Traumas
Vergleich: Siehe: Gemütsverfassingen + Anhang (Binal Master)
Trauma stones: Help people going through a physical, mental, emotional or
spiritual trauma. Absorb and transmit the energy. Boji stones (Pluto),
Morganite (Venus), Obsidian (Pluto), Rhodochrosite (Venus), Rhodonite (Saturn),
and tourmaline, black, bi-color and tri-color (Uranus).
Homeopathic treatment in Post Traumatic
Disorder
Acon: „In drei Tagen sterbe ich!“
„Homöopathisches Beruhigungsmittel!“ Sagt seine Todesstunde voraus! Nach starkem Wind, Schreck, Schock oder Angst. Hochakute Situationen. Heftig und schmerzhaft.
Plötzliches hohes Fieber, starker Kopfschmerz, Schreck und Schocksituationen mit Unruhe. Typische Situation: Menschen, die z.B. nach einem Autounfall im Schockzustand
unruhig umherlaufen. Kind verletzt?
Mama braucht zunächst Acon., damit sie die Ruhe bewart und dem Kind gut beistehen kann!
Anaphylaktischer Schock: Apis C
200, bei Blaufärbung Lach. C
200
Chara
[Ed Schmookler, Ph.D.]
Healing the vital force damaged by trauma is a critical challenge in
homeopathy. Most of our clients have experienced some trauma, many of them
severely, some of them catastrophically.
With homeopathy we can play a key role in the healing of trauma, because
we can stimulate healing of the vital force, which receives much of the impact
of trauma.
Psychotherapists can help clients face the emotions that surface when
long buried trauma emerges and can help the person forge a new life. But
homeopaths can bring relief
to a vital force misshapen by trauma. Trauma can bruise, oppress, beat,
puncture, fragment, shatter, and even destroy the vital energy that shapes our
lives.
Homeopathy good modality of healing the kind of damage that trauma causes.
Trauma freezes people in time. Years after a trauma is over, people are still
living it:
the
the rape survivor still fears the shadows in the alleyway,
the incest victim still fears intimacy,
the man beaten in infancy still wishes to die.
Trauma locks people into the past. Homeopathy unlocks frozen
functioning:
Sulphur releases rage pent up in depression,
Sepia moves a woman out of post-partum immobility;
Nat-m. moves old salted away grief into tears
again. Successful homeopathic treatment allows immobilized life to flow again.
Tab.: for patients whose spiritual-physical
constitution has been "loosened" by culture shock (visit to India)
and find themselves troubled by all manner of "spirits," it may be
tried as an injection in high potency (DD.: Olibanum).
Stann-met.
3 Levels of trauma:
Trauma can impact different levels of the organism, and it is helpful to
be clear at what level one is working when working with survivors of trauma.
The three levels of trauma are:
Basic Trauma,
Interpersonal Trauma,
Developmental Trauma.
We shall examine each in turn.
1. Level - Basic Trauma
This level is common to all trauma, from car accidents to ritual abuse.
No matter what the trauma, all trauma shares some features in common. This has
been a surprise to me.
I worked for many years with
Many of them shared features in common:
a broiling, brooding rage,
a sense of injustice, shock,
an inability to move out of the past, mistrust,
difficulty maintaining relationships.
My surprise came when a man who had an auto accident, a woman robbed at
gunpoint, and a man raped as a child all looked like
Their suffering was similar and so was their way of being in the world.
Examples: accidents of all kinds (car, sports, industrial) and natural
disasters (earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, fires).
2. The Features of Basic Trauma
The primary feature of all trauma is overwhelmed. Trauma by its very
nature presents the organism with more than it is accustomed to handle. By
definition, trauma takes us
beyond our ordinary capacity for coping. I am accustomed to going down
an elevator at normal speeds. I may be a bit pushed to be crowded in with far
too many people;
I would be very stressed to be stuck in an elevator all day caught
between floors in the dark.
But I am entirely unprepared for it to descend suddenly four stories
without brakes. That would be traumatic. But in going beyond what we are used
to coping with, trauma
does not catch our system entirely by surprise, for we have survival
mechanisms built in to deal with overwhelming experience.
The two major responses that arise in response to sudden and extreme
danger are hyper-reactivity and shutdown.
Hyper-reactive response: the primary defence/attack mode of fight or
flight. People become hypervigilant, startle easily, and are ready to run or
attack at the slightest stimuli.
They also have repeated flashbacks and nightmares relating to the
trauma.
Picture of Hyper-reactivity
You come out to the waiting room to meet your client, and he looks up in
surprise. He looks you intently in the eye, and pulls his hand away quickly
when you shake his hand. "I'm not myself," he says, when you settle
down in the office. "I'm jumpy, and I can't sleep. Ever since the
accident, my mind isn't working right. I keep going over and over what
happened. I can't seem to make it stop. And then," he says, starting to
get agitated, "every time I go out, I react in ways I shouldn't. I don't understand
what's happening with me. Sometimes, I think I'm going crazy.
When people are walking on the sidewalk towards me, I feel like they are
coming right at me. I get mad. I get mad real easily these days. The other day,
at a fast food place,
I almost got in a
fight with this kid that bumped into me. People just piss me off. I
didn't use to be this way."
Shut-down (Thanatose.)
The other pole in traumatic response is shutdown. When an organism
becomes overwhelmed, it has built-in responses to protect it from too much
reaction. Physiological shutdown is shock.
The periphery closes so that the vital functions within the core of the
organism can be preserved. Shock has a quality that is unmistakable once you
become familiar with it. It is a combination
of frozenness, pallor, and brittleness. This can be lodged in the system
and emerge many years after the trauma, when the trauma is accessed.
Psychological shutdown in trauma is emotional
numbing and avoidance of stimuli that remind people of the trauma.
People become detached, unemotional, and unable to have normal feelings. They
avoid situations, such as public places or
open spaces or closed in spaces or crowed places which remind them of
where they were hurt; or they may avoid people who remind them of people who
hurt them. The deepest level of
shutdown is depression, which often accompanies Post Traumatic Stress
Disorder.
Picture of Shutdown
She sits on the chair facing you. She looks stunned. You ask her
questions, and there is a short pause before she answers. She sometimes draws a
blank. Her face looks blank, staring straight
ahead. She slumps back in her chair. "What are you feeling these
days?" you ask. "I don't know. Not much." She sits and waits.
You ask for more. "I stay home and watch TV a lot.
I just sit in the house. I don't really want to do anything. My
boyfriend comes over, but it isn't the same anymore. I really don't care if he
comes over or not. It bothers me that I feel that way.
I know I should feel different. Ever since I got hit by the car, I don't
really have interests in anything." Long silence. Her eyes look sunken in.
Most trauma survivors have both the activation and the shutdown going on
simultaneously: they are driving full speed ahead with the brakes on. One
reason that trauma has such devastating
effects on the economy of the organism is that it is a real burn-out.
Hyper-reactivity combined with shutdown can overload and consequently exhaust
the nervous system, the immune system,
and the neuro-endrocrinological system.
