The Heart of Trauma: Healing the Embodied Brain in the Context of Relationships

Bonnie Badenoch

May 2020 · Tantor Media Inc · Narrated by Leslie Howard

About this audiobook

Images and sounds of war, natural disasters, and human-made devastation explicitly surround us and implicitly leave their imprint in our muscles, our belly and heart, our nervous systems, and the brains in our skulls. We each experience more digital data than we are capable of processing in a day, and this is leading to a loss of empathy and human contact. This loss of leisurely, sustained, face-to-face connection is making true presence a rare experience for many of us, and is neurally ingraining fast pace and split attention as the norm. Yet despite all of this, the ability to offer the safe sanctuary of presence is central to effective clinical treatment of trauma and indeed to all of therapeutic practice. It is our challenge to remain present within our culture, Badenoch argues, no matter how difficult this might be. The first part of The Heart of Trauma provides listeners with an extended understanding of the ways in which our physical bodies are implicated in our conscious and non-conscious experience. Badenoch then delves even deeper into the clinical implications of moving through the world. She presents a strong, scientifically grounded case for doing the work of opening to hemispheric balance and relational deepening.

About the author

Bonnie Badenoch is a marriage and family therapist, mentor, and speaker. She is executive director of the nonprofit Nurturing the Heart with the Brain in Mind in Vancouver, Washington, offering support to those in the healthcare professions through year-long immersion trainings in interpersonal neurobiology.

Leslie Howard is a talented audiobook narrator with a background in intensive yoga study, metaphysics, and fiber arts. She brings creativity, empathy, and a lifelong love of performance to her work.

Stephen W. Porges is distinguished university scientist at Indiana University, where he directs the Trauma Research Center within the Kinsey Institute. He is the author of Clinical Applications of the Polyvagal Theory and The Polyvagal Theory.