Mindfulness and Meditation in Trauma Treatment: The Inner Resources for Stress Program

This complete therapist guide presents an evidence-based group program developed over two decades to support resilience and recovery in people who have experienced trauma.

Inner Resources for Stress (IR) weaves mindfulness, mantra repetition, and other meditative practices into nine structured yet flexible sessions. IR is a developmentally informed, culturally responsive approach grounded in cognitive-behavioral conceptualizations of trauma.

In a convenient large-size format, the book includes assessment guidelines, session agendas, scripts for meditation practices, and a reproducible session-by-session Participant Guide for clients. Purchasers get access to a companion website where they can download printable copies of the reproducible materials, as well as audio tracks of the guided practices.

Download File

Table of Contents

I. Background for Using Mindfulness and Meditation for Stress and Trauma

1. Mindfulness and Meditation: Modern Uses of an Ancient Practice
2. Mindfulness and Meditation for Stress and Trauma sample
3. Overview of Inner Resources for Stress
4. Session Structure and Process
5. Client Assessment and Match for Treatment

II. Inner Resources for Stress Therapist Guide

• Session 1. Introduction to Inner Resources for Stress
• Session 2. Attention Regulation: Body and Breath Awareness
• Session 3. Emotion Regulation: The Power of Letting Go
• Session 4. Cognitive Regulation: Verbally Mediated Breath Awareness
• Session 5. Awareness of Positive and Negative Emotions: Centering in the Heart
• Session 6. Active Self-Mastery: How to Release Tension
• Session 7. Mindfulness Skills in Action: Integrating Practice with Daily Life
• Session 8. Consolidating Treatment Gains and Keeping the Practice Going
• Session 9. Booster Session: Trajectory of Treatment Gains and Personal Practice

Appendix: Inner Resources for Stress Participant Guide

References

Index

Audio Downloads:

• Track 1. Guided Body Tour (30:00)
• Track 2. Complete Breath (30:00)
• Track 3. Hum Sah: Hearing the Sound and Watching the Still Points (30:00)
• Track 4. Tension Release and Self-Guided Meditation (30:00)
• Bonus Track 1. 1.5-Minute Breath-Focused Meditation—Easy! (1:50)
• Bonus Track 2. Body–Breath Awareness (5:00)
• Bonus Track 3. Breath Awareness and Letting Go (15:00)
• Bonus Track 4. Breath Awareness and Tension Release (15:00)
• Bonus Track 5. Hum Sah (10:00)

"This superb book will be of great practical value to clinicians treating trauma survivors. Free from jargon, the book clearly explains the evidence base and psychological processes that make mindfulness and related practices such as meditation and mantra so valuable to trauma treatment, recovery, and resilience. It provides a systematic, session-by-session explanation of the well-grounded IR program. Waelde's approach to proactively accommodating diverse client spiritual orientations is a valuable corrective and a much-needed model for a more culturally and spiritually inclusive mindfulness. Highly recommended for clinical practitioners, instructors, researchers, and students."
- Doug Oman, PhD, School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley

"Clear, thoughtful, well researched, and obviously based on years of in-depth clinical and meditative experience. Waelde offers clinicians of all levels an excellent step-by-step guide to utilizing mindfulness and related practices to help traumatized clients. Her approach is accessible, culturally sensitive, wise, and compassionate. Carefully laying out how to implement the 8-week IR program, the book provides rich, nuanced insights about trauma and meditative practices that also can inform other approaches to treatment. This book is an invaluable asset for any clinician hoping to integrate meditative practices into their work."
- Ronald D. Siegel, PsyD, Center for Mindfulness and Compassion, Harvard Medical School/Cambridge Health Alliance

"Written by a noted leader in the field, this book provides a skillfully structured, manualized group intervention for those suffering posttraumatic stress and other effects of adversity. Waelde deftly integrates a deep understanding of the spiritual and philosophical roots of meditation and mindfulness with the clear-eyed pragmatism of a trauma-focused scientist-practitioner. Filled with tools, activities, scripts, and detailed examples, this is a highly ambitious book that succeeds in all important respects."
- John Briere, PhD, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California