Bruce D. Perry

This recorded book joins my growing list of titles dealing with trauma, and in particular childhood trauma. Dr. Perry's pioneering work as a psychiatrist serving children—those who lived through the horrors of Waco, Texas, a little girl who witnessed the murder of her mother, the title story, and a variety of others—left me hopeful for this field of care and thankful for those who pursue it with such compassion and diligence.

Learning the basics of the brain's developmental stages and how trauma impacts these is one of my take-aways. Perry also emphasizes the healing found in accessible practices such as predictable patterned routine, patience, and value in the number and quality of relationships a child establishes.

I found the reader's voice slightly distracting with occasional problematic pronunciation, but the overall content made it worthwhile listening.… (mehr)

I've read this twice, years apart, in two different editions. As part of an undergrad psych course I read the original book, and more recently for a graduate counseling course I read the new, expanded edition. I've also had the opportunitiy to hear Dr. Perry lecture in person and talk to him a bit. Both editions are excellent, with the more recent one literally just containing updates to the individual cases to account for the large span of time between editions, so pick up the new one.
Dr. Perry is one of the greatest living therapists/psychiatrists working with highly traumatized children. For those familiar with his work overall, a lot of the discourse here is going to be familiar to the point of repetitiveness, but if you're just getting into the field there's a really low barrier to entry here as its written to be accessible to a lay audience. Think of it as something between anecdotal stories and case studies involving the application of his theories and techniques across his career.
While written to be accessible to the lay person, this is really looking at highly traumatized individuals mostly from backgrounds of unbelievable abuse. Unless you or a loved one is struggling with a traumatic background, or you work with those who have/work in education or human services, it feels a little exploitive/distasteful to read this just for 'fun'. Though I can definitely see some material here for those interested in or working in fields related to True Crime or cults, as there are stories involving children from groups such as the Branch Dividians. Similarly, those who may have had a very violent/traumatic childhood may want to just assume the whole book has a big trigger warning label on it.
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