{"id":5187,"date":"2021-07-03T12:37:00","date_gmt":"2021-07-03T04:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/darylchow.com\/frontiers\/?p=5187"},"modified":"2024-05-11T17:04:29","modified_gmt":"2024-05-11T09:04:29","slug":"trauma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/darylchow.com\/frontiers\/trauma\/","title":{"rendered":"Trauma Series"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Note: This is a compilation of Frontier Friday<\/a><\/strong>, a weekly Substack published, originally released on 3 Jul. 2021<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  1. Watch: The Wisdom of Trauma <\/a><\/strong>
    I just saw this documentary 2 weeks ago which features Gabor Mate. It is deeply moving. If you work at the intersection of addiction and trauma, this is a must-watch. (Hat tip to Cherie D!)

    Key Grafs:

    – trauma is not happens to you but what happens inside of you as a result of what happens to you. 
    – 64% of in-mates had 6 or more of ACE (adverse childhood events)
    – A predator knows who is unprotected
    – “When you felt pain as a child, who did you speak to?”
    – child don’t get traumatised because they get hurt. They get traumatised because they are *alone* with their hurt.
    – Attachment needs are  non-negotiable
    – first issue is not why the addiction but why the pain
    –  Myths of addiction:
      a. addiction is a choice
      b. Inherited disease 
    – Addiction is a normal response to trauma
    – Addiction is a solution to the problem 
      a. to feel alive
      b. to feel loved  
      c. to increase self-esteem

    – Homeless people:
      a acknowledge them
      b biggest impact: feeling looked down on
      c. when homeless pain gain housing, along of the pain and emotional stuff surfaces 

    – medical school almost seems to weed out those who are vulnerable 
    – modern meds not only separates mind from body but also from person from environment

    – trauma is a lifelong energy of pushing it down. the same energy can be transformed.<\/em>

    (Please pardon that these’s take-home points are mine. You’d need to watch the documentary to make more sense out of it.)
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  2. Bookworm:<\/strong> The Body Keeps Score<\/a><\/strong>

    You might have heard these words that “the body remembers what the mind forgets.” 
    This is a classic text by      Bessel van der Kolk M.D<\/a><\/strong>. Others in the sensorimotor Psychotherapy and somatic based therapies have taken these ideas further. 

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  3. Research: A<\/a>CE Studies<\/a><\/strong>
    The impact of adverse childhood events is well-documented. The 10 ACEs are: physical, sexual, emotional abuse; physical, emotional ne- glect; living with a family member who\u2019s addicted to alcohol or other drugs, is depressed, has other mental illness or who\u2019s imprisoned; witnessing a mother\u2019s abuse; divorce or separation.
    For people who have four types of childhood adversity \u2014 an ACE score of 4 \u2014 alcoholism risk increases 700<\/strong> percent; attempted suicide increases 1200 <\/strong>percent. Heart disease and cancer nearly double. People with high ACE scores have more marriages, more broken bones, more depression, more prescription drug use, more obesity.)

    Both the first 2 recommendation cite the ACE findings.
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  4. Listen: Richard Bentall on the causes of mental ill health<\/a><\/strong>
    I was stoked to learn that British psychologist Richard Bentall appeared in this BBC Podcast The Life Scientific<\/strong>. (His books Madness Explained, and Doctoring the Mind packs a punch).

    In this interview, he talked about the impact of trauma.

    Key Grafs:

    – childhood trauma (sexual abuse, bullying etc) , before the age of 16, increases the risk of psychosis by 3-fold.
    – dose-response: more severe the trauma, the greater the risk. 
    – a third of the patients would not be ill if they didnt have traumatic experiences
    – importance of enquiring and targeting early experiences.
    – indiv traumas are more negative than collective ones (e.g., earthquakes).<\/em>
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  5. Words Worth Contemplating: <\/strong>
    “Safety is not the absence of threat. It is the presence of connection.”<\/strong><\/em>
    ~ Gabor Mate.
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    Reflection:<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    What invisible wounds <\/a><\/strong>do we carry that needs the tenderness of our attention?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    PART II<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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    1. Research: Childhood Trauma as a a Predictor of Change in Couple and Family Therapy<\/a><\/strong>

      Hot off the press (my superhero Bruce Wampold is a co-author in this). 

      Two key findings:
      a.  People with a history of childhood trauma have greater symptoms of anxiety and depression at intake compared to persons without such experiences.

      b. Those who had been exposed to childhood abuse responded less to treatment measured weekly on family functioning than a person without a history of childhood abuse. 

