What Readers say about the book

Dear Philippe, in the first place, I want to tell you that your book has deeply touched me. What a lot of misery have you been through and how hard have you been struggling to overcome your traumas and to become a healthy and happy human being. That really is admirable! This way the grief isn’t being passed on anymore. Also the comparison which you make between negative upbringing and war-trauma’s in case of offenders and victims, I consider to be very valuable and I totally agree on this theory. And with this you developed a valuable method, which is surely going to show its value in the near future.

Dear Philippe, Thanks for sending me your book. An interesting and fascinating life story. I want to compliment you on your persistence, intelligence and energy to go looking for a solution!

Dear Philippe, Thanks for sending me your book. I have read a part of it: You’ve gone through quite a lot of misery! And how good of you that you found such an effective way to tackle your past!

Dear Philippe, My first reaction after reading your example -fragments: how horrible, how awful, how terrible if the person, from whom you need the most security in your life, is giving you such a terrific feeling of insecurity! I’m glad for you that you’ve been able to find a way to happiness. How wonderful and hopeful! I started reading your book. I think that you really are holding something wonderful in your hands! I just finished your book. Except from being radical as regards the contents, I think it’s also utterly fascinating written!

Anke Schoon, journalist and author

The book is about the handling of forgotten traumas out of the youth of the author. The touching story leaves behind a profound impression after having been read. The book has been well composed and although it’s about a heavy subject, it keeps stimulating to continue reading. The short sentences, sometimes written in staccato, are providing a deep impact during the reading of the almost unlikely events out of the young life of the author. He describes his own experiences by means of little Filipp (his first memories), Filipp, the same child just a few years older and Philippe, the teenager on his way to adulthood. All of them are confronted during their young lives with the terror of Philippe Izmailov’s mother. One day Philippe Izmailov is confronted with the forgotten traumas from the past and he’s looking for psychiatric help. It appears to be a long way to get all forgotten memories to the surface. Philippe is developing in a scientific way a self-help treatment called “Mindfulness based trauma treatment’, being a composed method, which is based on mindfulness, Neuro-Linguistic programming (NLP), Buddhism and psychology. The self-help treatment consists of trauma-meditations and writing therapy. By means of these trauma-meditations he’s evoking traumatic events out of his youth. In that case it’s about very touching memories and thanks to this well thought method, he (the author) eventually succeeds in escaping from the prison of his own nasty emotions. The story is particularly impressive as a result of the large number of these memories as well as the violence of them it. Sometimes the treatments, with which the reader is being confronted, are as violent as the traumatic events, but due to the seriousness of the trauma and the capability to cope with this, this is quite understandable. The method of the self-help treatment by means of trauma-meditations and writing therapy, has been clearly described in the book, as a result of which everybody with a trauma, next to the recommended psychical help of a professional, can get to work with this.

Ulrike Bonnema / Writerspoint

„My way to Happiness” (the Dutch title) by Philippe Izmailov is a self-help book in the true sense of the word. The book describes how Philippe is seeking his way through and out of his traumatic youth memories to be able to resume his life that way. As he despises the Russian standard method of handling feelings – the bottle of liquor -, he has to find other ways to face negative memories. And he has succeeded in finding them. He combines several points of view and techniques for instance from psychology, NLP and Buddhism, as a result of which he reaches a method of working, which has helped him to find happiness. Philippe is eloquent and he knows how to explain his various ideas in a very imaginative way. The book is pleasant and easy to read. Though occasionally I get a sneaky voyeuristic feeling while reading the emotional diary fragments: do I really want to know all this? I’m feeling a lot of compassion for Philippe. Nevertheless the developed method (Mindfulness Based Trauma Treatment) can be very useful for someone, who, like the author, is looking for a way out of the swamp filled with traumatic memories. The book has been illustrated with photographs from the youth of the author.

