Tag: PTSD

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

On By thinkcarebelieveIn Healing & Empowerment, ToolsLeave a comment

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy(CBT) identifies distorted patterns of thinking, emotional response, inappropriate behavior and substituting them with more objective, realistic thoughts and coping skills. It can address challenges such as:

  • Anxiety
  • Mood Disorders
  • Eating Disorders
  • Schizophrenia
  • Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
  • Social Anxiety Disorder
  • Panic Disorder
  • Generalized Anxiety
  • Specific Phobia
  • OCD
  • Dysthymia
  • Substance Abuse
  • ADHD
  • Stress
  • Relationship Difficulties
  • Anger

CBT Steps:

Identifying Negative Thoughts- To learn what thoughts, feelings and situations are contributing to maladaptive behaviors. It can be difficult for people who have trouble with self assessment and insights into what their negative self limiting thoughts.

Practicing New Skills- In Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, people are taught new skills to use in real life situations to improve experiences and demonstrate empowerment in a situation. To practice coping skills and rehearse ways to avoid or deal with social situations that could trigger a reaction.

Setting New Goals- Goal setting can be an important step to establish forward momentum and to use newly polished interpersonal and coping skills. A CBT therapist can help set SMART goals (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-based) with a focus on the process of attaining the goal.

Problem Solving- Learning problem-solving skills during CBT helps to identify and work to solve a problem resulting from life stressors. Being adept at solving problems can reduce harmful impact of psychological and physical illness. Problem Solving steps are:

  1. Identify the problem
  2. Generate a list of potential solutions
  3. Evaluate the pros and cons of each possible solution
  4. Choose a solution
  5. Follow through with the solution

Self-Monitoring- Tracking behaviors, symptoms, or experiences over time and sharing them with someone to whom you are being accountable.

Other CBT Techniques- Journaling, role-playing, relaxation strategies and using mental distractions.

Benefits of CBT:

  • Healthier thought patterns
  • Potential short-term improvements
  • Effective for a wide variety of problems
  • Online or face to face
  • Doesn’t require medication

Challenges to CBT

Change can be difficult and uncomfortable while going through it. CBT is very structured and some people may not do well in heavily structured programs. For CBT to be effective, it will take an investment of time and effort on the patient’s part. A willingness to put out the effort and to be honest in the analyzation of ones thoughts and feelings. Progress can be gradual, and may not be for someone wanting immediate results. Change takes time.

Trauma Focused CBT (TF-CBT)

TF-CBT is a treatment approach in helping mostly children and adolescents process and overcome their experiences of trauma. One of the ways a trauma survivor heals is to help them normalize their responses. TF-CBT can give them new skills to manage their feelings while educating them why they respond the way they do around the traumatic memories. By understanding the effects of trauma, they are better equipped to cope and find practical solutions. When someone with PTSD feels stuck in some of their thoughts because of the trauma they underwent TF-CBT can assist a person to recognize false beliefs they hold because of the trauma and to correct unhealthy behavior patterns that allows forward growth and momentum. It helps them develop new ways to cope, through self care, self healing and choosing emotional expression in healthy ways. In TF-CBT, parents and caregivers can also be involved in the therapy. This supports parents in building skills related to better parenting, improving communication, and managing any distress about the child’s trauma, all of which help the child feel more supported. The child is able to disconnect the memories and thoughts of the traumatic experience with the overwhelming emotions which arise by association.

Summing Up

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy or CBT can be an effective way to correct unhealthy habits and emotional responses and inappropriate behaviors. The changeover to productive empowered living involves practicing new skills, setting new goals and learning problem solving techniques. Progress is tracked using self monitoring and measurable results. Trauma Focused CBT or TF-CBT is mostly used for children and teenagers who have experienced one trauma event or repeated abuse. It has been successful in helping the young person disconnect their thoughts and emotions from the trauma event.

Understanding Trauma through Polyvagal Theory

On By thinkcarebelieveIn Healing & Empowerment, Holistic Health1 Comment

Polyvagal Theory was a new way to understand trauma through the neuropsychological role of the vagus nerve in regulating emotions and fear responses and how they affect social connections in 1994 when it was introduced by Stephen Porges. The theory expands the two types of threat responses, fight or flight, into a third called “freeze.” It is what some animals do in the wild. Freezing is the body’s way of “playing dead” to become uninteresting to a threat until it passes. The natural way someone exits the freeze response and return to balance in the body is to bring ourselves into social engagement, in which we are open and receptive which establishes within the body that we’re not under threat.

