A GoodTherapy.org News Headline

Across the general population and within specific groups such as the survivors of terrorist attacks and other traumatic situations, access to quality psychotherapeutic care and counseling can be limited, even in developed areas. Hoping to help discover whether general practice physician referrals were effective, and investigating how survivors of the 2007 bombing attacks in London were faring, a research team from University College London has recently performed an intervention to locate and assess the survivors. With the help of public records, witness accounts, and other pertinent information, the team found that around a third of survivors were experiencing symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD, and that only four percent of the entire group had been referred to psychological services, suggesting a serious need for more effective identification and referral systems.

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By Susanne M. Dillmann, Psy.D., Post Traumatic Stress / Trauma Topic Expert Contributor

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People who have been exposed to a traumatic experience know all too well that severe stress has a significant impact upon the body. Unfortunately many people do not know that this physical reaction is normal and to be expected, which leads many a survivor to conclude that they are falling apart or permanently damaged. Therefore, increasing your understanding of the physical impact that extreme stress has is vital to one’s healing from a traumatic experience.

The brain receives information about the status of the world through your five senses and receives information about the status of your internal world i.e. what is going on inside your body through various nerves. All of this information travels through our spine into our brain. Once this information reaches the brain the first stop is a ‘danger detection center’ which determines whether the incoming information indicates that there is a danger or threat. If the ‘danger detection center’ perceives that there is a danger or threat then it sets off a series of alarms, which lead the body to begin preparations to protect itself. Read the rest of this entry

A GoodTherapy.org News Summary

While the connection between experiencing a distressing event and subsequently developing PTSD, or Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, might seem to be fairly clear, researchers have been unsure about exactly how and why the brain reacts certain ways to trauma. One of the most pressing questions in this area has asked why, within groups of people exposed to the same stimulus, some people develop symptoms of the psychological concern, while other do not. Suggestions been made in a wide range of schools of thought about the functioning of the brain and the human consciousness, but recently a study published in the journal Biological Psychiatry has found that a major factor in determining who gets PTSD may be entirely genetic.

The study focused on a group of survivors of the Rwandan Genocide, a mass killing that took place over the course of one hundred days in 1994. During this remarkably violent period, an estimated twenty percent of the country’s inhabitants were murdered, leaving many families torn apart, and many survivors shaken. Genetic samples of each participant were analyzed in relation to the activity of an enzyme responsible for inhibiting dopamine and norepinephrine, neurotransmitters present in the brain when stress is experienced. Read the rest of this entry

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By John Lee, LMHC, Post Traumatic Stress / Trauma Topic Expert Contributor

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Exposure types of therapies such as Eye Movement Desensitization and Cognitive Restructuring have the best outcomes in the treatment of Post Traumatic Stress. Exposure therapy might be good with an accident victim who is afraid of driving through an intersection. The therapy is combined with desensitization strategies and relaxation techniques so the person can safely visualize driving successfully through the point of an accident. However, with more complex PTSD cases related to long term abuse or with a person who has long term symptomology, exposure therapy could be dangerous.

I recently began using EMDR after beginning my training in this phenomenal approach. I also utilize ongoing clinical training from two mentors. One has been providing EMDR treatment for 20 plus years; the other specializes in the field of clinical hypnotherapy and the treatment of trauma. It was drilled into my head many years ago to constantly seek clinical training because the lives therapists serve are actually fragile. Read the rest of this entry

A GoodTherapy.org News Headline

As the number of people affected by Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD, continues to increase, many therapists and other professionals in the psychological fields are growing concerned about the strain that such clients may make on already inadequate and often underfunded resources. One expert on the health concern has recently advocated the further development and distribution of virtual reality programs for clients returning home from service in war or suffering from PTSD for other reasons. In initial trials, virtual reality treatments have shown promise for effectively helping clients overcome difficult experiences.

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