Victims of Cruelty: Somatic Psychotherapy in the Treatment of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

Rating:
Summary: Not for clients of the therapy
Review: I read "Victims of Cruelty" as both a client and a student of Somatic Experiencing™, at the recommendation of my SE therapist. Eckberg gives some clear and fascinating insights into the value of somatic therapies for sufferers of PTSD, with a particular emphasis on her own specialty, victims of political and other forms of torture. The explicit conclusions she draws are hopeful and uplifting. The implicit conclusion, however, is not.

As a student of the work, I found the book less technical than I would have hoped--it seems aimed at a lay audience, and yet the emphasis on fairly unusual and extreme forms of trauma makes it too specialized for general interest or "self-help." Eckberg mentions but does not elaborate on the specifics of her clinical methods.

As a client of the work, I found the book distressing and even frightening: one of Eckberg's most haunting and memorable client cases, and then Eckberg herself, developed cancer at the successful conclusion of trauma therapy, and both eventually died of it. The book, published after Eckberg's death, seems to say that a natural outgrowth of recovery from a lifetime of PTSD is to find peace and then die. This would NOT be a message I'd want to give clients struggling to recover from trauma.

"Victims of Cruelty," therefore, stands as an interesting narrative of one woman's journey as a trauma victim and a healer, but failed to teach me much as a healer and actually detracted from my work as a client.

Rating:
Summary: Not for clients of the therapy
Review: I read "Victims of Cruelty" as both a client and a student of Somatic Experiencing™, at the recommendation of my SE therapist. Eckberg gives some clear and fascinating insights into the value of somatic therapies for sufferers of PTSD, with a particular emphasis on her own specialty, victims of political and other forms of torture. The explicit conclusions she draws are hopeful and uplifting. The implicit conclusion, however, is not.

As a student of the work, I found the book less technical than I would have hoped--it seems aimed at a lay audience, and yet the emphasis on fairly unusual and extreme forms of trauma makes it too specialized for general interest or "self-help." Eckberg mentions but does not elaborate on the specifics of her clinical methods.

As a client of the work, I found the book distressing and even frightening: one of Eckberg's most haunting and memorable client cases, and then Eckberg herself, developed cancer at the successful conclusion of trauma therapy, and both eventually died of it. The book, published after Eckberg's death, seems to say that a natural outgrowth of recovery from a lifetime of PTSD is to find peace and then die. This would NOT be a message I'd want to give clients struggling to recover from trauma.

"Victims of Cruelty," therefore, stands as an interesting narrative of one woman's journey as a trauma victim and a healer, but failed to teach me much as a healer and actually detracted from my work as a client.

Rating:
Summary: great book, highly recommended
Review: This is the best book on PTSD I have read.
I found the spiritual and psychological insights uplifting. It is a powerful read.
As the previous critic stated, it is not a "technical" book with exact somatic therapy techniques listed.
I did not find it extremely upsetting that the Author and one of her most important clients had passed away, death is an inevitable part of life.
Although I appreciated how the Author explained her own experience of recovery -- this was at first overwhelming to me. It took longer to integrate thisfor me.

For This reason I would not necessarily recommend it to a recovering client of PTSD.

However, I think the examples she used to demonstrate her experience with clients were fine because although you might not relate to their exact situation this is helpful to distance yourself yet still be conscious of how tragedy can strike anyone.