Mary's Bookshelf
The following books have been instrumental to me understanding my child's stuck & frozen behavior patterns and ensuing panic disorder being housebound for 9 years. Much of this work has been discovered in the 1970s and mostly still has not made it into mainstream medical & mental health clinical practice. This work continues to evolve & develop in exciting ways. It pains me greatly that many people continue to suffer and decline without access to these more effective therapies, I believe this work is key to unlocking your loved ones' condition and it is my life's mission to bring this work to you and the families that are struggling to help their loved ones.
- Mary Darud -
The Polyvagal Theory
This book and the smaller pocket guide are highly technical books discussing as a research scientist and some of the discoveries he has made in the areas of the autonomic nervous system and psycho-physiology. Stephan Porges' work also was involved in discovering the quantifying heart rate variability when he was studying infant mortality as a graduate student in 1966.
In an Unspoken Voice
Unraveling trauma in the body, brain, and mind - a revolution in treatment. This book was instrumental in describing how a person's nervous system becomes stuck in an adaptive fear response pattern when they encounter a situation in which they can't flee and they can't fight, and the fear response leads to immobility or collapse. Peter Levine is a psychologist and biophysicist.
The Revolutionary Trauma Release Process
This book describes some of the different instances in which the body can become stuck in a trauma response pattern, and widening the understanding that trauma is in the response and not in the event. Dr. Berceli worked to create a process a person could do on their own if they did not have access to Western medicine. The book shows a person how to do the TRE®.
The Body Remembers
A good introduction to the psychophysiology of trauma.
My favorite part of this book is the chart on the Autonomic System: Precision Regulation and what to look for in the various states of dysregulation and the Window of Affect Tolerance & Integration. When you really understand these states of the autonomic nervous system you will finally understand your loved one's behavior, and they don't choose this behavior, and no amount of punishment, discipline, threats, rewards, can change these behaviors.
8 Keys to Brain-Body Balance
PTSD told from a Neurologist's perspective.
This book helped me to understand how the brain gets stuck in a trauma pattern feedback loop. How an undischarged trauma can have the brainstem stuck in a threat state that is continually looking for a threat and how new things can be a threat and how it spreads and takes over a person's life.
Their condition & functioning continues to deteriorate. Things someone use to be able to do they can no longer do, like go to the store, drive, or work.