Foundation CCC Stories of experiences acquired by patients

Ego-document and self-help book written by Philippe Izmailov, in which he describes how he got depressive caused by traumatic and nasty experiences out of his youth and (the rest of) his life. With the aid of a by himself developed self-healing method, called Mindfulness Based Trauma Treatment (MBTT), he managed to make a recovery. For this purpose he combines several treatment-techniques (for instance mindfulness and Neuro-linguistic programming) and while doing this he continuously applies his own examples and experiences as building- blocks for the techniques which he’s going to employ. Philippe Izmailov describes in his book bit by bit how the experiences from his youth have caused his depression. His mother, with whom he grew up, was familiar with war traumas, had been left by her husband and she took her sadistic inclinations out on Philippe, as a result of which he was being belittled and beaten , he was being confronted with verbal aggression and he was being manipulated. He was distressed, afraid, and anxious, he knew no safe places and he was constantly being stressed. Philippe Izmailov (1977) was born in Russia and he grew up with a single mother, who suffered from psychological disorders. It has left him with a lot of traumatic youth-memories. He studied economics in Russia and in 2001 he came to the Netherlands, where he went on studying ICT and financing. He had a job and a good life, but he still wasn’t happy; he kept on searching. So among other things in Brighton (England) he got acquainted with Buddhism and in Cambridge he studied Neuro- Linguistic Programming (NLP). In 2010 Philippe got a depression, from which he managed to recover with the aid of his self-help therapy MBTT. Short description: Philippe Izmailov describes in his book little by little how his youth experiences have been leading to the depression. His mother with whom he grew up, was haunted by war-traumas. She had been left by her husband and she took her sadistic urges out on Philippe, as a result of which he was disparaged a lot and he was regularly beaten by her, there was a lot of verbal aggression and he was manipulated. He was distressed, afraid, anxious, he had no safe places (to hide) and he was continuously in a state of stress. Philippe describes how these experiences, later on complemented with other events have finally resulted in his depression in 2010. He’s 33 years old then, totally collapses and he becomes the diagnosis “Posttraumatic stress disorder” (PTSD). The story about how all this could happen, is regularly interrupted by descriptions of his therapy MBTT and how to deploy this self-help techniques. Increasingly examples and stories out of his own life are being used and told to show how he brought the techniques of his therapy into practice.

Marisca van der Burgh Dutch Natural Health

Square “My way to happiness” (the Dutch title), a guide for self-supporting aid to feel well again and to find the happiness in yourself. Philippe Izmailov. Mindfulness Based Trauma Treatment. In this handy book (pocket-size, 235 pages) the author is telling by means of his own life story, how you should be able to cope with your own traumas step by step. So it’s a real self-help book! Apart from the fact that Izmailov is a professional out of experience, he also followed some training sessions to be able to work comprehensibly and to get results, which are leading to liberation from blockades in getting on with other people. Among other things he himself got stuck in his working relations. Education and working experience in ICT, combined with Mindfulness, Neuro-Linguistic Programming, Buddhism and Psychology have contributed to a self-developed method, which Izmailov calls Mindfulness Based Trauma Treatment. First he explains his background and the things he ran into in his life. Then step by step he’s going through the contents of his approach. Next he extensively explains by means of traumas in his own life, memory after memory, how he himself applies the method to heal the effects of these traumas. Izmailov is working with easy to understand metaphors out of daily life as a result of which he explains well and clear what he means by practicing specific exercises and insights. Finally Izmailov provides practical tips about the performance as well as a couple of exercises and questionnaires to work through. The essence of the matter is to reach a deep relaxation during which memories and emotions can come to the surface. The next thing is healing these painful memories by looking at them with a positive and comforting attitude and by experiencing them thoroughly. Finally to reach forgiveness through acceptation. If all has been thoroughly worked through, the pain and the emotional blockades are going to disappear. All things considered, it’s a good and easily readable book, containing very accessible exercises. These exercises are very well practicable on your own. It’s important that Mindfulness is the basis out of which the work is being done. I can very well imagine, that it would be smart to follow a course in Mindfulness parallel to working with this book to get skillful in the way of bodily experience and self-examination. The purpose of all this is, that emotions are going to be manageable again and that emotional reactions are regulating themselves. The reader learns to make a difference between personal emotions and reactions on what’s happening in life and the facts. As for emotional pain and anger, the reader has to submit to acceptation and forgiveness, as a result of which everything is going to be considered in a totally different perspective. Therefore life doesn’t feel threatening anymore, but it feels endurable and enjoyable. Apart from that, it’s important to have therapeutic consultations with a psychologist or a psychotherapist, just like Izmailov himself did. This has to be done to monitor the process properly and to have your finger firmly on the pulse in order to avoid a serious mental crisis, which can’t be properly managed anymore. After all even in intensively managed meditation groups it’s regularly occurring, that people consequently could end up in an acute crisis, caused by a severe damage in their emotional life (as a result of a youth, during which some shape of maltreatment and/or violence took place). This requires a good support. That’s why I advise to also incorporate the recommendation list, which has been taken down in this book, into our files, including the comment: to also refer the patient to another discipline of psychosocial care! All-in all it’s very worthwhile and courageous, that the author puts the story of his life at stake to share it with fellow-sufferers with the intention to support them on their way to recovery!

