Book Review: Transforming Trauma- A drugless and creative path to healing PTS and ACE by Dr. Heather Herington BSc, NMD, DHANP

By Vijay Vaishnav, MD (Hom), CCH

It is very rare to find a health professional who has an expertise in multiple therapeutic modalities, and it is even rarer to find such a professional able to artistically weave these modalities together to evolve a treatment plan. Heather Herington is one such person who, a naturopath by training and profession, has incorporated her long association with very well-known psychiatrists and used her knowledge of the traditional and so-called alternative therapeutic systems, including yoga and homeopathy, to create a unique but effective path to healing the effects of emotional trauma.

The author writes, “There are so many ways to be harmed, to experience a trauma that leaves a legacy of pain difficult to counter, yet there are also many ways to heal from rape, childhood sexual abuse, bullying, drug overdoses, mass fear, intergenerational trauma, deadly shootings, war, natural disasters and the myriad of tragic personal and public responses to COVID-19 that have erupted from the fear and panic of an entity unseen by the human eye.”

Heather rejects the traditional conventional medical approach to the treatment of trauma, especially the pharmaceutical abuse of the body, “there are so many ways to heal naturally without resorting to pharmaceuticals with their many potentially harmful effects”. She instead makes a case for a proper understanding of the definition and cause of PTS (she has dropped the D from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder siding with military vets who feel ostracized by calling a natural response a disorder) and ACE (adverse childhood experience). 

The book has been divided into five parts, each with its own descriptive chapters. I like the fact that each one of these parts gently transitions to the next, starting with the Roots and Definition of Trauma, to the history of trauma through the ages, the role of the brain, the nervous system and the neurotransmitters, and how metabolism is affected by conditions like toxins, parasites, nutritional conditions, leaky gut, etc.

She talks about the mind-body connection and explores breathing techniques (pranayama), yogic asanas (postures) in addition to counselling and therapy. However, she also cautions that “your body is your subconscious mind and you can’t heal it by talk alone”. Instead, she encourages her clients to also tell their story through the expressive arts - writing and visual arts, music and vocalization, movement and dance or acting. 

Part Five of the book deals with the path forward- how to put everything mentioned in the preceding parts together and empower healing. Each chapter of the book ends with a Note to the Clinician- just tips and ideas to avoid certain pitfalls and an Assignment that makes sure you have understood and imbibed the contents of that section. The book ends with nine appendices, and I found the ones about Epigenetics, Sleep, Acute PTS and the International Trauma Questionnaire (ITQ) very interesting.

Although this book is written by a Doctor of Naturopathic Medicine, students of homeopathy (I consider myself a student of homeopathy even after forty years of teaching and clinical experience) will find that her writings resonate with the teachings of Samuel Hahnemann, especially the following aphorisms from his Organon of Medicine, 6th edition:

§ 3  “If the physician clearly perceives what is to be cured in diseases, that is to say, in every individual case of disease (knowledge of disease, indication), if he clearly perceives what is curative in medicines, that is to say, in each individual medicine (knowledge of medical powers), and if he knows how to adapt, according to clearly defined principles, what is curative in medicines to what he has discovered to be undoubtedly morbid in the patient, so that the recovery must ensue ……….”

§ 210- 230 Mental diseases

§ 259- 263 Diet and Regimen

I would highly recommend this book to all practitioners whose highest ideal of cure is rapid, gentle and permanent restoration of the health, or removal and annihilation of the disease in its whole extent, in the shortest, most reliable, and most harmless way, on easily comprehensible principles. Patients and their family members would also find this book to be a very useful companion in their journey towards healing from emotional trauma.

This book was first published in 2022 by Hammersmith Health Books (an imprint of Hammersmith Books Ltd, UK). This book is available in print form (ISBN 978-1-78161-225-5) as well as an EBook (ISBN 978-1-78161-226-2).