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Trauma Recovery: Sessions With Dr. Matt<\/u><\/em> is exactly what any person affected by PTSD (the victim and\/or family member) needs. <\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n Beth Fehlbaum and Matt E. Jaremko<\/p><\/div>\n This book is a starting place for hurting people who are seeking healing, either on their own or in partnership with a therapist or other helping person. Dr. Matt E. Jaremko maximizes readers\u2019 understanding of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) by explaining its origins in easy-to-understand language and offering insight into the process of reclaiming a life from trauma. Beth Fehlbaum shares her insight from the perspective of a person who experienced trauma, was once scared to death about going into therapy, and is now recovered.<\/p>\n Most powerfully, Dr. Jaremko and Beth Fehlbaum created characters: a psychologist, Scott \u201cDr. Matt\u201d Matthews, and his ongoing therapy group, to illustrate how recovery can and does happen. The situations these characters survive; their struggles and triumphs of reclaiming their lives, and their potential for thriving are all realistic. We reassure people who are terrified of trying therapy by providing them with a \u201cfly on the wall\u201d perspective of observing the recovery process.<\/p>\n For example, there is a scene in Chapter 2 in which Felicia, a 34-year-old survivor of sexual assault, is reluctant to enter Dr. Matt\u2019s office for her first group therapy session. The reader gets to experience exactly what Felicia feels as she is sitting on the swing on the wrap-around porch of Dr. Matt\u2019s 19th<\/sup> century Victorian home that has been converted into a therapy office. Further, the fictional Dr. Matt displays the actual verbal and non-verbal responses that a real-life therapist with 30 years of experience has had shaped to help reluctant clients face the terrifying tasks of treatment. Trauma Recovery: Sessions with Dr. Matt<\/em> is full of moving and elucidating scenes like it, and all the while, the science behind these scenes is explained in easy-to-understand language and concepts. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n Understanding How PTSD\nCan Become Post-Traumatic Growth<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Part One: Trauma\u2019s Role in Robbing the Victim of Important Life Values\u00a0By\u00a0Matt\u00a0E.\u00a0Jaremko<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n In the early 1980\u2019s, my Monday evenings were spent as\nco-leader of an open-ended therapy and support group for Vietnam veterans at\nthe Memphis Vet Center, a storefront clinic and service center housed in\ndowntown Memphis. The Vet Centers were the VA\u2019s program to make services more\nintimate and available to veterans separate from the larger VA hospitals Most group participants had psychological and behavioral\nproblems associated with Post-traumatic Stress Disorder. But as I listened to\nthem talk about themselves and to each other, the most valuable lessons I\nlearned from these veterans had more to do with their strengths than their\nweaknesses. First, one of the biggest tragedies of their military experience\nwas not necessarily the PTSD symptoms of heightened anxiety, moodiness, nightmares,\nflashbacks, shame and\/or horror of having witnessed or committed horrible acts.\n For many, the worst outcome of serving\nin that war was being robbed of the value system they believed prior to their\nservice. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Most Vietnam veterans volunteered in order to contribute to\na cause they thought noble and worth their sacrifice: to protect a democratic\nway of life by providing a check on Communism. Unfortunately, after serving, many\nvets concluded that their sacrifice had been wasted by politicized leadership agendas\nand military tactics that made little sense. The veterans were disillusioned\nbecause they began to see they were being used<\/em>\nby their country, rather than serving<\/em>\ntheir country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Moreover, when those combatants returned home, their\npatriotism was attacked and shamed by the process of citizens involved a war-protest\nmovement. Home was a place in which the\nvets no longer fit. They were hurting, alone and bitter about what they had\nseen and done. The ideals upon which they had decided to serve had been shattered.\nIn the resulting \u201cvalues vacuum,\u201d only the misery of powerful PTSD symptoms was\nleft. Additionally, they were rarely\ntaught how to replace or renew the compromised values system. <\/p>\n\n\n\n A second thing I learned from those Vietnam Veterans was the\nimportance of the \u201cplatoon\u201d, usually a squad of 10 or 12 men. Even though\ntogether for only 13 months, the bond that quickly developed among the platoon was\nvery powerful and motivating. It was not uncommon in the group sessions to hear\nmen talk about how much they cared for the others in their basic small unit. In\nfact, often it was only other vets these men felt comfortable with and\/or\ntrusted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I came to realize the healing power in those small groups.\nThe Memphis Vet Center Monday Night Therapy and Support group became a\n\u201cplatoon\u201d where vets could work with each other to rediscover or replace their\nlost values. Once they accomplished this values clarification, many found more\nstrength to cope with the symptoms of PTSD because they became more receptive\nto learning the cognitive and behavioral skills helpful in rebuilding life\nafter trauma.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Traumatic Experiences\nChange What Victims Consider Valuable\/Important In Life <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Since those days at the Vet Center, I have been honored to\nbe involved in the treatment of many other folks who had traumatic events in\ntheir lives, including Childhood Sexual Abuse, motor vehicle accidents, crime victimization,\nnatural disasters and sexual assault. A\ncommon feature of these trauma survivors is this loss of belief in\npreviously-held values. Values can be defined as life activities or behavioral outcomes\nconsidered important, even vital, in a healthy life. A partial list of values considered essential\nto healthy living would include but not be limited to perseverance, respect,\nhonor, love, sacrifice, truth, freedom, compassion, bravery, kindness, wisdom,\nsafety and trust. Clarity about what is important in life is often changed for trauma\nvictims. Like the combat veterans\u2019 loss of guiding patriotic values, survivors\nof Childhood Sexual Abuse (CSA) spend the first 8\u201310 years of life learning\ntrust, only to find that it was no more authentic than a politician\u2019s promise.