Searching for Connection: An Exploration of Trauma, Culture, and Hope

"Searching for Connection: An Exploration of Trauma, Culture, and Hope" is author Karen Merriam's analysis of the process by which personal trauma is integrated by survivors. Through many examples of both personal accounts and case studies, Merriam arrives at both a common model of traumatic experience integration and the legacies of both individual and collective experiences of trauma. Parallels emerge between individual traumatic losses and larger, environmental traumatic losses in nature. Recovery from trauma, whether individual or collective, involves a growing awareness of the connectedness, or interdependence of everything and everyone. "Searching for Connection" draws on multiple sources for its compelling conclusions. In addition to Merriam's experience as a psychotherapist and a search and rescue worker, she refers to such works as Beck Weathers' 'Left for Dead', Mandela's 'Long Walk to Freedom', and Nathan Sharansky's 'Fear No Evil', as well as fiction films such as 'The Pawnbroker' and 'The Fisher King'. Like a "dream teacher", Merriam guides the reader through the stages of the process of trauma experience to the very edge of the void, to find the face of compassion, where the pieces come together, and where connection is found. "Searching for Connection" is an inspirational psychologically oriented treatise rather than just another self-help book and especially recommended for both personal reading lists and academic library reference collections.