatment. The author integrates information on seven types of child abuse and neglect - ranging from sexual and physical abuse to mistreatment by alcoholic or drug-addicted parents - and outlines the complex ways in which abuse impacts on later psychosocial functioning. Briere reframes traditional notions of psychopathology and describes treatment approaches to abuse-related Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, interpersonal dysfunction, self-destructive behaviour, impaired self-reference and borderline personality disorder. Child Abuse Trauma will be an invaluable resource for abuse specialists and for general therapists who want to understand the connection between many forms of psychological distress and the lasting impacts of child maltreatment.
