Trauma Treatment

"At the end of the second world war, Kardiner lamented that 'these conditions (traumatic neurosis) are not subject to continuous study . . . but only to periodic efforts which cannot be categorized as very diligent. Though not true in psychiatry generally, it is a deplorable fact that each investigator that undertakes to study (traumatic neuroses) considers it his sacred obligation to start from scratch and work at the problem as if no one has ever done anything with it before." ~van der Kolk, M.D.


The following pages are dedicated to the dissemination of resources for those affected by and/or clinicians treating those affected by the sequelae of psychological trauma

Why Trauma Treatment is Tricky

Clinicians are not accustomed to paying attention to the client’s body-where the trauma is stored, because we were trained to get “the story”. Unfortunately, when the client remembers the trauma, his/her arousal levels go up. When arousal levels go up, hippocampae go off-line, leaving the client with NOT MUCH in the way of executive functioning, therefore not much information is able to be processed. The client is left relatively un-resourced, i.e. (s)he has the very same resources available to him/her at the time of the original trauma, which were obviously inadequate, i.e., the client was psychologically overwhelmed, as evidenced by the fact that (s)he is now in your office, presenting with PTSD symptoms.


To address these issues, see the following Sections:

Trauma Tools and Recommended Trauma Modalities

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