First, you'll learn to accept the pain, sadness, and anxiety that can arise in connection to your trauma. By exploring mindfulness techniques, you'll be able to remain present with painful feeings and stop avoiding the thoughts and situations that bring them up. Instead of focusing on the past, you'll clarify what you want your life to be about right now and in the future. With your values clearly in mind, commit to actions that will express them in your life-guided by the powerful tools you'll find in this book.
Victoria M. Follette, PhD, is a foundation professor at the University of Nevada, Reno, and a clinical scientist specializing in interpersonal violence and body image problems.
Jacqueline Pistorello, PhD, is a psychologist with Counseling Services at University of Nevada, Reno (UNR). She earned her doctorate in clinical psychology at UNR and completed her clinical internship at Brown University Consortium. She specializes in two behavioral approaches, acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) and dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), both of which have been gaining national and international acclaim. She has pioneered the conduct of these approaches to college counseling center settings, and currently has a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) to adapt DBT to college students and is writing another grant to implement ACT in the prevention of mental health problems among college students. In collaboration with Victoria Follette, she has been applying ACT and ACT-informed approaches to the treatment of trauma survivors, particularly child sexual abuse survivors, since 1989.
Afterword writer Steven C. Hayes, PhD, is University of Nevada Foundation Professor of Psychology at the University of Nevada, Reno, and author of numerous books, including Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Relational Frame Theory, and Get Out of Your Mind and Into Your Life, as well as hundred of articles and book chapters on related subjects.