The autonomic nervous system is responsible for this survival mechanism. It regulates heart rate, blood pressure, respiration, digestion, and sexual arousal. In times of extreme threat, one branch of our parasympathetic nervous system kicks us into shutdown mode. When we look back on the experience it is normal to wonder why we did not react differently such as fighting off the attack or running away. It can be confusing and make us think we are weak.

That confusion causes trauma energy to become blocked in the body where it is stored. The person can stay stuck in trauma and anxiety perpetually until it is discharged. The way this stored energy is discharged is through entering back into a state of threat, shut-down and immobilization, and working back into social engagement where we become relaxed and open again. Traveling back and forth threat to safety allows a person to truly recognize they are safe, where they can become open and receptive again so they can explore further healing.

The Three Parts of the Nervous System

Deb Dana, a clinical social worker and therapist recognized the need for a practical application of polyvagal theory and developed a therapy around it. She published three books, The Polyvagal Theory in Therapy, Clinical Application of the Polyvagal Theory and Polyvagal Exercises for Safety and Connection. In her books, she organizes the nervous system into three parts, hierarchy, neuroception and co-regulation.

Hierarchy refers to the three states of the nervous system: The ventral vagal, sympathetic and dorsal vagal, and how they activate in a particular order. The ventral vagal helps us feel safe, show up and communicate. It is our home base line and place of safety. Sympathetic is that energy that gives us fight or flight to help us survive danger. If we cannot flee or fight, then the dorsal vagal has us shut down, collapse and go numb to protect ourselves.

Neuroception is when our nervous system is constantly scanning the environment for clues of any danger. It listens inside and outside our bodies, and to interactions between people for any trouble. Neuroception determines whether we need to be in ventral vagal, sympathetic or dorsal vagal, depending on the environment and threat level. Dana describes co-regulation as the need to be safely connected with others throughout our lifetime in order to survive.

Understanding our nervous system is the first step in navigating challenges more effectively. The nervous system informs the brain, therefore it is essential to first comprehend the processes of the nervous system before understanding the brain. When people come to an understanding of why their nervous system acts the way it does, people can guide themselves back to their home safety state. When people are stuck in the sympathetic state, people with unhealed trauma may carry fear, lack of trust and anxiety. Those stuck in the vagal state may carry loneliness, disconnection and numbness. When survivors heal, it is a triumph because they can reside in the ventral vagal state of their home base where they have let go of their stories of suffering and become connected and attuned with others.

Somatic Experiencing Therapy for Trauma

On By thinkcarebelieveIn Healing & Empowerment, Holistic Health, Tools1 Comment

What is Somatic Experiencing?

Somatic Experiencing is a naturalistic form of therapeutic body work that aids the healing of Post-Traumatic Stress Response (PTSR) and other issues related to trauma. It was established by Peter Levine in the 1970s and has been used in the treatment of trauma. It is based on Wilhelm Reich’s theory of blocked energy in the body and how it needs to be released in order to heal.

Healing comes through Somatic Experiencing by addressing where imbalances occurred through the excess energy that was trapped in the body following a traumatic incident. During a traumatic incident, adrenalin floods the body in order to fight and run for survival. It’s just something the body does in normal reaction mode. When the traumatic event is over, the body gradually goes back to resting state, but sometimes the body can go into a freeze state and the brain can dissociate to leave the present moment and take refuge elsewhere. This can cause energy to be trapped in the body. The excess energy needs to be discharged but the body doesn’t like to waste energy and tends to store it. This is often the root of dysfunctions following trauma. In order to heal trauma, we must release that energy. It can be deeply uncomfortable, however, it is far better to go through it for our mental and emotional health, than let it fester or bury deeper inside.

The Somatic Experiencing approach is to assist a person to notice their physical sensations in relation to difficult thoughts and emotions connected with their traumatic events. Instead of talking about the experience and reliving it, Somatic Experiencing uncovers and identifies the sensations in the body that are energetically linked to the traumatic emotions or memories. For instance, when a traumatic memory comes up, a person would notice where they feel sensations of pain or discomfort in their body. The person would make the connection between that part of the body and the traumatic event. While that connection if fresh, the person would immediately think of a positive thought or memory, such as basking in the sunshine or a favorite vacation spot. By bringing in a pleasant, positive experience, there is a somatic overwrite and the person should feel relief in the form of a tingling sensation, calming or the feeling as if a weight has been lifted.

