1st Edition

War Trauma and Its Wake Expanding the Circle of Healing

    Decades after Charles Figley’s landmark Trauma and Its Wake was published, our understanding of trauma has grown and deepened, but we still face considerable challenges when treating trauma survivors. This is especially the case for professionals who work with veterans and active-duty military personnel. War Trauma and Its Wake, then, is a vital book. The editors—one a Vietnam veteran who wrote the overview chapter on treatment for Trauma and Its Wake, the other an Army Reserve psychologist with four deployments—have produced a book that addresses both the specific needs of particular warrior communities as well as wider issues such as battlemind, guilt, suicide, and much, much more. The editors’ and contributors’ deep understanding of the issues that warriors face makes War Trauma and Its Wake a crucial book for understanding the military experience, and the lessons contained in its pages are essential for anyone committed to healing war trauma.

    Figley, Foreword. Scurfield, Platoni, An Expanding Circle of Healing: Warriors and Civilians Impacted by War. Scurfield, Platoni, Myths and Realities about War, Its Impact, and Healing. Part I: Warriors Impacted by War. Rabb, Rasmussen, Citizens/Warriors: Challenges Facing U.S. Army Reserve Soldiers and Their Families. Courage, Army National Guard Warriors: A Part-Time Job Becomes a Full-Time Life. Wilmot, Women Warriors: From Making Milestones in the Military to Community Reintegration. Brock, Passey, The Canadian Military and Veteran Experience. Part II: Special Populations of Wounded Warriors. Rigg. Traumatic Brain Injury and Post Traumatic Stress: The "Signature Wounds" of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars. Lawrence, Physically Wounded and Injured Warriors and Their Families: The Long Journey Home. Jensen, Military Suicidality and Principles to Consider in Prevention. Rasmussen, Zaglifa, Military Sexual Trauma. Simerly, Veterans Involved With the Criminal Justice System: Clinical Issues, Strategies, and Interventions. Part III: Civilian Populations Impacted by War. Dawoody, Iraqi Civilians and the Recycling of Trauma. Badkhen, Afghan Civilians: Surviving Trauma in a Failed State. Part IV: Military and Resiliency Initiatives. Hallman, Pischke, U.S. Army Combat and Operational Stress Control: From Battlemind to Resiliency, Debriefings, and Traumatic Event Management. Reyes, Enhancing Resiliency Through Creative Outdoor/Adventure and Community-Based Programs. Morley, Anderson, O’Hara, ArtReach: Project America and Other Innovative Models in Civilian-Military Partnering. Purinton, Military Chaplains’ Roles in Healing: "Being Here and There." Medina, Afterword: A Surviving Spouse Speaks. Epilogue.

    Biography

    Raymond Monsour Scurfield, DSW, LCSW is a Vietnam veteran, a professor emeritus of social work, and a former director of the Katrina Research Center at the University of Southern Mississippi–Gulf Coast.

    Katherine Theresa Platoni, PsyD, is a colonel in the Medical Service Corps of the United States Army Reserve and Army Reserve Psychology Consultant to the Chief in the Medical Service Corps.

    "Drs. Scurfield and Platoni, veterans of both past and current wars respectively, bring together an extraordinary collection of chapters that address the full spectrum of traumatic stressors and stress reactions associated with war. War Trauma and Its Wake should become required reading for practitioners who care about caring for warriors, their families, and civilian survivors."

    —Charles R. Figley, PhD, the Paul Henry Kurzweg Distinguished Chair in Disaster Mental Health at Tulane University and author of Trauma and Its Wake

    "War Trauma and Its Wake delivers its powerful payload on time and on target. Just as war fighters prepare for engagement by studying their tactics, techniques, and procedures, this authoritative, accurate, and well-written resource informs and changes the way mental-health practitioners and others think about assessing, treating, and healing service members and veterans. The authors (primarily Army Reserve and active-duty service members) offer a 'boots-on-the-ground' perspective that both recognizes the benefits and risks of serving and honors those service members who do so."

    —Captain Robert Koffman, MD, MPH, Navy psychiatrist (OIF/OEF)

    "[There] is much of value here. The book's 18 chapters look at the effect of war on different categories of serving personnel and veterans... a number of chapters discuss the various ways in which resilience can be built or restored, through formal programmes, through arts based and other initiatives and through the spiritual dimension."

    -Professor Jaime Hacker Hughes, The Journal of Critical Pscyhology, Counselling and Psychotherapy