Group Therapy PTSD

Over the last decade, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have drastically increased the need for effective mental health services and treatment for U.S. veterans and service members, especially those suffering from Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Nearly 1.5 million American service members have been deployed in Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) and Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) since the attack on the Twin Towers in September 2001 (Price, Gros, Strachan, Ruggiero, & Acierno, 2013). Approximately 25% of soldiers and wounded warriors returning home from OEF/OIF present with mental illness due to combat-related violence and other trauma exposure (Steinberg & Eisner, 2015). According to Price and colleagues (2013), OEF/OIF soldiers and veterans are at greater risk for developing mental illness compared to others who served in past military operations.

While there is agreement that trauma informed care generally refers to a philosophical stance integrating awareness and understanding of trauma and its ongoing impact on patients’ health and lives, there is not yet consensus on a definition or clarity on how the model can be applied in a variety of settings. The philosophical underpinnings of trauma informed care trace to the feminist movements of the 1970s (Burgess & Holstrom, 1974), and the emergence of child-advocacy centers and awareness and response to child abuse in the 1980s. In combination with the growth of research in combat-related posttraumatic stress after the Vietnam War, the focus then expanded to mental health practice, especially in the context of traumatic events. By the late 1990s and early 2000s, social work and mental health professionals began to articulate organizational frameworks for delivery of trauma informed care, as well as conceptual models based on scientific evidence about how traumatic stress impacts brains and behavior (Bloom, 1997; Harris & Fallot, 2001; Covington, 2002; Rivard, Bloom, & Abramovitz, 2003; Ko, Ford, Kassam-Adams, et al. 2008; Bloom, 2010). In 1998, SAMHSA launched the Women, Co-Occurring Disorders and Violence study, a seminal study in 27 sites over five years that examined trauma-integrated services counseling. Following that, the National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN) began identification and distribution of empirically supported trauma-specific mental health

The goal of training the staff and providers is to create a more understanding environment for the clients. This will be possible because the staff can recognize symptoms of posttraumatic-stress disorder, explore the client’s trauma and coping mechanisms, and decrease the need for medical attention. This goal can be measured by comparing the clients feedback before and after the training occurs. Trauma-informed care also teaches the clinician working with the client the symptoms of secondary trauma, retraumatization, and vicarious trauma to be on the look-out for. Their own self-care and how to handle and cope with the intense information of the client’s story will be discussed.

The term “Psychological trauma” refers to damage wrought from a traumatic event, which that damages one’s ability to cope with stressors. “Trauma” is commonly defined as an exposure to a situation in which a person is confronted with an event that involves actual or threatened death or serious injury, or a threat to self or others’ physical well-being (American Psychiatric Association, 2000). Specific types of client trauma frequently encountered by which therapists and other mental health workers frequently encounter in a clinical setting include sexual abuse, physical , or sexual assault, natural disasters such as earthquakes or tsunamis, domestic violence, and school or/and work related violence (James & Gilliland, 2001). Traumatic

An article written about the effects of sexual abuse in accordance with male victims, claims: “[t]hree perspectives of early family relationships and attachment theory, developmental psychopathology, and trauma theory provide a conceptual understanding as to why some victims are vulnerable to the effects of sexual abuse while others appear resilient to it.” Although the study's main objective is to understand the developmental effects of male CSA survivors, it also notes that the majority of the data collected about the psychological well being of the sample is also representative of female CSA survivors. In a similar study on the repercussions of sexual abuse in male victims, Scott Eastman depicts a table simply explaining the process of coping, or the problems tied to CSA. Much like a story line, there is a beginning a middle and an end after the initial incident, but not all survivors reach the stages of completion and often times face difficulties coping. In the middle stage of the process, is distraction, obsessive review. These are symptoms tied to PTSD, defined as a disorder which a traumatic event causes flashbacks, nightmares, and uncontrollable thoughts about the event. It may reasonably be concluded that the obsessive thoughts are tied to PTSD because reviewing the traumatic experience may give the illusion of understanding to the survivor. In the final Stage of the process, following acceptance, is

Anyone who deals regularly with victims of trauma or is exposed to graphic pictures or text of trauma, can experience the effects of secondary or vicarious trauma. Vicarious trauma (VT) will affect thinking, while secondary traumatic stress (STS), or compassion fatigue, affects feelings and behavior of the counselor. The purpose of this paper is to discuss man-made or natural disasters as well as personal trauma, and the counselor’s role in these situations. Skills to help the counselor deal with the effects of vicarious trauma will also be discussed in this assignment.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder also known as PTSD occurs after life-threatening events. In the military those life threatening events can come from being in a combat zone. Soldiers who come back from combat are not required to have counseling, and if they do it is sometimes seen as a weakness. Getting our soldiers a minimum of three months of counseling to help with PTSD should be mandatory because, they will have stressors, suffer from mental and physical afflictions, and may feel that getting help will be a sign of weakness.

Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is caused by traumatic events such as wars and physical abuse. Patients with this disorder must undergo a variety of treatments to control its symptoms. Each culture is affected differently since people are raised based on their own culture’s beliefs. Gender also plays a big role in how the patients react to the disorder showing how the cultural view of gender changes the perspective of PTSD, there are different types of therapy that help to control it, desensitization, cognitive behavioral therapy, group and hypnotherapy not only no civilian patients are affected, war veterans has the most cases of PTSD. Gender also plays a big role in how the patients react to the disorder showing how the cultural view

PTSD, or post-traumatic stress disorder, is an ailment of the mind that occurs when the brain experiences or witnesses a life-threatening event. This includes military combat, natural disasters, terrorist incidents, serious accidents, physical or sexual abuse in adulthood and childhood, or the threat of murder (source and shit). Those who have this disorder suffer from re-experiencing the trauma (including intrusive thoughts of the event, nightmares and flashbacks) emotional arousal (easily irritated, trouble sleeping, and jumpy behavior), emotional numbness, and avoidance of people, places, and activities that remind them of the trauma (ADAA source). For those who develop this disorder, life can become a struggle

Sexual assault in the military against women is a very real and serious issue in the military. Sexual assault is more likely to cause PTSD than any other events throughout a woman’s lifetime. Not every woman who experiences traumatic events develop PTSD but preexisting factors can increase chances of developing PTSD. Some factors may include: “Having a past mental health problem (for example depression or anxiety), experienced a very severe or life-threatening trauma, were sexually assaulted, were injured during the event, had a severe reaction at the time of the event, Experienced other stressful events afterwards, do not have good social support” (Veteran Affairs). For women, PTSD symptoms are different than what men experience. Women compared

This lack of social support, along with other variables, accounted for 63% of the variance in the symptoms of PTSD in their sample. Consistent with this finding, Schumm, Briggs-Phillips, & Hobfoll (2006) also examined the association between perceived social support and PTSD among women who had been victims of CSA. Results of this study showed that negative perceptions of their current social support increased the women’s levels of PTSD

The literature has shown children dealing with PTSD have many intervention tools that can be administered by clinicians in direct practice. PTSD can present symptoms that are often diagnosed as anther disorder such as oppositional defiant, conduct, mild TBI, and separation anxiety. There are many evidence-based intervention tools used in treatment such as recovery techniques, pharmacotherapy, psychoeducation, psychodynamic and cognitive behaviour therapy. Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) is the most used intervention tool in direct practice, and it is used in countries around the world. CBT is used with children with different ethnicities with ages ranging from preschool to high school. Many clinicians use CBT with other intervention treatment

These articles could be applied to gender issues in the context of clinical practice because it elaborates on the awareness of men being victims of military sexual assault, not just women. Civilian health care providers should be trained in providing resources and assessments to both genders of sexual assault. In addition, depending on the gender of the victim, sexual assault psychologically affects everyone differently. There are those who are resilient and some who cannot live with the burden. The articles also talks about myths that exist regarding sexual assault only happening to service women and not service men. This is obviously not true, however the insight the articles gave regarding eradicating myths of sexual assault that are based

Treatment for any illness especially mental disorders can take some time to work. The case is still true with PTSD. There are many different ways to treat PTSD and it is case by case which is best for each individual. Therapy and medications have proved to be the most successful forms of treatment. In the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs article about the different forms of treatment, it talks about the few different forms of therapy used(PTSD: National Center for PTSD). Cognitive therapy helps an individual understand that how thoughts and stressors can make your symptoms worse. Therapists that focus on this type of therapy work to learn how to point out things in externally and internally that cause triggering thoughts and how to avoid

Steenkamp et al. (2016) – due to a longitudinal study and veterans being prone to early death, more than 20% of the participants had died. Simon et al. (2016) – identified CSA processing at one point in time. A longitudinal study that produces the same strategies over time would produce more reliability. Weiss et al. (2015) did a study examining PTSD and related symptoms among SM and heterosexual women. They used the umbrella term SM but did not account for individual differences among individuals who identified as lesbian, bisexual, and others. Fredette et al. (2016) did a systematic review to examine social roles, CBT, and PTSD. They examined how each impacts the other. They mentioned that it is hard to study how social support is administered in cases of trauma. There needs to be further research on the details of positive versus negative social support; as well, how those factors play into treatment seeking and