What Psychologist says about Mindfulness Based Trauma Treatment (MBTT)?

Brenda Roels, register-psychologist NIP / Labour and Health, cognitive behaviour-therapist VGCI (The Netherlands): In a poignant and captivating story about his life, the author Philippe is taking you with him in his search for happiness and liberation from the emotional burden and psychological traumas, which he’s carrying with him from his youth. He’s growing up with a psychologically sick mother in Russia, where there is no room for emotions. In his later life he’s being confronted in everyday life with the emotional consequences of his youth experiences. He’s developing a method of his own to be able to cope with his experiences. By means of clear analyses and uncomplicated phrasing, he’s clarifying his method of Mindfulness Based Trauma Treatment. The fact that this way of argumentation might occasionally not completely justify the scientific rightness, it doesn’t matter at all owing to its clarity, but, on the contrary, it’s making it all the more understandable and plausible for the reader. In describing his method, Philippe keeps being close to himself and to his own experiences without interventions from the outside. The only instruments which he’s applying, are his introspective and self-reflecting ability as well as his creativity to change his negative emotions into something positive. This is making his method particularly pure. At the same time it has to be mentioned, that it isn’t that simple to apply as it looks like in the first place. It requires some training and skillfulness to be able to apply this method. Therefore he gives an appropriate warning not to start practicing on this experiences by yourself just like that. Being a reader of his book, you’re granted to have an inside look into the personal experiences and the emotional handlings of Philippe. The story of Philippe is poignant and it’s affecting you in your own emotions. Yet during the story gradually a grateful feeling is emerging, that you’re allowed to participate in the search for your own happiness too.

Herman

Dear Philippe, I just finished reading your book “My way to happiness” and I feel a spontaneous need to pay you an enormous compliment on this achievement. First of all the subject of your book is very topical and I’m sure that a lot of people do recognize themselves in the situations which you brilliantly describe. Why brilliantly? Simply because your way of presenting characters, events and situations may at first seem to be a bit unorthodox, but after the readers are rapidly being used to it, they’re soon becoming active actors on the stage you built for them. Reading turns into feeling and feeling turns into being part of it. You make this happen in your book and that means that you’re a born writer. The way you describe the origin, the development and finally the self-help meditation treatment of your trauma’s, is a unique example of perseverance. I’m sure that many of your readers discover that their lifelong feelings of sorrow, uneasiness, anger and uncertainty are being caused by long forgotten traumas from their early youth. Thanks to your efforts for realizing the possibility of self-supporting therapeutical treatment by means of trauma-meditation, these people finally are allowed to nurse serious hopes to get rid of their problems. By reading your book I came to the conclusion that I’m part of the above mentioned people and I’m thanking you in advance for granting me the possibilities to eventually enrich my life. My advice to all of you: buy this book and undergo the beginning of a better and a (mentally) richer life!

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Mindfulness Based Trauma Treatment (MBTT) is designed to support, not replace any professional medical help you may currently be receiving. You ought to consult a specialist before deciding to start with trauma treatment based on the principles of Mindfulness Based Trauma Treatment. Read more..