Part I Facing the dark shadow - the ''other'' world of the survivors' suffering: looking inside ourselves and our personal relationship to extreme trauma; the complexity of trauma; issues in delayed responses to trauma; the context of trauma; the severity of trauma; the victim and the perpetrator; the transmission of trauma; is it ever too late to respond to trauma? Part II Learning from the survivors about how to respond to atrocity: working with the effects of extreme trauma; rethinking our therapeutic approaches; mutual support as a therapeutic medium; hearing the stories of survivors. Part III Translating trauma into a meaningful therapeutic language: a practical usable working model; case studies; translating the concepts of trauma into a meaningful therapeutic language; developing services for the survivors of the Nazi Holocaust. Part IV Opening the door between the two worlds. Part V ''A house next door to trauma'' - the legacy of Holocaust survivors.
This work presents a practical guide to working with people who have lived through war trauma. It explores the challenges caring professionals face in supporting this group, and develops a working model that takes into account the therapist's own response to the trauma, and how this impacts on the therapeutic relationship. Using her work with survivors of the Nazi Holocaust and with refugees from Bosnia, and drawing on the experiences of Rwanda and Kosovo, Judith Hassan provides a hopeful guide to the positive potential of therapeutic work in this area.