Chapter 11 Trauma: Experience and Healing Trauma Experience The prevalence of trauma of all types is widespread throughout much of the world and includes trauma from accident, child abuse and neglect, domestic violence, political conflict, war, or other human struggles. The many faces of bullying, hatred, economic insecurity and oppression (racism, sexism) leave a steady stream of survivors carrying the burdens of fear, anxiety, rage, and physical illness. The effects of trauma on the functioning of the brain is an expanding subject of research and treatment. Trauma can change the chemistry of the brain and disrupt normal human functioning. Information in this section has been taken from the works of Judith Lewis Hermann, MD, Robert Scaer, …show more content…
The results of trauma can be physical, emotional, cognitive, social, economic, and spiritual. The impact of trauma is layered in the neurological and endocrine system, affecting all parts of the body and mind. Life force energy can become blocked. There might be physical injury as well as chronic pain syndromes or immune problems that occur from long term stress. Emotions or unmet needs can become stuck, leaving the person trapped in patterns of thought, emotion, or behavior. Trauma also makes individuals more vulnerable to further stressors. Intergenerational trauma occurs when the unresolved and unhealed trauma of one generation is passed to the next generation. For example, traumatized individuals who become parents may have poor coping skills and other symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) which can have adverse effects on their children. Certain molecules that attach to DNA during trauma can also transmit the effects of trauma to the next generation biochemically. Shared experience of being victimized by racism and/or other oppressions and socio-cultural disadvantages increases the likelihood of intergenerational trauma …show more content…
Keeping one’s energy field in balance helps stabilize emotional and physical health between counseling sessions. Healing Touch also offers specific techniques for trauma release, pain relief, deep clearing of the energetic residues of trauma, rebalancing the field, and making transitions such as returning to a normalized healthy life. As issues are brought up in therapy sessions, the energy work in separate sessions can clear and re-balance the energy field. The release of emotions during an energy healing session may include crying, laughter, anger, and/or physical movements. Healing Touch techniques such as Magnetic Clearing can help release the effects of trauma even if an individual is unable to talk about his or her feelings. Some clients who have experienced trauma are particularly sensitive to issues related to touch and loss of control. Healing Touch treatments can be done without physical contact and provides the client with a choice about when and how much touch is
From the presentation, the most important thing I learned was that statistically, more than 60 percent of the population has experienced some sort of trauma and it could lead to substance use, depression and risky
Therapeutic touch was developed by Dolores Krieger and Dora Kunz in the 1970s as a non-invasive nursing intervention (Kelly et al. 2004). Jackson and Keegan (2009, p.614) defined therapeutic touch as “a specific technique of centring intention used while the practitioner moves the hands through a recipient’s energy field for the purpose of assessing and treating energy field imbalance.” The original theory of the technique proposed by nursing theorist Rogers (1970) is that individuals as a unified whole have their own permeable energy fields that extend from the skin surface and flow evenly when they are healthy. The energy field of the ill physical body is disrupted, misaligned, obstructed or “out of tune” (Huff et al. 2006). TT has the potential to re-pattern, reorganize and restore the individual’s imbalanced energy fields through the open system extending from the surface of the body interacting with the environment constantly (Krieger, 1979). The earliest studies of healing touch were carried out in the 1950s and 1960s: biochemist Bernard Grad (1965) collaborated with famous healer Oskar Estebany to demonstrate the significantly accelerated healing effects of therapeutic touch on wounded mice and damaged barley seeds. The central aim of healing therapies is to relax and calm patients in order to activate patients’ natural healing ability, and it does not include any religious activity (Lorenc et al. 2010).
hormones appear. The parts of the brain that are changed following the traumatic event are the
Jones, Edgar, Nicola T. Fear, and Simon Wessely. "Shell Shock and Mild Traumatic Brain Injury: A Historical Review." The American Journal of Psychiatry 164.11 (2007): 1641-5. http://0-search.proquest.com.library.francis.edu/docview/220510935/fulltextPDF/134DFDDE4904573C8F8/1?accountid=4216 (accessed January 23, 2012).
Childhood Trauma is defined as “The experience of an event by a child that is emotionally painful or distressful, which often results in lasting mental and physical effects.” (The National Institute of Mental Health). Childhood trauma is an epidemic that seems to be running its way throughout the world. Childhood trauma is a worldwide problem that can affect anyone and everyone. People tend to just try and help the problems that occur due to the childhood trauma, but not the problem itself. Many of these issues will also follow the child into their adult years and will cause negative effects. This paper will discuss the negative outcomes for a child who suffers from childhood trauma, and the negative outcomes that can follow them into adulthood.
Further research also needs to understand the empirical difference between physical touch and therapeutic touch.
