I’ve just finished reading this fascinating book, and really wish that I’d read it before doing any real-world therapy volunteering… or better still, wish we would have been taught - in our diploma - the main thrust of it, which isn’t at all to do with hearing clients retell their trauma experiences - which the author clearly states can cause real harm to the client if they don’t have the foundational stability to manage such work.
But rather it describes methods of tracking the clients PTSD symptoms and psychological stability, and then explains how to steadily
empower them with tools and resources that help build their resilience, discover how to reduce and manage their PSTD symptoms,
place their trauma in its rightful place - a past memory, not a present reality, and reconnect with the positive, powerful aspects of themselves that were overwhelmed and overshadowed by the persistence of their PTSD
It’s only after this ‘Stabilisation phase’ that the client is offered the opportunity to actually retell and reprocess the traumatic memories, which liberate the client to be able to remember the event without the life-limiting effects they once had.
* PTSD is characterised by a loss of control, where clients suffer intrusive symptoms (for more than a month) related to a traumatic event, including one or more of the following… involuntary memories, recurring nightmares, dissociation (including flashbacks), distressing psychological and/or physiological responses to trauma triggers.