People with disorders of these systems often have trauma in their
background. Trauma thus becomes fertile ground for homeopathic treatment.
Here are examples of some rubrics one might use in such cases.
Fear, happen, that something terrible will
Sensitive, (oversensitive)
Disturbed, nightmare by
Irritability
Shock, injury from
Sleepless, frightened easily
Examples of remedies one might consider would be:
Acon.: perhaps our best first aid in trauma, along
with Arnica. For the shock stage of trauma. Shock becomes embedded in the
energy structure and does not necessarily pass after trauma
is over. It can remain in the system for decades, emerging only as the
trauma is uncovered again. Aconite can be used many, many years after traumas
of all kinds to help remove shock from the system.
The best picture of Aconite is to my mind in Gibson's Studies of
Homeopathic Remedies, where he describes the nature of the poisoning by this
plant. It is a state of freezing anoxia. The feeling state associated with
Aconite is, "It happened too suddenly for me to accommodate, so I'm
stopping and going inside to preserve myself."
Arn.: primary remedy for treating physical injuries, including physical
abuse. Again, even years after the trauma, Arnica can be successfully used to
bring about healing of trauma. A key aspect of this remedy is that the person
does not wish to be approached for fear of being hurt again. Its feeling state
is "I need to stay still and go inside to heal. Don't come near or draw me
out."
2. Level - Interpersonal Trauma
A car accident, an industrial accident, an earthquake, or a fire can
leave people suffering from PTSD. But when the injury is at the hands of
another person, when it comes from intentional violation, new features enter
in.
Even though all trauma has impact on a person's relationships,
interpersonal violence is more devastating. People lose their trust and their
sense of personal power more deeply. Thus, what you are treating is different
and in a sense deeper than when treating Basic Trauma alone.
Examples of Interpersonal Trauma are war, rape, and armed robbery.
Murder is another example which can impact others related to the victim.
Another kind of Interpersonal Trauma is loss of a loved one, especially sudden
loss.
The Features of Interpersonal Trauma
The two kinds of Interpersonal we encounter most frequently are
interpersonal violence and loss.
Interpersonal Violence
When one person commits violence upon another, all of the responses of
Basic Trauma are activated - hyper-reactivity and shutdown. But in addition to
this, deeper levels of the self are violated, and different responses occur.
This occurs at two levels: one is in the relationship to others, and the
other in relationship to oneself.
When people have been violated they not only fear and avoid the
perpetrator; they also tend to generalize and mistrust all other people as
well. Basic Trauma breaks the bubble of invulnerability people carry around
themselves.
We generally go around assuming ourselves safe, even though we may know
that things can happen to us. When we are traumatized this illusion of safety
is
broken. Energetically, the aura around a person which serves as a
cushion against intrusive stimulation collapses, and the person feels exposed
to danger. But, in addition, when people have been violated by others, the
native trust that people feel toward others is fractured, and they live in
mistrust. They also often feel abandoned. This is universally true in abused
children, but it often happens with adults who were raped or who were harmed by
war. Where was the protection? Why did this happen to me?
Interpersonal violence also disrupts the sense of self. Through
violation, people experience helplessness and powerlessness. The usual impact
of Interpersonal Trauma is
a lowering of self-confidence and self-value. People feel bad about
themselves. Very often this is experienced as shame. Being beaten or raped by
another is a deeply shaming experience. In addition, people feel immense rage
at being violated. The sense of self is marred and the relationship to others
disturbed.
Because trust, empowerment, and value have been so violated in
Interpersonal Trauma, it is important for us as practitioners to treat such
clients in a way that builds trust and supports empowerment. Even when the
treatment is not psychotherapy, the relationship is essential in the healing
process.
Trust is supported by empathy, authenticity, and mirroring. Letting your
clients know that you understand something of how they feel, being yourself,
and telling them what you understand about how they experience their lives will
help them feel "met" by you. Being open and being yourself will help
people feel safe. Expressing doubt about their experience, minimizing its impact,
or being cold or arrogant will reduce trust. It may take a long time for a
trauma client to come to trust you.
You can help your clients feel empowered by including them in your
understanding of the healing process and allowing them as much choice as makes
sense. Make sure that informed consent is complete, let them know what can
happen from the remedies, and let them make choices about when and how they are
to be treated. For example, some clients who have been abused by oral sex may
prefer to take the remedy themselves rather than have the remedy put under the
tongue by the practitioner.
Picture of
Interpersonal Violence
She sits, crying. "Ever since the rape, I'm not the same. I used to
enjoy life. I'd go out and have a good time. I loved my boyfriend. I guess I
still love him, but we're not getting along any more, at least not like we used
to.
We fight, about nothing really. I just don't trust him. He wants to have
sex all the time, and I don't like it as much as I used to. To tell you the
truth, I'd just as soon he'd leave me alone. I tell him I don't want to, but
then I feel bad about myself. Sometimes I feel like I'm just no good. Then
other times, I think it's him."
Prototypical Case Example
Here is a prototypical example of such a case, combining several actual
cases. A woman comes in who was a victim of a robbery two years ago. Since that
time, in addition
to the standard symptoms of Basic Trauma, she has also had a severe
disturbance in her relationships. She has difficulty in trusting anyone. She
feels she was "shafted" by her employer, whom she warned about the
possible dangers of robbery. She is angry at the employer and at its
representative, the insurance company who is paying for her treatment. She also
has trouble trusting her own judgment, since she feels she should have left her
employment after they failed to heed her warning.
She is depressed, her relationship with her partner has deteriorated,
and she doesn't like herself much, because she is ashamed of her distrust and
even dislike of other people that has come about since the robbery.
Rubrics one might use could include:
Suspicious, (mistrustful)
Confidence, want of self
Rage, (fury)
Aversion, (being approached/to all persons)
Forsaken, feeling
Ailments from mortification
Remedies that one might use might be:
Staph.: sexually abused daughter, he feels shame, and often he will project
this shame into her: look what you made me do, you are so bad. In addition,
sexual abuse, because it is so secret and because it arouses feelings of
pleasure at the same time as it violates, is deeply shaming. This shame does
not go away.
Is one of our best shame remedies [ailments from (suppressed)
mortification], and it is one of our best remedies for sequelae of sexual
abuse. It is good for the suppressed rage that arises in abuse. A child often
cannot afford to express the rage she or he feels against the perpetrator; it
would make the situation even more dangerous.
Staph. can bring rage back to the
forefront and return shame to its rightful owner, the perpetrator.
Staph is also, incidentally, almost a specific for trauma involving
cuts. Its feeling state is, "There is something rotten in me; I dare not
fight back."
Ign.: prominent remedy for sudden loss or the loss of relationships that
don't go too deep. It is also good for people who get stuck in a "black hole,"
one of the common subjective phenomena that accompanies trauma.
In trauma, including sudden loss, feelings often get stuck, unable to
release.
Ign. can sometimes be of use here. Nux-v. + Ign. have strychnine as one of
its constituents, both have the spastic working-against-itself quality. So it
has somatizing and tensing shared by Nux-v and Rhus-t. I think Ign. primarily tensing
against the expression of grief and rage. A client obsessing about a boyfriend,
calling him and going
to his house at all hours and raging at him, collapsing in constant
grief, unable to move on, came out of it after a dose of Ign. The feeling state
of Ign. is, "I am tightly immersed in grief."