\nMany battered spouses go through life in fear for their physical safety, only\nto have such fears confirmed by violence, thus eliminating a valuable sense of\nsecurity. A vacuum is formed where once there was a strongly-held belief about\nan important feature of life. Without a sense of knowing what is important in\nlife, trauma victims find less motivation to engage in the hard work of facing unpleasant\nsymptoms. Avoiding the constant negative symptoms becomes their main focus of\nlife.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Even a brief examination of the history of humans shows an incredible\ncapacity to cope with the most dire of circumstances when focused on values\nmeaningful to the culture or social group at large. In the absence of those\nvalues, coping with hardship is greatly reduced, maybe even non-existent.\nIndividuals have sacrificed much, even their own lives, when pursuing the\n\u201chigher good.\u201d But when not clear about\nthat great good, victims tend to remain stuck in self-preoccupation. The values\nvacuum must be addressed to find increased motivation and strength in coping post-trauma.\nSince the main method by which we learn values in the first place is through\nsocial interaction with important people in our lives, group process is a\npowerful mechanism by which victims can examine changed values systems and\nbegin to renew and replace them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rates of Trauma and\nOvercoming It<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n A recent study (Kilpatrick, et al, 2013<\/a>)\nreveals that over 80% of 3000 people surveyed report having experienced a major\ntrauma. 80%! These traumas include physical or sexual abuse-53%; death of a\nfamily member due to violence-51%; natural disaster-50%; accident\/fire-48%; witnessing\nphysical or sexual assault-33%; and combat or warzone exposure-8%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Most victims of trauma (including most veterans of military\ncombat) \u201cget over it\u201d in 12-18 months. But 20% don\u2019t. They develop PTSD. What\nis the difference between the 80% who adjust and the 20 % who can\u2019t \u201cget over\nit\u201d? <\/p>\n\n\n\n An entire article can and should be devoted to the\ncomplicated concept of \u201cgetting over it.\u201d For starters, even if victims can get\npast the trauma, their life narrative is forever changed. Plus, somewhere\nbetween 40-60% of folks who have a life trauma end up eventually saying that\ntheir life is better for it: an outcome called post-traumatic growth (Calhoun\nand Tedeschi, 2103<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n In fact, if one thinks about it carefully, a good question\nto consider is WHY IS THERE NOT MORE PTSD, if over 80% of people report having\nhad trauma in life? My experience with\nVietnam veterans and other trauma survivors has led me to the conclusion that\nfolks who \u201cget over it\u201d address the destruction of their values system in some\nkind of group interaction, formal or otherwise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Changes to One\u2019s Life\nNarrative<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n PTSD is a disorder of \u201cbeing stuck\u201d in a never-ending cycle\nof avoiding the unpleasant experiences, believing and\/or trusting in nothing\nonce-valued and a lack of belief that something can be done to change this\ncycle (self-efficacy). <\/p>\n\n\n\n In order to overcome the effects of trauma, a victim can\u2019t\njust learn new skills to cope. The altered values system must be addressed. The sad fact of the matter is that traumatic experience\ndrastically changes one\u2019s life narrative. The purpose and meaning of the life\ntraumatized are shaken to the core. <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n The narrative of a life can be going along great,\nmaybe even according to one\u2019s life plan, and then WHAM<\/em>!\u2014a trauma happens, and the narrative changes. Before trauma, a\nglimpse of the internal dialogue might be summarized as \u201cEverything is okay\/I\u2019m\nin charge\/I like my life\/ I have hope\/this is fun, if not hard.\u201d After trauma,\nhowever, it becomes \u201cThe hurt is unbearable\/I can see no end to it\/I can\u2019t do\nanything to stop this pain\/others don\u2019t understand\/nothing matters anyway\/my\nlife is awful\/I\u2019m awful\/HELP\/leave me alone.\u201d \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n That changed narrative must be re-written to include a new\nstory line, one that rediscovers or replaces the lost value system. The second\nhalf of this two-part article examines the process of how one\u2019s internal\ndialogue creates a life narrative and how that life narrative can be changed so\nthat post-trauma reactions can become post-trauma growth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Trauma Recovery: Sessions with Dr. Matt Trauma Recovery: Sessions With Dr. Matt is exactly what any person affected by PTSD (the victim and\/or family member) needs. This book is a starting place for hurting people who are seeking healing, either on their own or in partnership with a therapist or other helping person. Dr. Matt … Continue reading ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/drmattbook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/20180414_095445.jpg\")
The moving and sometimes gut-wrenching scenes depicted in this book will have the reader cheering for the struggling patients while at the same time coming to several \u201cA-ha!\u201d moments when their struggles are explained in psychologically sound concepts and processes.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/drmattbook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Hughes-Review-300x168.jpg\")
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\nGroup sizes ranged from 3 to 20 participants, homeless vets alongside retired\nofficers. Most attendees came to only a couple of sessions, but there was a\nsizable block who were \u201cregulars\u201d attending dozens of sessions in the 3 years I\nwas involved leading the group. <\/p>\n\n\n\n