Published: February 12, 2011
Talking through trauma after it’s happened will help, won’t it? It makes sense and sounds right for professionals to get in early and help us bear witness to our own trauma, doesn’t it?
Not necessarily…….
Floods, fires, cyclones and the anniversary of Black Saturday. Psychological debriefing is a technique aimed at helping us process traumatic events, so the emotional scars can heal not harm. To some the approach is discredited, ineffective and may even do damage – to others it can still have important role. Beyond the controversy, where does the field stand today?
Finding a strong evidence base for what to do in the hours and days after a traumatic event – a flood, a cyclone, a fire, a bombing, a rape, a car accident – presents significant challenges. Chaos doesn’t lend itself to systematic investigation and randomised controlled trials, for obvious reasons.
The issue of All in the Mind is a discussion about the potential benefits and drawbacks of ‘trauma debriefing’ and immediate psychological treatment link to podcast and also check out the blog To debrief or not to debrief after disasters? Updating an old debate
Published: October 23, 2009
After exposure to extreme life stresses, what distinguishes the individuals who do and do not develop posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)? A new study, published in the October 1st issue of Biological Psychiatry, suggests that it has something to do with the way that we control the activity of the prefrontal cortex, a brain region thought to orchestrate our thoughts and actions. [continue reading…]
Link Between Seizures and Trauma, Mood Disorders Getting More Attention
When 46-year-old Jane Smith underwent marriage therapy with her husband, the sessions unlocked parts of Jane’s memory that she said she repressed for over a decade — memories with frightening powers.
“I began remembering witnessing my brother being abused… And I began to remember my own abuse,” said Jane, who requested her real name not be used. She said she later realized that she was physically and sexually abused by family members starting at age 4.
Jane confronted her parents, saying she wanted to talk about it, but they did not want to.
“Two weeks later I got a letter from them saying, ‘Don’t contact us again,'” Jane said.
That was when her seizures began. link to continue reading
Source: abc News
Writing as a component of a clinical course of therapy improves results and allows patients to recover more quickly. Doctoral candidate Peggy Penn concludes this in her thesis, which she defended on Monday June 2nd at Tilburg University in the Netherlands. Through clinical research, Penn discovered writing techniques which have enormous benefit for rape victims or the chronically ill. [continue reading…]