3. Three - Developmental Trauma
When Interpersonal Trauma (or severe Basic Trauma) impacts early during
childhood, then it has the deepest impact of all. It is while the tree is still
growing, that the limbs can become most easily deformed. People with
Developmental Trauma suffer from more than PTSD; their personality structures have
become altered - it is more than a condition, it becomes part of the being.
As one of my clients put it, "Recovery from incest is like trying
to remove egg from the batter after the cake is baked." Thus, the tasks of
healing are more complex than with Basic Trauma or Interpersonal adult trauma.
You must help the person heal from Basic Trauma, Interpersonal Trauma,
and the impact on the whole personality structure.
Most Developmental Trauma come in the form of abuse. The different kinds
of abuse are physical, sexual, emotional, spiritual, and ritual.
As we go through the layers, from Basic, to Interpersonal, to
Developmental, we are, generally speaking, moving from acute to chronic. People
usually recover faster and
more easily from an earthquake than from a rape and from an adult
experience of rape than from childhood sexual abuse. Therefore, the choice of
remedies will sometimes reflect the depth of the trauma.
Generally, in treating Basic Trauma we will be thinking of acute
remedies; in treating Interpersonal Trauma, we'll be using remedies that work
at an intermediate depth; and
in treating Developmental Trauma, we will work with remedies that reach
much deeper into the organism, even down to the miasmatic level.
Developmental Trauma shares all the features of Basic and Interpersonal
Trauma, but it has the added dimension of impact on personality and character
structure.
When we treat Developmental Trauma, our work tends to be more complex,
deeper, and slower than when working with purely Basic Trauma or adult
Interpersonal Trauma.
Most trauma cases I see are Developmental Trauma cases. Even in
situations where there has been an accident or a rape or war experience, very
often there is also a background of childhood trauma. This results in a more prolonged
recovery. If you are treating someone for a recent trauma and recovery is
slower than seems reasonable, it may be that there is additional trauma in the
background, which can sometimes be discovered through inquiry.
Kinds of Abuse
Knowing about the different kinds of abuse you might encounter may help
you avoid going into shock and getting vicarious PTSD, when you hear peoples'
stories.
Physical abuse
Many, many children are hit. There is controversy about whether this is
at all necessary. Alice Miller, in For Your Own Good, describes the
consequences of what she calls "poisonous pedagogy" of the past few
centuries, in which parents have justified serious aggression against their
children by claiming it is in the child's best interests.
Most of the physical abuse I have seen as a clinician, however, comes in
the form of severe beatings, usually unpredictable. It is therefore usually not
a form of discipline.
The movie A Boy's Story, depicts physical abuse and its frightening and
degrading impact. Physical abuse frightens people and damages their
self-esteem.
Picture of Physical Abuse
"It would happen when he'd been drinking. When he was sober, my
father was actually easy to get along with. I loved him. But then at night, I'd
listen for the door, and when it would slam, I'd know he was drunk. My whole
body would freeze, and I'd sit in my room and wait. Sometimes I'd hear him and
my mom yelling. Then after awhile I'd hear them fighting. One time he pushed her
down the stairs. I felt so terrible. I hated him. But I also feel so ashamed
that I didn't do anything about it." "Could you have done
something?" "I don't know. I was seven." Long pause. "Other
times, he'd come into my room, with that terrible look in his eyes. It was like
he didn't even see me.
He'd pull me off my bed and start whaling on me. One time, he threw me
across the room into a wall. I hate him. Maybe it's because of him that I can't
get too close to anybody."
Emotional abuse
Sometimes this is more painful than physical abuse, because its impact
is closer to the core. (see Vithoulkas) Parents who belittle, threaten, harass,
criticize, intimidate, and rage at their children can leave deep, traumatic
scars that seriously warp their development.
I think that most people have some degree of emotional abuse in growing
up. The manifestations probably cover most remedies, depending upon severity
and kind of abuse.
I think it would be too hard to do a group anamnesis, because the kinds
of abuse and responses vary too much. An excellent book on the subject, also by
Alice Miller, is Drama of the Gifted Child, which most people seem to be able
to identify with.
Sexual abuse
Whether by a stranger or by a family member, sexual abuse seems
generally more devastating in its impact than physical abuse. While physical
abuse will usually leave its victim with a deep sense of shame, because they
have usually been told that the beatings are their own fault, sexual abuse
leaves a deeper level of shame. It is almost always
a secret, with severe threats for telling. Therefore, remembering is
often difficult and telling is frightening. When clients tell you about their
abuse history, support for their truth is important in order not to
retraumatize them.
Picture of sexual abuse
"I can't stand how I feel these days. When the memories first came,
I felt so relieved. All the sadness I had always felt just suddenly was
explained and now I don't feel that vague horrible depression anymore. But I
can't stand being touched right now, even by my husband. He doesn't understand,
and I can't get him to understand. I feel so horrible. The other day, my
girlfriend and I were talking. The same thing happened to her when she was a
little girl. She says all men are like our fathers. I don't like to think that way,
but sometimes I think it's true. When my father used to do those things to me,
I hated him. But I also loved him. It was confusing.
I wanted him to love me. But not that way. He made me feel real bad
about myself. Sometimes my husband does too. Especially when he gets mad at me
when I don't want
to have sex. Sometimes I wish I was dead."
Ritual abuse
As difficult as it is to accept, there are organized groups of people,
pederasts and sadists, who prey upon small children and others. Many people
from all over the world are survivors of abuse by Satanic cults.
Some of them have been born into transgenerational families who have
practiced ritualized, sexual sadism. These clients all share similar stories of
ritual murder and worse.
The abuse is usually prolonged and repetitive and has understandably
catastrophic impact on development. Similar, less horrific abuse appears in
other cult and religious settings. It usually involves the deepest level of
attempted destruction, the spiritual level, and aims to destroy or otherwise
impact the soul. In this kind of unimaginably severe trauma, deep and even
miraculous healing is possible.
I have too little experience treating ritual abuse homeopathically. I
work a great deal as a therapist in this domain, but it does not lend itself
well to combining with homeopathy, because the transference is so deeply
complex and difficult in these cases, that taking on another role is too
demanding and seems generally inappropriate.
In addition, people who have been ritually abused have usually been
drugged by their perpetrators, which generates an additional, complex factor
that requires special handling. If you find yourself treating a client with
ritual abuse, I strongly suggest getting consultation from a psychotherapist
experienced in treating such trauma, so that you understand more about what you
are dealing with.
Prototypical Case Example
Here is an example of a typical case of Developmental Trauma, drawn from
numerous cases. A woman comes in with a history of depression, disturbed
relationships, and chronic low self-esteem.
As her history unfolds, you discover that she grew up in a family with
an alcoholic mother and an abusive father. The mother was emotionally absent.