Ross defines and differentiates between the terms healing and curing. She recognizes the fact that healing and curing are very intertwined and it can be hard to distinguish between the two terms. There are differences between the definitions in scholarly and general settings. She references an ethnographic study of healing versus curing conducted by anthropologists Andrew Strathern and Pamela Stewart in 1999 with native groups in New Guinea. The results of the study looked at how energy used by the different types of tribal healers to either cure or heal a patient. Eastern medicine focuses on how energy interacts with the healing process in connection within the mind. Whereas Western medicine is focused on the mind and the body separately. The practice is considered a holistic approach to finding cures. According to Ross (2013), healing is more a therapeutic process targeting the whole body and specific illness including emotional, mental, and social aspects in the treatment. The act of curing is a pragmatic approach that focuses on removing the problem all together. The life experiences of a person playing into how well certain treatments will heal or cure what is ailing them. These aspects can not be defined with textbook definitions. The interaction that the healing process has with energy is a variable in the success rate. Uncontrolled emotions can have a greater impact on the inside the body than a person can realize. The exploration of energy interaction within the body can be used for greater analysis of health care systems. (21-22). Are Western healthcare facilities purposely “curing” patients just so that they return are few years later? Is Western Medicine built upon a negative feedback loop? The terminolo...
Trauma is a very dangerous state of mind. It can cause you to do very irrational things, it changes your whole way of thinking. Trauma makes you blame something or someone just to find closure and hopefully heal. Trauma can destroy families because they are unable to play their role correctly as the trauma itches at their mind.
There is a total of five steps in the Therapeutic Touch technique. The first step is called centering, which is meditation this is used to make sure that the patient is calm. The second step is assessment, which is where the practitioner moves their hands 2-4 inches over the patient to detect where the patient has an imbalance of energy. Third step is unruffling it’s also called intervention, which is when the practitioner is trying clear the energy flow so it can be symmetric. The forth step is balancing or rebalancing energy, this is when energy is being redirected to where it needs to be. The final step is called evaluation/closure, which is when the practitioner decides when they’re finished, but they usually repeat this process 2-3 times. Usually this process does not involve any type of contact unless the practitioner uses the old form of Therapeutic
“26% of U.S. children will experience a traumatic event before they reach the age of four. More than 66% of U.S. children will experience a traumatic event by the time they reach the age of sixteen.” Many people believe that trauma is an experience when in reality trauma is a response, as for complex trauma, complex trauma is the effect of multiple long-term events. Many people do not think about how complex trauma effects a child in the classroom, but if a child is starving, or moving from home to home, or in a situation of abuse, there is a good chance that their spelling words and math facts are not going to be the first thing on their minds during the day.
Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) is one of the most commonly utilized interventions for children (Cary & McMillen, 2011). TF-CBT is a highly structured intervention consisting of 90-minute weekly sessions. The clinician works with the client through eight competencies, including psychoeducation, relaxation, affective expression and regulation, cognitive coping, trauma narrative development and processing, gradual exposure, joint parent/child sessions, and enhancing future development (Cary & McMillen, 2011). TF-CBT has an extensive history and many variations. Clinicians utilize a number of other cognitive behavior treatments that have been adapted to meet the needs of traumatized children (Cary, & McMillen, 2012; Smith et al., 2007). While there are a number of cognitive behavior treatments, TF-CBT has received the highest classification rating for supported and effective treatment from many studies (Cary, & McMillen, 2012; Kauffman Best Practices Project, 2004).
Derived from several ancient healing practices, therapeutic touch is based on the theory of human energy fields - every person has an energy field that surrounds the entire body. During therapeutic touch treatment, practitioners use their hands, without actually touching the person, to re-establish a healthy energy flow. Therapeutic touch seeks to restore balance within the body while also stimulating the patient's own healing response. The practice of therapeutic touch is used worldwide in thousands of hospitals, clinics, and private practices. It is an easily learned, successful complement to other healing programs.
According to the National Child Traumatic Stress Network, children can experience trauma in two different ways. The first way can be through the experience of acute traumatic events, which involve “(1) experience a serious injury to yourself or witnessing a serious injury to or death of someone else (2) facing imminent threats or serious injury or death to yourself or others, or (3) experiencing a violation of personal physical integrity (National Child Traumatic Stress Network, 2006).” Acute traumatic experiences often occur at a specific time and location, are usually transitory and can evoke feelings of terror, horror or helplessness. Children and adolescents can also experience trauma in the form of chronic traumatic situations, which describe
At least 50% of all adults and children are exposed to a psychologically traumatic event (such as a life-threatening assault or accident, humanmade or natural disaster, or war). As many as 67% of trauma survivors experience lasting psychosocial impairment, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD); panic, phobic, or generalized anxiety disorders; depression; or substance abuse.(Van der Kolk, et al, 1994) Symptoms of PTSD include persistent involuntary re-experiencing of traumatic distress, emotional numbing and detachment from other people, and hyperarousal (irritability, insomnia, fearfulness, nervous agitation). PTSD is linked to structural neurochemical changes in the central nervous system which may have a direct biological effect on health, such as vulnerability to hypertension and atherosclerotic heart disease; abnormalities in thyroid and other hormone functions; increased susceptibility to infections and immunologic disorders; and problems with pain perception, pain tolerance, and chronic pain.(Fesler, 1991) PTSD is associated with significant behavioral health risks, including smoking, poor nutrition, conflict or violence in intimate relationships, and anger or hostility.
...ial development, leaving lifelong psychological scars. That is why people of all ages need to go to therapy and get help if they lived through their traumatizing past because they cannot deal with everything emotionally on their own.