      If you want to preview the article, click       here<\/a><\/strong>. 
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    2. Listen: Faling Together, by Rebecca Solnit<\/a><\/strong>
      Krista Tippett interviews author of       Paradise Built in Hell.<\/a><\/strong>
      Solnit offers a different narrative around our shared experiences of traumatic events. Worth listening.
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    3. Web-Read: Trigger Warnings Can Worsen Traumatic Memories<\/a><\/strong>
      I have not read the       original study<\/a><\/strong> from Flinders University, Australia (one of the first places that I presented for a conference actually), but I’m intrigued by the unintended consequence of provided trigger warnings, like the ones you see in the Netflix drama 13 Reasons Why. 
      I’ve been thinking about this for a few weeks, and I still can’t make headway about this. 
      If you’ve read the original paper and have thoughts around this, I would love to hear from you. 
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    4. Audio Course: Dan Hughes: Attachment in Action <\/strong>
      Some years ago I was working with youths in the care of the state on an outreach basis, and the work of Dan Hughes really helped me. (Hat tip to Duane Smith)

      Particularly, not just learning the theories of attachment, but how to turn the       content knowledge<\/a><\/strong> into relational, conversation knowledge. Watching Dan Hughes in action was really useful for me. In turn, this sparked off for me a creation of rituals–something that I feel our modernity is really missing for key transitions in our lives– for teens who were moving in with new caregivers. (More on the topic of Rituals in future missive)

      The tip here:
      a. First, figure where you are and your growth edge (we talked about this in the       Better Results<\/a><\/strong> book)
      b.  Watch a therapist do that in action.
      c. Figure your own way of doing by learning not what they say, but the principles behind it. 

      Here’s an excerpt from an interview with the late       Rich Simon and Dan Hughes<\/a><\/strong>. 
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    5. Words Worth Contemplating:\u00a0<\/strong>
      “<\/strong><\/em>In disasters people don’t fall apart, they fall together“<\/strong><\/em>
      ~ Rebecca Solnit.
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      Reflection:<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

      What can you do to bring people together? <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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      PART III<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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      1. Watch: Melissa Walker: Art can heal PTSD’s invisible wounds<\/a><\/strong>
        Creativity can play a vital role in healing. Here’s an older TED video on this topic of using art as a therapeutic means.
        (More on         invisible wounds<\/a><\/strong>).
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      2. Watch: Nadine Burke Harris: How childhood trauma affects health across a lifetime<\/a><\/strong>
        Another TED talk. A pediatrician talks about her experience of what looked like ADHD when it was actually the effects of trauma. 
        Like others recommendations before, many cite the research of the Adverse Childhood Events (ACE) studies. (For more on ACE, see )
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      3. Web-Read: How To Recover When The World Breaks You<\/a><\/strong>
        I didn’t know what this Japanese art form was called until I read this piece by prolific writer Ryan Holiday. 

        “There is a form of Japanese art called Kintsugi<\/strong>, which dates back to the 15th century. In it, masters repair broken plates and cups and bowls, but instead of simply fixing them back to their original state, they make them better. The broken pieces are not glued together, but instead fused with a special lacquer mixed with gold or silver. The legend is that         the art form<\/a><\/strong> was created after a broken tea bowl was sent to China for repairs. But the returned bowl was ugly \u2014 the same bowl as before, but cracked. Kintsugi was invented as a way to turn the scars of a break into something beautiful.”<\/em> 
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      4. Workbook: One Small Step<\/a><\/strong>
        For some reason, I’m a bit embarrassed to recommend this therapy workbook. Maybe because it feels so foreign to me now. But I recalled in my starting years, I needed stimulation of ideas of what’s creatively possible to explore working with people moving beyond the impact of trauma. (I just saw the dating of my copy of this book, Aug 2008. Wow).

        Yvonne Dolan offers a smorgasbord of ideas in this workbook. 
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      5. Words Worth Contemplating:\u00a0<\/strong>
        “<\/strong><\/em>Ring the bells that still can ring
        Forget your perfect offering.
        There is a crack, a crack in everything,
        That’s how the light gets in.“<\/strong><\/em>
        ~ Leonard Cohen, Anthem.\u00a0
        (Click\u00a0        here<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0to listen to the song)
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        Reflection:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

        The sharing of our brokenness brings people together more than the sharing of our successes.  

        Maybe that’s “how the light gets in.”<\/em>
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        If you would like to learn more topics that can help your professional development, subscribe to the Frontiers of Psychotherapist Development (FPD). On Frontiers Friday (FPD), we serve you directly to your Inbox highly curated recommendations each week.<\/em>
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