The father was severely narcissistic, and he took advantage of the daughter's
vulnerability to develop and perpetuate an incestuous relationship. She had
forgotten about the incest until recently,
when the memories began to emerge.
Since then, her life has fallen apart. She has difficulty sleeping, her
relationship with her partner and friends have disintegrated, and she has
difficulty on her job. She has always been a "caretaker," first of
her younger siblings, then later of her friends and her alcoholic partner. She
has little sense of her own worth, she never did. She has a history of sexual
promiscuity # with sexual aversion.
She feels suicidal a lot and has always felt that way. She feels a great
deal of despair and anguish underneath. She feels no one has ever been there
for her, and in fact, no one has. She has little sense of any possible positive
future for herself.
Examples of rubrics one might use could include:
Confidence, want of self
Despair
Fear, approaching him, of others
Fear, hurt, of being
Fear, injured, of being
Fear, misfortune, of
Fear, people, of
Sadness, (despondency, dejection, depression)
Ailments, from anger, vexation
Ailments, from anxiety
Delusions, injury, is about to receive
Worry
Weeping, mortification, after
Remedies one might consider:
Aur-met.: One of the fundamental loves, which is the
love of living, of self protection is perverted and he longs to die..." (
When trauma has hit hard and long, people often simply do not want to go
on. Trauma crushes the will to live, and one of the few remaining powers people
have is to leave.
In addition, trauma, because it feels like it contaminates one's very
inside, makes people feel that they and their lives are worthless. It is then
time to leave. Suicidal despair.
"I am crushed and life is too painful to endure."
Syph.: Abusive families, when there is violence +/o. alcohol is the most
destructive and desperate miasm. Syphilinum is the pure homeopathic for this
family miasm.
See the movie, “Once Were Warriors to observe” and feel this miasm at
its horrific work. Sankaran describes the miasm as so unable to cope with the situation
that it is desperately driven either to kill or to die.
After years of psychotherapy and homeopathic treatment, one client no
longer needed therapy after Syph. CM. The inner desperation that came from a
childhood of abandonment and physical abuse healed by this remedy.
The feeling state of Syphilinum is, " There is black rage; this
must be over and done!"
Conclusion
Many of the cases a homeopath sees have trauma as part of the picture.
Awareness of trauma and its impact may help you to understand the case and
select the right remedy. As usual, careful selection of a remedy that covers
the whole case will be the key to your success. With cases with significant
trauma, it is helpful to have your client see
a psychotherapist adjunctively to help manage the overwhelming feelings
that can emerge in the healing process. For dosing, it is best to start low and
to go slow.
Author's Introductory Note: This manual was originally written for
people working in the field with women survivors of rape in Bosnia, but it can
be used more broadly as a guide for helping anyone of either gender who has
survived any kind of trauma. Since it is written from afar and based on
experiences similar to but not the same as the ones you are dealing with, please
use what is useful or helpful and ignore what is irrelevant or wrong for your
circumstances, trusting more in your judgment and intuition than in anything
contained herein.
Also, please be aware that some of the suggestions and conversations
suggested here may not fit the cultural context you will be working in. It is
best to ask local people about what can be discussed in private or in public
with any group you are dealing with. For example, some people in the former
Yugoslavia may be unwilling to discuss rape with anyone.
It may be necessary to talk "around" such subjects rather than
directly. Some groups may not be willing to discuss feelings at all. When in
doubt, follow rather than lead.
When people have experienced things they cannot stand, ordinary people can
often give them what they need to help them begin to heal. This section gives
general guidelines for working with people who have been catastrophically
violated.
What they are suffering
The people you will be working with have experienced events that have
permanently changed their lives. But they can heal. People who have been raped,
who have seen their loved ones killed -- their lives will never be the same
again. Yet no matter how great the horror people have experienced, they may
recover emotional functioning, so that they are not feeling pain, terror,
shame, fear, or horror all the time. Rape and murder may have robbed them of a
sense of integrity and wholeness, but in time and with your help, they may be
able to resume life with their sense of self restored.
People who have experienced rape or torture or who have witnessed
murders of loved ones usually suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, a
psychological disorder that occurs when people have experienced
life-threatening, shocking events. It has symptoms that are often the same for
different people, regardless of the specific events they suffered.
With Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), many normal processes are
more intense, while many are deadened. People whose normal lives have been drastically
changed
by the sudden intrusion of horrifying and destructive events are
experiencing more than they can integrate, and their sense of security and
safety is shattered. In PTSD, some of people's responses are greatly
heightened. The blow of a severe event has told them that the world is not the
safe place they imagined. So they become ready for danger at all times: they
have hyper-vigilance -- greater readiness to flee or fight. They live in
emergency mode, and they have learned not to trust.
At the same time as having heightened responses, they also shut down a
great deal, so that many of their normal responses to life and to other people
are not accessible to them. As a result, these are some of the symptoms you
might see:
Intense emotion and reactivity.
People exposed to traumatic events feel intense pain, terror, shame, horror,
grief, rage, and shock. They are activated and alert most of the time, ready to
react. People may be jumpy, looking constantly for danger, and easily startled.
They may have difficulty sleeping or even relaxing.
Numbness. When hell suddenly
breaks into a life, people become overwhelmed. They may experience shock and
protect themselves through denial, disbelief, and dissociation (spacing out or
splitting away from the terrible events as if they didn't happen to them). They
feel numb, feel cut off from other people and from their own feelings, and as
if they are no longer really alive.
Flashbacks. People who have had
terrible things happen to them will often re-experience the events over and
over again, against their will. They will experience their minds invaded by
thoughts of the events and will feel tortured by them.
Nightmares. Like flashbacks, but
these occur in sleep. As a result some people can be afraid to go to sleep and
may develop sleep deprivation.
Triggering. Often people will
respond to events that remind them of the trauma with all the feelings that
belonged to the trauma itself. Combat soldiers, for example, will respond to
loud noises as if it meant incoming mortar; rape victims may respond to the
smell of a man as if he were her rapist.
What they need
Most of all people need to feel relatively safe. Anyone who has been
extremely hurt by other people, especially when they have been systematically
tortured has learned not
to trust anyone.
This is how they survived. They will not trust you at first, not for a
long time, maybe never. Moreover, in areas of the world in which brutality,
horror, and extreme danger have
become commonplace, talking about safety can seem absurd or even
offensive.
But you still can help people to feel relatively safer. All of us know
how to do that with people; we just need to be reminded how: we may begin
simply by performing simple acts of kindness, by letting people alone when they
want to be let alone, by treating other people as if you cared about them. Most
important for survivors of extreme abuse is that they need to know these
things:
They need to know that you will
respect their boundaries. Trauma, almost by definition, breaches people's
normal boundaries. It is as if life drives a bulldozer over people's normal
sense of protection, sense of safety, and sense of self. So people need to know
that their wishes matter, that you will not force them to respond in anyway other
than what they choose, and that you will not invade them.
They need to know they can leave
if they want to. People who have experienced prison and torture must know that
they are not trapped, that they can get out if they want.
They will not be touched if they
do not want to be. People who have learned to associate touch with violation
often cannot bear to be touched, even in kindness.
