Summary An event is characterized as traumatic when: 1) the person perceives it as a threat to her or his physical survival; 2) it overwhelms the individual’s coping capacity, producing a sense of powerlessness; 3) it produces a feeling of isolation and aloneness; and 4) it violates the person’s expectations. Psychological trauma is not a …
The VA Could Have Remediated PTSD for Half the Cost of One Drug During the first decade of this century, the U.S. Veterans Administration (VA) and the Department of Defense (DOD) spent $791 million on a drug called risperidone (Tal, 2013). Initially touted as a treatment for PTSD, a clinical trial published in the Journal …
Chapter 6 – Which Approaches Really Work with PTSD? Read More »
The Trauma Capsule What happens when a child experiences an event so disturbing that it cannot be assimilated into ordinary consciousness? Examples of such events might be being beaten for no reason, becoming the object of a parent’s sexual desire, hearing harsh unprovoked criticism, or being physically harmed. Children don’t understand that such events are …
Bringing the Traumatized Brain Back Online The brains of people with PTSD do not process information as effectively as normal brains. The parts of the brain are unable to work in synchrony. Normally, all the regions of the brain work together when presented with incoming information. Figure 13 shows the difference (van der Kolk, 2014, …
Chapter 4 – Bringing the Traumatized Brain Back Online Read More »
Trauma Is Physical as Well as Psychological Psychological trauma is not a merely psychological problem; it affects the body at the most fundamental levels. The most basic need of any organism is survival. Other needs, such as digestion, reproduction, and self-actualization, cannot be met if the organism fails to survive. The survival mechanisms of our …
Chapter 3 – Trauma Is Physical as Well as Psychological Read More »
Attachment: Secure vs. Disorganized During WWII, in order to keep them safe during the Blitz, the rain of bombs dropped on London and other industrial cities, children were often sent away into the countryside and housed with strangers or in group nurseries. A pioneering psychiatrist named John Bowlby was struck by how strongly children were …
Pervasive Psychological Trauma Psychological trauma is widespread. While news reports focus on the high levels of PTSD found in veterans, trauma is far more prevalent in the civilian population than most people realize. Since the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan began in 2001, far more Americans have died at the hands of family members than …
Welcome to this advanced course on Psychological Trauma. This Quick Start Guide will introduce you to the course, and show you how to navigate through it quickly and easily. You’re going to get a huge amount of valuable information from this course. It will change the way you perceive trauma, and people who’ve been traumatized. …
