Healing the Trauma Story Without
Retraumatization: Postmodern
Counseling Tools for
Trauma Resolution
Jane Webber & J. Barry Mascari, Kean University
www.kean.edu/~jmascari
Preparing
compassionate,
trauma competent
Session Description
Retelling the trauma story can be terrifying for survivors. Babette Rothschild cautioned us , “The goal of trauma healing must be to
relieve, not intensify, suffering.” Thus new neurobiological, brain-body, and relational tools have evolved that are changing the course of
trauma treatment. Traditional talk therapies without an
understanding of safety in the relationship, stabilization, emotion and somatic self-regulation, and empowerment, could inadvertently lead to retraumatizing survivors.
In this session, we explore emotional, somatic , neurobiological,
What we know
1.
Most people experience at least one incident
of trauma in their lifetime.
2.
Many counselors and mental health
professionals are not trauma informed or are
trauma phobic.
3. Not all trauma survivors want or need to
process their trauma story.
Trauma Therapy Traps Lead to
Treatment Failures & Retraumtization
´
“The aim of the therapy was to
relive
traumatic
experiences,”
´
“The therapy was
prematurely focused on
processing trauma memories.
”
´
“The therapeutic focus…
was clearly too much
for the client”
´
“The therapist’s agenda had
superseded the
client’s
.”
Trap: Relive vs. Remember
Conventional
“Clients with PTSD must
revisit, review, and
process their memories in
order to recover from
their trauma”
(Rothschild, 2017, p. xxi)
PostModern
“I don’t want to propel any process that I don’t know that my client can stop”
´ Don’t wait to process your trauma memories to feel better.
´ You don’t need to look back
´ “Learn to recognize when we’ve
been triggered and then respond by relaxing our bodies” (Gentry, 2018, pp. 89-90
Trap: Accelerating Arousal
Tool: Process at a Reduced Arousal Level
“Without hitting the brakes, arousal will just build
and build.”
“The purpose of hitting the brakes and dropping
the level of arousal is not just to give a pause and
a sense of safety. It also…enables the therapy to
proceed at a reduced level of arousal.
Evolution of Trauma Treatment:
Looking Backward
´
1900 to 1990: Talking cure
´
Flooding, implosion therapy, prolonged exposure
(dropout rates 30%)
´
“The treatment of traumatic stress, for many
survivors, was as bad or worse than the symptoms
they experienced…It is no wonder many survivors
during this period chose to keep their symptoms
instead of enduring the rigors of this difficult
Paradigm Shift from Conventional
Trauma Treatment to Postmodern
´
Onno van der Hart & Dan Brown (1992)
“Abreaction revaluated”
Help survivors share narratives while calm and relaxed,
relieve distressing symptoms, and prevent dissociation
´
Judith Herman (1992) triphasic model of trauma recovery
´
Francine Shapiro (1989, 1995) EMDR
Building & Maintaining
THERAPEUTIC RELATIONSHIP
Relaxation/
Self-Regulation Constructing & Sharing
NARRATIVES Gentry & Baranowsky (2010)
Trap: Must Tell Trauma Story
“If I wanted to heal, I was told, I
would have to confront my past and
face down my traumatic memories.
This process proved to be so
TRAP: Focusing on the Story Rather Than
the Effects of the Story?
“Psychotherapy is about people
finding a way of getting along with
their own internal systems, basically.”
(van der Kolk).
Trap: Going Outside Window of Tolerance
Back to “Trauma Time” (
van der Hart)
Outside the window of tolerance, nobody
to trust
Tool: Return to the here and now
Use somatic approach—movement,
Trap: Client’s Need to Rush Story to Feel Relief
“Often, people who have a history of trauma want to
move quickly into the details of the trauma to gain
relief. I understand this desire, but my concern for you
at the moment is to help you establish a sense of
safety and support before moving into the traumatic
experiences.
Tool: “We want to avoid retraumatization, that
SUD
Subjective
Unit of
Trap: Bringing the Upper Brain Back too
Quickly
´
Tool: Stop talking about trauma if
client cannot describe what’s going
on
´
Can the client tell you what’s
Trap: Telling the Story Only with Words
´
Use multiple storytelling modalities-art
, sand
tray, drama, music
´
Use other senses
´
Processing trauma memory with fewer words
´
One line chapters
Reconstruct a Story of Hope Not Trauma
§
You are not the problem. The problem is
the problem.
§
You
can
separate/escape from the
problem.
§
You
can
change your relationship to the
problem. Deconstruct the dominant
(perpetrator’s) story and create your story.
Building & Maintaining
THERAPEUTIC RELATIONSHIP
Relaxation/
Self-Regulation
Constructing & Sharing
NARRATIVES
Gentry & Baranowsky (2010)
Trauma Recovery?
“We do not need to excavate the
past to eliminate triggers and
forever free ourselves form the
insidious effects of stress….Instead,
we can simply learn to
recognize
when we’ve been triggered and
then
respond
by relaxing our bodies
´
Jane Webber
[email protected]
´
J. Barry Mascari
[email protected]
´
FOR PPT.
www.kean.edu/~jmascari
´
Click on RESOURCES at the top. Look
References
Baranowski, A., & Gentry, E. (2015). Trauma practice: Tools for stabilization and recovery (3rd ed.). Boston, M: Hogrefe Publishing.
Gentry, E. (2016). Forward facing trauma therapy: Healing the moral wound. Sarasota, FL: Compassion Unlimited.
Grand, D. (2013). Brainspotting: The revolutionary new therapy for rapid and effective change. Boulder, CO: Sounds True.
Herman, J. (1992/1997/2015). Trauma and recovery: The aftermath of violence: From domestic abuse to political terror. New York, NY: Basic Books.
Levine, P. (1997). Waking the tiger: Healing trauma. Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books. Levine, P. ( 2017). In a unspoken voice: How the body releases trauma and releases goodness. Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books.
Rothschild, B. (2017). The body remembers volume 2: Revolutionizing trauma treatment. New York, NY: W. W. Norton.
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. (2014). Trauma-informed care in behavioral health services. Treatment Improvement Protocol (TIP) Series 57. Publication No. (SMA) 14-4816. Rockville, MD: Author.
Van der Hart, O. , & Brown, P. (1991, December). Abreaction reevaluated. Dissociation, 127-14.
Von der Kolk, B. (2014). The body keeps score: Brain, mind and body in the healing of trauma.
Webber, J. M., & Mascari, J. B. (Eds.). (2018). Disaster mental health counseling: A guide to preparing and responding (4th ed.). Alexandria, VA: American Counseling Association Foundation.
