On Overcoming Trauma and the Process of Becoming

We recommend a book that delighted us! Not only with its erudition and academic breadth, but above all with its attitude of respect and immense compassion for the suffering of those who have experienced trauma. Tomasz Jasiński—a translator and Jungian psychoanalyst—wrote about it: There has never been such a publication on our market. Ursula Wirtz has written a book that, without risk of exaggeration, can be called epic.

The author is a lecturer, analyst, and supervisor at the International School of Analytical Psychology in Zurich; she studied philosophy, literature, linguistics, and clinical psychology; she specializes in psychotraumatology and psychotherapy, especially in approaches that combine the psychological and spiritual dimensions.

And here is an excerpt from the book "Trauma and Beyond: The Mystery of Transformation": "Transformation is the central theme of trauma therapy. It is associated with a change of form, metamorphosis, a movement from disorder to order, with changes in psychological structure and changes in the interaction between therapist and patient. It is based on the belief that even in the darkest place of nigredo, people still experience a continuous process of becoming, and psychic energies are in a state of constant flow. Our susceptibility to emerging processes and our ability to change thinking and behavior are owed to the brain's plasticity and the mind's basic regulatory abilities. The mind and brain have built-in flexibility that serves to adapt to changes in the external environment. Trauma therapy uses this to transform trauma-induced behavioral patterns into more productive ways of relating to oneself and the world."

Working with such patterns begins with noticing them, including those a family passes down through generations. A family genogram can help map them out.