There is a point in our lives when we seem to stand in the center of our own decision about who we are and how we want to be. It comes after enough of the past pain, resentment and grief have been spent, enough deep holes and yearnings have been filled, enough baggage from the past has been dealt with. Now that we've restored ourselves to a good enough status, we're ready to meet life more or less as it is happening.

At this point we need to recognize which attitudes and behavior patterns will serve us throughout the rest of our lives and which need to be let go. Can the lives we have envisioned for ourselves flourish under the weight of carried resentment from the past? What does it cost us in terms of happiness and well-being to hang on to the blame and hurt?

Picking up right at the point where Janet Woititz's 1990 hit book Adult Children of Alcoholics left off, clinical psychologist Tian Dayton's latest contribution contains fresh perspectives and new analysis on how to gain back emotional stability after growing up with the trauma of addiction, abuse, and dysfunction. Dr. Dayton accomplishes this by presenting and explaining the latest research in neuropsychology and the role trauma plays on chemically altering the brain. With compassion and clear explanations and her own personal journey, Dayton teaches readers how to undo the neuropsychological damage of trauma to rewire the brain and reverse the negative effects trauma has on our future relationships and behaviors to gain emotional sobriety.

In Emotional Sobriety, Dr. Dayton teaches readers:

• How to understand the mind/body relationship of addiction and relationship trauma
• How to rewire your brain to undo the negative effects trauma has on personal, career, and romantic relationships

• How changing the way one lives and perceives adult relationships can change the way one thinks and feels and vice versa

Recovery--whether from addictive or compulsive behaviors, codependency, childhood trauma, dysfunction, or loss--is not an event to be conquered, but an ongoing process of healing and self-discovery. It requires patience, perseverance, and self-awareness. Putting one foot in front of the other, moment-by-moment and day-by-day, builds courage, self-esteem, and resilience. A key component of staying on the right path is guidance from those who have walked it before. One Foot in Front of the Other gives readers a hand to hold as they face the challenges of living and provides a wellspring of knowledge from which to draw inspiration, and hope.

Nationally renowned trauma and recovery expert Dr. Tian Dayton gives readers all the tools they will need on their journey of recovery, just as she has for countless of her own patients. Written in first-person format, each page speaks intimately to readers, offering straightforward and user-friendly wisdom through inspired readings. This powerful little book will help readers examine their lives and recapture feelings of gratitude and positivity opening to the grace of self-renewal.

In Sociometrics, Tian Dayton masterfully integrates principles of group dynamics and psychodrama therapies with insights into bodily states and feelings gained from contemporary neuroscience. Sociometrics infuses therapeutic principles in an intuitive and functional program that shifts the agent of healing from the therapist to the group. We learn that through sociometrics, the threads of healing are woven as the client experiences a reconnection with the inner self and a connection with others.--Stephen W. Porges, PhD, Distinguished University Scientist, Indiana University; Professor of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina; creator of the Polyvagal Theory

Embodied, relational processes designed to add experiential therapy into addiction treatment centers, IOPs, and one-to-one or group therapy settings.

Relational trauma can cause a loss of connection with the self and impact our ability to engage comfortably in intimate connection with others. Feeling misread, neglected, or abused by the people we want most to be loved by is a traumatizing experience that is cumulative. When these relational wounds remain unseen and unresolved, they can become the pain pump fueling self-medicating and dysfunctional behaviors that silently pass down through generations.

Sociometrics are embodied, research-based processes that educate clients about trauma, grief, and resilience as they offer in-the-moment, experiential relational trauma repair. Created by Dr. Tian Dayton to fit easily into outpatient programs, clinics, and one-to-one settings, sociometrics help to take the guesswork out of incorporating experiential therapy into treatment. They give therapists a clear process that builds momentum for deep change and personal growth. Harnessing the therapeutic power of the group, they teach skills of emotional literacy and self- and co-regulation.

The combination of sociometrics and simple role plays allow the body, as well as the mind, to find a voice. They draw on the theory base of psychodrama and sociometry, the first forms of mind/body, experiential therapy created by the father of group therapy, Jacob Levy Moreno.

For the past decade, author Tian Dayton has been researching trauma and addiction, and how psychodrama (or sociometry group psychotherapy) can be used in their treatment. Since trauma responses are stored in the body, a method of therapy that engages the body through role play can be more effective in accessing the full complement of trauma-related memories.

This latest book identifies the interconnection of trauma and addictive behavior, and shows why they can become an unending cycle. Emotional and psychological pain so often lead to self-medicating, which leads to more pain, and inevitably more self-medicating, and so on--ad infinitum. This groundbreaking book offers readers effective ways to work through their traumas in order to heal their addictions and their predilection toward what clinicians call self-medicating (the abuse of substances alcohol, drugs, food], activities work, sex, gambling, etc.] and/or possessions money, material things].) Readers caught up in the endless cycle of trauma and addiction will permanently transform their lives by reading this book.