These are some techniques used in Somatic Experiencing to release traumatic energy trapped in the body:

Breathing can be used to breathe out and release blocked and stored energy.

Mindfulness to strengthen awareness of surroundings, thoughts, and the way the body feels.

Meditation to calm and increase awareness.

Somatic Psychotherapy may be used to talk about the experience and pinpoint correlating body discomfort.

Body movement is used to release trapped energy and identify areas of stress to process it for healing.

Positive Imagery can be used to calm the body and mind to help bring healing to stress areas.

Conclusion

Normally we can sufficiently recover from a traumatic event but we each process trauma differently both physically and emotionally. Trapped energy from a traumatic event can cause imbalances in the body. Those imbalances over time can become chronic pain, behavior disorders or disease. Trauma therapy should be sought at the first sign of trauma symptoms, or right after a traumatic event, but we don’t always realize that we need help. Waiting until pain and discomfort become so unbearable is what normally drives people to seek therapy. Somatic Experiencing is a way to release stored trauma energy by identifying body discomfort associated with a trauma memory. Using positive imagery, the trauma memory energy can be uncovered and released. Relief in the form of a freer, lighter feeling can be achieved.

Holistic approaches to healing trauma down-loadable free Ebooks written by Lou Lebentz.

https://docslib.org/doc/9096180/solutions-to-trauma-part-i-psychosomatic-and-holistic-methods-lou-lebentz-trauma-thrivers-trauma-thrivers

https://docslib.org/doc/9096180/solutions-to-trauma-part-ii-psychosomatic-and-holistic-methods-lou-lebentz-trauma-thrivers-trauma-thrivers

Being a Holiday Survivor

On By thinkcarebelieveIn Healing & Empowerment, Tools2 Comments

I stopped at the grocery store to pick up a couple things. I could already see it. The holiday crunch has started. The mothers and grandmothers struggling to think of everything on the lists that they forgot and left at home, the families toting excited children with magic sparkling in their eyes, husbands and single men dodging through crowds because they just want to get what they need and get home. Then something caught my attention. It was a young man obviously disgusted with all the holiday craziness, shaking his head and muttering to himself. I recognized it from experience. My son and PTSD. Looking at it all now from his perspective, it must look like everyone has gone crazy taking pills from a Hallmark Store.

I definitely used to chase that happy dream of creating the perfect holiday season for everyone. Sometimes I wish I still bought into it, but I’ve lost too many. We all have. There’s too many people hurting going into these holidays and I want them to know, it’s okay to do the holidays differently this year if it feels needed.

Those who have experienced trauma have a unique perspective. From my experience, they are more in touch with their hearts and feelings than the average person because they have to be in order to manage and get through the day. Oh yes, there are varying degrees of that, of course, but show me someone who has survived trauma, and I will show you someone who has courageously stared down darkness from deep inside and is a survivor!

I may be saying it in a really clumsy way, but I just want to express that whatever peace and contentment you can find during these holidays, whatever that means for you, I salute you. If you are missing loved ones and just can’t seem to get on track, visit this post Doing Grief Differently by my friend, Sara Kujawa.

If you are in charge of family get togethers and are a little anxious because someone is attending with anxiety, PTSD or depression, or any of those other labels, my sincere suggestion is to avoid creating anxiety over it and just accept them for however they are and wherever they’re at in life. Just love them. Let them know you are just glad they are part of the family.

Here is a previous blogpost from a few years ago with some tips and tools for surviving the holidays.

My friend, who I’m just going to call E wrote this beautiful message and with permission I’m going to share here because I think it needs to be heard and taken to heart. (Thank you my friend<3)

The road we walk is shaped not only by the future we seek and the present we stand in, but by the lives that have touched us along the way.

Many of those lives do not make it to the destiny they were seeking, and so it falls to us; those still living, to keep breathing and keep fighting no matter what. To never let the memory of those who came before us die in vain.

We fight with a purpose that shall never surrender, that will never accept defeat. For we fight, not for glory, or for victory, but for the sake of those we love. To protect them and their futures. To safeguard them here and now.

Our purpose will never be swayed, it is written on the hearts of every man woman and child. We are one humanity and one world, and it is a World worth protecting.

Do not forget those who fall along the way, but rather, burn all the brighter on their behalf.

— E