Coming Home to Passion

This book offers a detailed road map for overcoming sexual and relationship impasses originating from painful childhood experiences. Large numbers of adults with histories of childhood trauma and neglect suffer persistent relationship and sexual difficulties. Unfortunately, most have failed to receive adequate help with emerging from these deep and complex problems. Coming Home to Passion: Restoring Loving Sexuality in Couples with Histories of Childhood Trauma and Neglect explores the enduring impacts-physiological, psychological, and behavioral-of childhood trauma and neglect. Author Ruth Cohn, drawing on 25 years of experience working with trauma survivors and their partners and families, lays out a practical and actionable course for recovery in clear, accessible language. This book provides direction and hope to those with trauma backgrounds while also serving as a unique resource for professional readers. Integrating in-depth information on attachment and relationship, trauma and neglect, and sexuality, Cohn details a practical, hands-on treatment approach for revitalizing love, health, and passion.

Ruth Cohn, MA, is a licensed marriage and family therapist and certified sex therapist.

Series Foreword by Dr. Judy Kuriansky Acknowledgments Introduction Part I Relationship 1. In the Beginning: Attachment Styles 2. The Practice of Empathy: What's Wrong with the Golden Rule? 3. Don't Get Me Wrong! HD Communication 4. Chiaroscuro: The Play of Shadow and Light 5. Men and Women: Is There a Difference? Part II A Short Course on Trauma and Neglect 6. It's the End of the World as We Know It: A Primer on Trauma 7. Waiting for the Sun to Come Out: Waking Up to Neglect 8. Do You Wanna Dance? More about Triggering and Adaptation 9. Cycles of Escalation: It Takes Two to Tangle 10. Emotional Rescue: The Transformative Power of Repair Part III Introduction to the Wide World of Sex 11. The Legacy of Rabbi Hillel: The Nature of Sex 12. This Thing Called Love: Myths and Facts about Adult Sexuality 13. I'm Bad to the Bone: Trauma and Sexuality 14. You Can't Always Get What You Want: Neglect and Sexuality 15. Tangled Up in Blue: Common Trauma/Neglect Sexual Dynamics Part IV Practice 16. The Way It Is: Assessment 17. Human Touch: Being Here Now 18. We're on Our Way Home: More about Presence and Some Practice 19. Starting Over: Practice and More Practice 20. What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been: Integration, "Re-membering," and Renewal Appendix Notes Bibliography Index