Therapists treating patients for whom no other avenue of therapy has proved effective will find that this book offers practical, lasting solutions. Case studies and examples of this behavioral phenomenon will illustrate the connection, helping readers understand its dynamics, recognize their own situations and realize that they are not alone in experiencing this syndrome. The author deftly combines the longstanding trauma theories of Van der Kolk, Herman, Bowlby, Krystal and others with her own experiential methods using psychodrama, sociometry and group therapy in the treatment of addiction and posttraumatic stress disorder. While designed to be useful to therapists, this book will also be accessible to trade readers. It includes comprehensive references, as well as a complete index.

Psychodrama is one of the most effective treatments of PTSD and developmental trauma that I am familiar with, and Tian Dayton has written a terrific manual to serve as our guide.

- Bessel van der Kolk, MD, professor of psychiatry at Boston University School of Medicine, president of the Trauma Research Foundation, and author of the #1 New York Times bestseller The Body Keeps the Score

In this treatment guide, Tian Dayton has provided us with an unparalleled approach for treating relational trauma. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is treating the pain of unhealed attachment wounds.

- Peter Levine, PhD, developer of Somatic Experiencing(R) and best-selling author of Waking the Tiger

Help clients respond to stress as the adults they are today, not the wounded children they once were.

Because early attachment ruptures undermine trust and fuel disconnection, adult children of relational trauma often resist the very vehicles that would help them heal - feeling, naming, and sharing the contents of their inner world with another human being.

In Treating Adult Children of Relational Trauma, world-renowned psychologist, author, and psychodramatist Dr. Tian Dayton expertly weaves together the very best of what works in psychodrama, sociometrics, and addictions treatment to create her unique, experiential approach to treating the ever-nuanced impact of early relational trauma. Grounded in the principles of interpersonal neurobiology, polyvagal theory, and somatic experiencing, this treatment guide includes 85 structured interventions that innately warm up the limbic system and allow space for healing in real time. Using Dr. Dayton's easy-to-follow, step-by-step approach, clinicians can help clients:

- Repair, rather than reenact, painful relational trauma dynamics in their lives

- Experience the safety of healing through connection, movement, and engagement with others

- Feel empowered to become active shareholders in their own recovery

More than just a book full of the latest information, this is a dynamic, interactive, and personalized journey of recovery for those impacted by adverse childhood experiences (ACES). Finally, they can put their past behind them where it belongs!

For those who have grown up in a family with addiction, mental illness, or other adverse childhood experiences (ACES), the heartache and pain doesn't end when they grow up and leave home. The legacy can last a lifetime and spread to generations unseen, as author Janet Wotitiz first showed readers in the groundbreaking Adult Children of Alcoholics. In The ACoA Trauma Syndrome Dr. Tian Dayton picked up where Dr. Woititz left off, filling in the decades of research that tell us why pain from yesterday recreates itself over and over again in our today. In The Soulful Journey of Recovery, Dr. Dayton gives us the how.

There is a journey of recovery that you can start today. Simple, elegantly written and researched, poignant, penetrating, and on point, Dr. Dayton will move with you through the confusion, pain, and anger you may carry in secrecy and silence. Through engaging and enlightening exercises, you will give voice to hidden wounds and space to your innermost emotions and thoughts. Online links will also offer guided meditations, film clips and other tools to enhance the work you do in the book. You will learn what happened to you growing up with dysfunction and you will learn how to deal with it in the present. You will discover that recovery is a self-affirming life adventure, and the kindest and best thing you can do for yourself and future generations. Some books can change your life. This is one of them.

Growing up in a home where there is addiction or relationship trauma puts a child at great risk for long-term, post-traumatic stress effects that adversely compromise adult relationships. Bestselling author, psychologist, and psychodramatist Tian Dayton examines this trauma through an exploration of the way the brain and body process frightening or painful emotions and experiences in childhood, and she shows how these traumas can become catalysts for unhealthy, self-medicating behaviors including drug and alcohol abuse, food issues, and sex, gambling, and shopping addictions.

Through Dr. Dayton's insightful analysis and thoughtful examination, Adult Children of Alcoholics will learn how and why the pain they experienced in childhood plays out in their adult partnering and parenting, and they will learn how to restore health and happiness through their resilience.

Mothers will never have a job more important than raising our children to be healthy and spiritually alive. But how do we nurture our children's emotions the way we nurture their intellects? In this tender and wise book, Dr. Tian Dayton-familiar to millions of readers from her appearances on Montel, Geraldo, John Walsh, MSNBC, NBC, and CNN-discusses the latest techniques for nourishing sound emotional development in our children. By weaving together everyday experiences and easy to understand explanations of scientific research, Dr. Dayton highlights the importance of personal authenticity. Children become strong and develop confidence when they can say what they feel and feel what they say. Dayton helps mothers take up the opportunity to heal their own childhood issues and grow emotionally, intellectually, and spiritually.