Especially when the violation was sexual, they may not be able to
tolerate intimacy, even when you mean well.
They need to feel accepted and
not judged. When people have been violated, they experience a lot of feelings
about themselves they cannot stand. They judge themselves very harshly and can
often not even stand the fact that they are alive. They need those around to
accept and affirm them as having value and not as having been
"spoiled"
or "ruined" by what they have been through, even if that is
how they themselves feel.
People usually need to talk and
be listened to. When people hurt, especially when they hurt more than you can
stand to hear, or think about, or feel, it is hard just to listen to people.
But it the most important thing you can do.
People need to be believed.
Trauma is, by definition, something outside of ordinary experience. We should
not let our beliefs about what can and can't be true get in the way of
believing the stories of survivors. Life can bring events into the lives of
others that we can hardly stand to imagine. We could try to protect ourselves
by denial and disbelief. But it is best to try to stay open, so that survivors
of horrific trauma are not further injured by our disbelief.
Often people need to have their
feelings paid attention to. When people hurt in ways they cannot stand, they
freeze up their feelings. They just try to survive. That is nature's way of
helping them to get through what they have to endure. But afterward they need
to get their feelings back, so that they can function again, and so that they
don't have to go through their lives closed down inside. If they are still
numb, you should not push them. Nature knows when it is time to feel again.
Sometimes people need to be left
alone. We should never force help on people who have already been forced to do
things by other people. We should help people only when they want help.
Sometimes people are unready to face what has happened to them, or to
experience their own feelings, or to talk about what has happened. It is always
important to respect people's healing process. Each person needs to heal in her
own way in her own time. Some need to feel, some need to remain numb. The best
approach, when you are uncertain about what a person wants is to ask. It is
always good to ask people's permission to talk about what happened, to talk
about their feelings, or to help them in any way. It is almost always damaging
to people to insist that you know what they need better than they do.
What you can do to help: Your Characteristics
Your presence is the most
important gift you can give. Many people think that to help severely
emotionally wounded people they should have highly specialized medical
training, or they should know the right things to say in order to make them
feel better. That is not true. What is most important to badly hurt people is
that they know that
you are there and that you care. It is often remarkably simple what
people need. They need you to be able to be present, focusing your attention on
them; and they need you
to be open, listening to them with your heart and your feelings, feeling
with them.
Detachment. In addition to your
compassion, survivors of trauma also need your neutrality. Many of the events
that you hear about may elicit very strong feelings in you -- feelings that are
very appropriate. You may feel angry,
sad, grieving, frightened, horrified, shocked, and deeply disturbed. Sometimes
it is helpful to share a little of these feelings, so that people you are
working with realize that they are with a human being, and so that you can
remind them that it is appropriate to feel. But for the most part,
the goal of individual work is to help people find their own feelings
again, and for that they often need your calm, grounded presence rather than a
lot of your emotional reactions. They have already had their space violated by
others, now they need their own space to work in, and you can provide that best
by making sure that it is their feelings, not yours, that occupy most of the
time and space in the room.
What you can do to help: Procedures
and Processes
Begin simply. Introduce
yourself, tell the person you are working with (we shall call her the survivor
from now on, because she has survived some terrible events) that you are there
to help and to listen. Do not begin with discussion of the traumatic events
unless they initiate that themselves. Begin by helping the survivor to become
comfortable, asking her how she is doing in the present, whether she would like
your help, how she would like to you to help, whether she wants to talk to you,
what she would like to talk about now. . The goal in the beginning is to meet
and set up an agreement and a space in which hard work can later occur; it is
not necessarily a time to begin that hard work, unless this is the only meeting
you will have, or unless you will have very few meetings.
Let the survivor lead. Perhaps
the simplest and best rule in healing is to trust the other person's process.
Nature heals, not you, and the person will bring things up in their own way and
own time, as they are ready. It is therefore often best simply to sit in
comfortable silence, once initial greetings have taken place and you have let
the other person know that they can talk about whatever they want, and wait for
them to decide what they want to talk about.
Ask questions. Even though it is
good to wait, you need not be passive. Once the other person has begun to talk
about events it is good to engage with them, to let them know you are
interested and also to help guide the process. What questions to ask is a
matter of judgment and experience. Basically, it is good to trust your own
intuition, instinct, and interest to provide the questions, but below are some
further guidelines suggesting how to direct the process.
Always work with permission.
Never force or pressure a survivor to remember or to feel. Always ask if they
would like to discuss something before leading further.
As long as the survivor is not
overwhelmed and is willing, create space for her to move into discussing more
emotionally difficult material. One goal is to help the survivor to integrate
what has happened to her. You are following nature. If the person is already
having flashbacks and nightmares, part of her mind wants to bring the
experience into consciousness and master it, making sense of it, integrating it
into her life, so she can go on. Therefore you will want to help her do that.
Here is an example of how one may work with a survivor by asking questions that
permit movement into discussing more emotionally intense material.
Therapist: What would you like
to talk about today?
Survivor: I've been having
some disturbing thoughts lately.
T: Disturbing thoughts?
S: Yes.
T: Would you like to talk
about those thoughts?
S: I guess so. It's just that
the feelings are so disturbing, that I'm not sure that I want to go into it.
T: I understand that. The
feelings are so strong that it is hard to be willing to talk about these
things.
S: Yes. But I guess I need to
talk about it. It won't just go away. Right?
T: If you want to talk about
it, I'm interested in hearing. You should talk about it only if you are ready.
Let people tell their story. Generally, people who are healing from
horror need to tell their story. They don't need you to push them, but they
need to know that you are there who cares and want to know and are willing to
listen. Generally, you can convey this through quiet openness and some
encouragement to go into the story.
Survivor: I am haunted by
nightmares of what happened to me.
Therapist: Do you want to tell
me about the nightmares?
S: In each dream, I am alone
in my house, and I hear noises outside. I feel absolute terror, just waiting
for them to come in. They come in and I scream. Sometimes I wake myself up
then.
T: It sounds like a lot of
terror. Do these dreams remind you of what happened?
S: Yes.
T: Do you want to talk about
it?
S: (Long pause.) I can't
believe what happened. These people were my neighbours. My children went to
school with their children....How can people....They were drunk.
They made so much noise. I thought the door would break....There were
three of them. I didn't know what to do. I wanted to run out of the house, but
-- I don't know what was wrong with me. I just froze. One of them said bad
things to me. I knew what was going to happen.
Their eyes. They looked like dogs, when they attack. I couldn't breathe.
Allow the experience and
expression of feeling. In general, within the guidelines above it is helpful
for people to experience and express the feelings they have about what they
have endured.
The feelings that may emerge are
fear, terror, shock, horror, anger, rage, grief, sadness, disgust, and shame.
Each of these feelings is a legitimate and understandable response to the experiences
survivors have had. Being able to re-experience and express these feelings in
the context of a trusting relationship with you can help them to overcome the
mistrust, isolation, and damaged relationships that experiencing rape and
torture, and witnessing murder inevitably bring.
