Home |
Counsellor ~ Psychotherapist
|
| There are so many accounts on the web of people relating their experiences of therapy for PTSD* as being something of a horror story. |
Trauma therapy, just more trauma?
It seems we all experience situations we find traumatic. Most people seem able to survive these events and go back to a normal or relatively normal life. But these events can cause trouble and therapy often reveals these earlier incidents as being at the bottom of problems in our current lives. More sinister though, is when these events intrude into our lives in a seemingly permanent and invasive way. Called post traumatic stress they can lead to a diagnosis of PTSD, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Sufferers and therapists alike find this condition a challenge and the most commonly used therapies still leave sufferers with much to contend with.
While I feel it is vital that a person with PTSD auditions their therapist, I maintain it is equally important for everyone to test out the person they are about to entrust with giving psychological help.
The ugly truth is that there appears to be a lot of therapists who clearly do not have the tools or the experience to facilitate real change in PTSD sufferers yet they take on these cases to the detriment of the sufferer. The sad fact is that while special skills are needed to bring real help to a person with PTSD many therapists for a variety of reasons appear to be either unsure or adamantly using a personal approach that at best only helps sometimes. Whatever goes on in the therapy room, by all accounts not a lot of worthwhile therapy is happening for many sufferers. Clients think that with all that learning, the therapist must know which way is up and I better try to go along with it.
The client forgets that they, or someone on their behalf, is paying the bill, that the therapist works for the client. Of course you don't hire a plumber and then tell her how to do her job, but with something as personal as therapy you do have a few rights and paramount is to feel comfortable with the person that is helping you with your greatest asset - your mind.
But no! Everything from mocking comments to terminating therapy with a text message! From grimacing when you tell them what someone did to you to making invalidating suggestions. Dealing with trauma is a specialty area and you just cannot sign in and have a go. Your instincts will not tell you what to do. You need well learned skills before taking on a traumatised client. The really worrying thing is that highly recommended, popular, widely accepted and dare I even say, 'evidence based' practices cannot always be relied upon to do a good job. The truth is that the above practices actually only work sometimes or to a certain degree. So while you are being told that these are the best methods that they have (the truth), you are also being told that if you have PTSD you will be stuck with it to some degree your whole life.
There is of course a multitude of warm, respectful therapists doing their darndest to help but who yearn for methods that deliver better results.
Working their way towards acceptance and recommendation are a string of newer therapies, some of which have been witnessed doing remarkable things with trauma subjects. Remarkable compared to the accepted methods but not unusual to those who see this level of success day to day in their practice.
Evidence Based
An example of these is TIR (Traumatic Incident Reduction) which in trained hands can get wonderful results. TIR has now been added to the National Registry of Evidence-Based Programs and Practices (NREPP) in the USA. The list is maintained by the government agency SAMHSA, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration who rigorously investigate therapeutic interventions before considering their inclusion.
Back to that audition. Just as we like to check the quality of a service before committing ourselves, I believe we should audition the therapist by at least having an out-of-session chat to assess compatibility. People with PTSD often have significant trust issues with lots of fear around therapy and therapists and about what they might do in a session.
It is vital that before getting down to work the client feels comfortable and safe with the therapist. Otherwise, the client cannot relax and there'll be little chance of healing that is deep and lasting.
*This applies equally to regular psychotherapy, where clients are dismayed at the way some therapists treat them. In extreme cases like those with PTSD, the outcome can be more serious as in the case of "re-traumatisation" and where arguably a desperate need for good therapy is closed off by the person vowing to never again take a chance with a therapist.
Ralph Graham - 2012
Ralph Graham ~ 0412 925 470
St Leonards ~ Crows Nest ~ Lindfield ~ Campbelltown
search terms: New South Wales, NSW, Sydney, Australia,
trauma specialist, Applied Metapsychology,
TIR, Traumatic Incident Reduction,
Counsellor, counselor,
psychotherapy, counselling, psychotherapist, PTSD,
post traumatic stress disorder, traumatology
Ralph Graham 0412 925 470