This book was a game-changer for me. Essentially, the author has discovered that recovery from trauma is directly related to the story you tell yourself about yourself. When you think about your past, are you a victim or someone who overcame obstacles? When you think about your fututre, are you hopeful or afraid? And when you think about today, do you think about what you did wrong or so you ask yourself, “what did I do today that only I could have done?”
The approach laid out here has been shown to reduce or eliminate PTSD from soldiers within two weeks. As an example, if a young man is suffering because his best friend was killed by an IED, he will have that young man go back to that terrible memory and then make a point of thinking about the good times he had with that friend – playing cards, laughing, etc. Over time, the bad memory is paired with a good one, which reduces the traumatic impact of the bad memory.