Many times you may find yourself very uncomfortable with the intensity
of feelings that a survivor has. You may wish to make the person wrong for
having those feelings
by denying the reality of their experience or by telling them they
should not feel as they do. Or you may want to try to make them feel better, to
spare both them and yourself the rawness of their feelings. It is almost always
wrong to tell someone they should not feel as they do. It is often not helpful
to try to make someone feel better before fully registering, accepting, and
mirroring the feeling as it is. It is generally best just to accept the
feelings as they emerge, realizing that is probably the best you can do for
their healing.
Some specific techniques are
helpful in working with feelings:
Ask the survivor what she feels.
Sometimes hearing the story is enough. Other times, it is helpful to elicit the
feeling. For example,
Survivor: Every day they came
in and did the same thing. (Speaks in monotone, without apparent feeling.)
Therapist: What are you
feeling?
S: I feel terrible about
myself now. I don't see any point in living.
Tt: Why? Why is it that you
don't see any point in living?
S: I'm ruined. They spoiled
me. I can never be the same again.
T: You feel ruined. [Notice
that the therapist is not agreeing with the client's self-assessment, but is
re-framing (changing the meaning) of the client's statement by pointing out
that it is a feeling, not necessarily a reality.]
S: Yes. I feel dirty.
T: What they did to you made
you feel terrible about yourself.
S: (Starts to cry.) I feel so
ashamed. (Cries freely.)
T: When people have been
violated as you have, it makes them feel a lot of shame. [This tells the client
that it is natural to feel as she does, and it is not her fault that she feels
this way.]
Reflect what you hear and see.
Telling the survivor how she comes across to you can sometimes help her focus
on how she feels. Example,
Survivor: I've been thinking
about going back to my village.
Therapist: I notice you look a
little frightened.
S: I am. I don't know if there
is any chance I ever can go back. What is to keep the same thing from happening
again. If I couldn't trust my neighbours before, how can
I now?
Do not push for catharsis.
People in shock do not always benefit from strong expression of emotion. Shock
is a state in which functions get frozen and knotted.
Sometimes, a spontaneous expression of feeling helps to thaw the freeze.
Other times it is better to let the system unfreeze gradually and gently,
letting the "knots" in the nervous system unwind slowly. While
cathartic experience can help, repeated experiences of powerful emotion, especially
when pushed by someone else, can sometimes
be retraumatizing and reinforce the traumatic state.
Focusing on body sensations
helps the nervous system to unwind from trauma. In trauma, people get stuck in
the past. They need to move carefully out of being stuck. You can assist this
by helping people follow their own inner sensations.
Survivor: I don't think I can
stand how I feel.
Therapist: What are you
feeling?
S: I don't know. I just know I
can't stand it.
T: What do you notice going on
in your body?
S: I don't notice anything.
T: Nothing.
S: I feel like I'm not even in
my body.
T: Yes. Where are you?
S: Up there (points to
ceiling). (Survivor is indicating she is dissociated.)
T: Good. What do you notice
about your body from up there? (Begins to reintroduce the body back into
consciousness.)
S: It's tense.
T: Where do you notice the
tension?
S: In the shoulders. And the
chest.
T: OK, good. (Saying
"good" or "fine" lets the client know implicitly that she
is on the right track, no matter what she reports; that she only needs to say
what is there, and that whatever is there is fine.) So you're tense in the
shoulders and chest. Anywhere else?
S: Yes, my stomach is tight.
T: Good. So let's see what
happens if you pay attention to your shoulders and chest and arms being tight.
Just notice that for awhile.
S: (Long silence. This kind of
work is a very slow process. Don't worry if it takes a long time for anything
to seem as if it is happening.) (Takes a deep breath) My stomach
is starting to loosen a little bit. (Survivor is starting to unwind a
little. This is good; in this kind of work, we don't need drama to be
effective.)
If the person seems overwhelmed,
lead away from emotionally painful material. It is important to monitor the
survivor, to make sure that the feelings and experiences that are arising are
not overwhelming to the survivor in the present. "Overwhelming" is
not the same as intense. Overwhelming means that the person simply cannot take
in the experience now. Signs that the person is feeling overwhelmed are the
following:
The person experiences herself
leaving her body. This is a symptom of dissociation and a sign that the
person's nervous system cannot deal with the overload of sensation.
The person loses the ability to
communicate. Sometimes people will become quiet when absorbed in the memory of
an experience. That is often a sign of healing. Other times, however, they may
find themselves unable to talk, speaking very haltingly, etc. This may be a
sign that the person is feeling overwhelmed. If you are unsure about whether
the client is handling the silence productively or is feeling overwhelmed, ask
her what is happening.
The survivor seems
"spacey," that is, the eyes become glazed, they seem "not
there," or somehow seem to be far away. This is another sign of
dissociation.
The person experiences
perceptual distortions. Her body might feel like cotton, her visual field may
narrow severely, she may feel cold and numb or unable to move parts of her
body, or she may feel cut off from her surroundings.
If these signs and symptoms are
present, or if you have other reasons to believe that the survivor is feeling more
sensation and feeling than she can handle (not more than you can handle, more
than she can handle), then lead the discussion back into the present. Here are
examples of leading back to the present. Notice how in this example, body
sensation is used to "ground" the person, that is bring her back into
present time and in this place, away from the past trauma.
Survivor: Then this man came
and got....I'm feeling strange now. I don't think I can go on with this.
Therapist: You're feeling
strange. [Focusing on present feeling is sometimes a beginning point of getting
someone back to the present, without being too abrupt.]
S: Yes. My head feels kind of
funny
T: Pay attention to that now.
Notice the sensations in your head. [ Focusing on present bodily sensations is
the best way of bringing someone into present reality and away from overwhelm.
It brings her "back into her body."]
S: I feel kind of dizzy.
T: What else do you notice
going on in your body? [Moving away from the overwhelm in the head, moving to
lower parts of the body can be "grounding," that is helping the
person "root" in present time with both feet on the ground.]
S: I feel kind of sick to my
stomach.
T: Pay attention to that
feeling. Notice the sensations. [Here you are showing the person she does not
have to be afraid of sensations that may have seemed overwhelming a few minutes
ago.]
S: I feel nauseous.
T: Stay with that for awhile
and see what happens.
S: My jaw feels tight.
T: What happens if you stay
with that sensation?
S: I feel a softening
happening in my arms.
T: Go with that: stay with
that sensation for awhile. (Survivor is encouraged to experience the
"letting go" into healing. Softening, melting, lightening sensations
can be signs that the survivor is letting go and experiencing relief and
healing.)
Enhancing the feeling of safety
is another way to reduce overwhelm and allow integration of difficult material.
If the person remains persistently overwhelmed but still wishes to go through
her story, there is a way to help people to integrate difficult material more
easily and safely. In the first part of the technique, the therapist asks the
survivor to imagine in her mind a safe place. It can be a real or imaginary
scene. It can be a place in nature or indoors. In war zones, nature may not be
appropriate to imagine as a safe place, due to the high density of landminds
and other dangers. Sometimes people who have suffered severe trauma will say
they cannot think of anyplace safe. Then it is best to ask them to think of the
safest place they can. Then the therapist asks the survivor to imagine being in
the safe place, perhaps with someone whom they trust with them there too. After
the person imagines herself there and is feeling somewhat secure, the therapist
asks the survivor to leave the safe place and go back to the traumatic incident
in her imagination. She is to remain with the traumatic memory, describing it
to the therapist until she feels overwhelmed by feeling; at that point, she is
to return to the safe place and discuss the incident with the trusted friend in
the safe place.
