Collective Trauma, Collective Healing: Promoting Community Resilience in the Aftermath of Disaster

Reviews and Endorsements

"Jack Saul shows professionals how to build community programs that employ primordial human tactics to forge increased community resilience. This book has that rare ability to produce a paradigm shift in how we heal traumatized communities. It’s original and intellectually exciting. I bet it becomes a classic." - Helen Fisher|, PhD, research professor in the department of anthropology at Rutgers University.

"Collective Trauma, Collective Healing is essential reading for all clinical and community-based professionals working with survivors of mass trauma. In contrast to the individualistic, symptom-focused approach of most mental health services, this practice framework addresses the widespread impact of major disasters in families and communities and taps their strengths and resources for recovery and resilience. In this valuable guide, Dr. Saul, an internationally recognized leader at the forefront of the field, draws on his extensive experience and creative initiatives to inform and inspire our response to trauma and tragedy by bringing out the best in families and their communities." - Froma Walsh, PhD, codirector at the Chicago Center for Family Health, Firestone Professor Emerita at the University of Chicago, and author of Strengthening Family Resilience

"This book… is a refreshing break from overly concrete prescriptions that ignore cultural and individual differences and that tend to neglect the healing power of community and collective action." - Bessel van der Kolk, MD, professor of psychiatry at Boston University School of Medicine and medical director of the Trauma Center.

"…Saul shows us the effort and endurance necessary to reconstruct life and restore sanity in societies that have experienced chaos. It is a powerful testimony." - Salvador Minuchin, MD, founder of the Minuchin Family Center and author of Families and Family Therapy

"With compassion and insight, Jack Saul shares his own journey through the aftermath of September 11th as witness, participant, and healer, chronicling the power of collective narrative to transform traumatic experience into communal recovery." - Alice Greenwald, director of the National September 11 Memorial and Museum.