By alternating back and forth
between the safe place and the trauma, people can more easily integrate the
memories of trauma and also the powerful feelings the trauma has generated.
Here is an example of the use of this "safe place" technique.
Therapist: Would you like to
try something that might make this process easier?
Survivor: What is it?
T: It involves imagining a
safe place.
S: All right.
T: We will be going back and
forth between a safe place and the camp where all the terrible things happened
to you. Are you willing to do that?
S: All right.
T: I would like you to close
your eyes and imagine a safe place. It might be a real place or an imaginary
place. It could be in a house you know, or it could be in the mountains or in a
field or wherever you feel safest.
Would you do that now?
S: (After a minute of trying,
cries.) There isn't any place safe any more.
T: I understand that. Could
you imagine the safest place that you can think of.
S: All right. I am in my
aunt's house. In her front room. I always felt safe there.
T: Is your aunt there?
S: Yes. I always trusted her.
She was very nice to me. My mother used to leave me there on weekends, when she
went to the city.
T: Good. So now I would like
you to go to the safe place for awhile and spend a little time there.
S: (Is silent for a minute or
two.)
T: How are you doing?
S: Fine.
T: Good. Now I am going to ask
you in a minute to leave the safe place and go to the camp. When you do that,
I'll ask you to tell me what you are experiencing. And then as soon as you feel
overwhelmed, like the feelings are too much, or that you start feeling like you
are leaving your body or loosing touch with yourself, I will ask you to run
back to the safe place. OK?
S: Yes.
T: All right. I want you to
leave your aunt's house now and go to the camp. ....What do you see there?
S: I see my room.
T: What is it like? What do
you notice?
S: It seems all grey to me. I
see my clothes hanging on the door. And I notice the door knob.... I am
starting to feel frozen in my body. ... I ...I... (Stops talking.)
T: I'd like you to run back to
the safe place now. Will you do that please?
S: (Pauses, then breathes
deeply.) I am with my aunt now.
T: Tell your aunt what you
just experienced.
S: (Silent for half a minute,
then begins to cry.) I am telling her about what the men did to me...
(Sometimes it is easier for the survivor to "tell" someone in her
mind than someone outside herself.)
Help people recognize and
develop their resources. In the midst of trauma, it is sometimes hard to
remember that people's lives are about more than their trauma and that
their spirit is often greater than what has befallen them. In even the
worst of circumstances, there are opportunities to grow beyond the obstacles
that beset people. It is helpful to survivors to have their resources
recognized. Some resources are inner ones.
Survivor: I spent time with a
friend this morning. She was grieving over the loss of her baby.
Therapist: What did you do
with her?
S: I just spent time with her
and I held her while she cried.
T: It amazes me that after all you've been
through you can still be there for someone else
Or:
Survivor: I am feeling a lot
of despair today. I just don't know how I can go on with my life.
Therapist: Yes, I can
understand your despair. You've lost so much, and life looks like it is not
presenting any hopeful possibilities for the future. How is it that you have
been able to go on this far?
How have you been able to do it?
S: I don't know how I've done it.
I guess I was always that way. I always went on no matter what. My mother was
like that too. She grew up in a family where a lot of her brothers and sisters
died. Somehow, she had the strength to keep going.
T: It seems that maybe you
have a lot of that kind of strength too.
S: Yes. But I'm not sure it is
going to be enough to deal with all this.
T: Right. This seems too much
to deal with sometimes isn't it?
S: It feels that way.....I
don't know. I hope I'll have the strength. My children need me.
Sometimes the resources to be
recognized and developed are external ones. Trauma disrupts life, and
re-building life usually requires support. Help the survivor recognize and
develop support of all kinds in her life: friendship, medical help, housing,
whatever is needed.
Avoid pushing for recovery too
soon. In most cultures, there is a conventional tendency to respond to other
people's traumas and sometimes one's own by saying clichÈs like, "You just
have to keep on going," "That was in the past, there's no sense in
dwelling on it," "I just try not to think about it, you should
too," etc. But trauma freezes people into the past, and it robs them of a
sense of future. Such clichÈs, though useful for some, are often hurtful for
those who are not yet ready or able to move on. It is important to remain
patient with the healing process, reassuring people that healing takes time.
And healing from trauma usually takes more time than anyone likes.
Take care of yourself. Last but
definitely not least, make sure you have support and that you do not overextend
yourself. Secondary PTSD is a real phenomenon. You can be traumatized by
exposure to other people's traumatic stories, energy, and emotions. Don't let
your life be overwhelmed by others' traumas, and be sure to get plenty of
support and help for the feelings that come up for you in working with other
peoples' traumas. If you have had traumas in your own life that you are not
finished dealing with -- and most of us do -- then you can expect that the
memories and issues and feelings associated with them will be retriggered by
working with other peoples' traumas. Get help sooner rather than later in
dealing with whatever comes up for you. It can be a great opportunity and lead
to greater health and healing for you as well as the people you are helping!
Summary
Survivors need a chance to
express themselves and work with their experience in the context of a
relationship they can come to trust. This will help them to restore their trust
in others and in themselves and also to begin coming to terms with their
experience.
In this process, it is helpful
to give them lots of room to talk or not to talk, to remember or not to
remember, to feel or not to feel, to express or not to express.
It helps to let the survivor
lead the way, to ask questions, to reflect feelings, to mirror what you see and
hear.
In general, it is helpful to
encourage expression of their experience, feeling, and sensation, as long as
they are not overwhelmed in doing so. It is best for them to absorb their
experience a bit at a time rather than all at once.
It also helps to get people to
understand that how they feel is normal and a result of what have happened to
them. It helps to give them confidence that they can live with their feelings
and experiences and patiently deal with the intensity of feelings they have to
absorb.
Most important, it helps for you
just to be present, without judgment, trusting in their healing process and
your own instinct and intuition.
When people are wounded in war,
they heal. The same can be true of emotional wounds. With our help and with
time, people may heal from the worst of experiences.
Final Word
Your feedback will help this page grow. Please let me know what works
for you and what doesn't. If you have questions, please feel free to ask, and
I'll do what I can to answer. If you wish consultation on any of your work with
trauma, please ask me, and I'll try to help. E-mail me at the addess above.
To read a book I have written about recovery from the trauma of the
attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon and about the sources of global
trauma, go to Recovery 9-1-1.
Treatment of Basic Trauma: think of acute remedies;
Treatment of Interpersonal Trauma: use remedies that work at an
intermediate depth;
Treatment of Developmental Trauma: work with remedies that reach much
deeper into the organism, even down to the miasmatic level.
Developmental Trauma shares all the features of Basic and Interpersonal
Trauma, but it has the added dimension of impact on personality and character
structure. When we treat Developmental Trauma, our work tends to be more
complex, deeper, and slower than when working with purely Basic Trauma or adult
Interpersonal Trauma. Most trauma cases I see are Developmental Trauma cases.
Even in situations where there has been an accident or a rape or war
experience, very often there is also a background of childhood trauma.
This results in a more prolonged recovery. If you are treating someone
for a recent trauma and recovery is slower than seems reasonable, it may be
that there is additional trauma in the background, which can sometimes be
discovered through inquiry.
Kinds of abuse
Knowing about the different kinds of abuse you might encounter may help
you avoid going into shock and getting vicarious PTSD, when you hear peoples'
stories.
Physical abuse
Many, many children are hit. There is controversy about whether this is
at all necessary. Alice Miller, in For Your Own Good, describes the
consequences of what she calls "poisonous pedagogy" of the past few
centuries, in which parents have justified serious aggression against their
children by claiming it is in the child's best interests.
Most of the physical abuse I have seen as a clinician, however, comes in
the form of severe beatings, usually unpredictable. It is therefore usually not
a form of discipline.
The movie A Boy's Story, depicts physical abuse and its frightening and
degrading impact. Physical abuse frightens people and damages their
self-esteem.
Picture of physical
abuse
"It would happen when he'd been drinking. When he was sober, my
father was actually easy to get along with. I loved him. But then at night, I'd
listen for the door, and when it would slam, I'd know he was drunk. My whole
body would freeze, and I'd sit in my room and wait. Sometimes I'd hear him and
my mom yelling. Then after awhile I'd hear them fighting. One time he pushed
her down the stairs. I felt so terrible. I hated him. But I also feel so
ashamed that I didn't do anything about it."
"Could you have done something?"
"I don't know. I was seven." Long pause. "Other times,
he'd come into my room, with that terrible look in his eyes. It was like he
didn't even see me. He'd pull me off my bed and start whaling on me. One time,
he threw me across the room into a wall. I hate him. Maybe it's because of him
that I can't get too close to anybody."
Emotional abuse
Sometimes this is more painful than physical abuse, because its impact
is closer to the core.
Parents who belittle, threaten, harass, criticize, intimidate, and rage
at their children can leave deep, traumatic scars that seriously warp their
development.
I think that most people have some degree of emotional abuse in growing
up. The manifestations probably cover most remedies, depending upon severity
and kind of abuse. I think it would be too hard to do a group anamnesis,
because the kinds of abuse and responses vary too much.
An excellent book on the subject, also by Alice Miller, is Drama of the
Gifted Child, which most people seem to be able to identify with.
Sexual abuse
Whether by a stranger or by a family member, sexual abuse seems
generally more devastating in its impact than physical abuse.
While physical abuse will usually leave its victim with a deep sense of
shame, because they have usually been told that the beatings are their own
fault, sexual abuse leaves a deeper level of shame. It is almost always a
secret, with severe threats for telling.
Therefore, remembering is often difficult and telling is frightening.
When clients tell you about their abuse history, support for their truth
is important in order not to retraumatize them.
Picture of sexual abuse
"I can't stand how I feel these days. When the memories first came,
I felt so relieved. All the sadness I had always felt just suddenly was
explained and now I don't feel that vague horrible depression anymore. But I
can't stand being touched right now, even by my husband. He doesn't understand,
and I can't get him to understand. I feel so horrible. The other day, my
girlfriend and I were talking. The same thing happened to her when she was a
little girl. She says all men are like our fathers. I don't like to think that
way, but sometimes I think it's true. When my father used to do those things to
me, I hated him. But I also loved him. It was confusing. I wanted him to love
me. But not that way. He made me feel real bad about myself. Sometimes my
husband does too. Especially when he gets mad at me when I don't want to have
sex. Sometimes I wish I was dead."
Ritual abuse
As difficult as it is to accept, there are organized groups of people,
pederasts and sadists, who prey upon small children and others.
Many people from all over the world are survivors of abuse by Satanic
cults.
Some of them have been born into transgenerational families who have
practiced ritualized, sexual sadism. These clients all share similar stories of
ritual murder and worse. The abuse is usually prolonged and repetitive and has
understandably catastrophic impact on development.
Similar, less horrific abuse appears in other cult and religious
settings. It usually involves the deepest level of attempted destruction, the
spiritual level, and aims to destroy or otherwise impact the soul.
Even in this kind of unimaginably severe trauma, deep and even
miraculous healing is possible.
I have too little experience treating ritual abuse homeopathically. I
work a great deal as a therapist in this domain, but it does not lend itself
well to combining with homeopathy, because the transference is so deeply
complex and difficult in these cases, that taking on another role is too
demanding and seems generally inappropriate.
In addition, people who have been ritually abused have usually been
drugged by their perpetrators, which generates an additional, complex factor
that requires special handling.
If you find yourself treating a client with ritual abuse, I strongly
suggest getting consultation from a psychotherapist experienced in treating
such trauma, so that you understand more about what you are dealing with.
Prototypical case
example
Here is an example of a typical case of Developmental Trauma, drawn from
numerous cases. A woman comes in with a history of depression, disturbed
relationships, and chronic low self-esteem.
As her history unfolds, you discover that she grew up in a family with
an alcoholic mother and an abusive father. The mother was emotionally absent.
The father was severely narcissistic, and he took advantage of the daughter's
vulnerability to develop and perpetuate an incestuous relationship.
She had forgotten about the incest until recently, when the memories
began to emerge. Since then, her life has fallen apart. She has difficulty sleeping,
her relationship with her partner and friends
has disintegrated, and she has difficulty on her job.
She has always been a "caretaker," first of her younger
siblings, then later of her friends and her alcoholic partner. She has little
sense of her own worth, indeed she never did.
She has a history of sexual promiscuity alternating with sexual
aversion. She feels suicidal a lot and has always felt that way. She feels a
great deal of despair and anguish underneath. She feels no one has ever been
there for her, and in fact, no one has. She has little sense of any possible
positive future for herself.
Rubrics one might use could include:
- Lack of confidence;
- Despair;
- Fear (of others);
- Fear (of being hurt);
- Fear (of being injured)
- Fear (of misfortune);
- Sadness (despondency, dejection, depression);
- Ailments (from anger);
- Ailments (from anxiety);
- Delusions;
- Vexation;
- Worry, and/ or
- Weeping.
Remedies to consider:
Aur-met.: One of the fundamental loves, which is the
love of living, of self protection is perverted and he longs to die…"
(Kent) One of the most profound depression remedies.
When trauma has hit hard and hit long, people often simply do not want
to go on.
Trauma crushes the will to live, and one of the few remaining powers
people have is to leave. In addition, trauma, because it feels like it
contaminates one's very inside, makes people feel that they and their lives are
worthless. It is then time to leave. Suicidal despair is well met by the
homeopathic remedy Aurum.
Its feeling state is "I am crushed and life is too painful to
endure."
Syph.: I think the miasm driving abusive families, when there is violence
and/or alcohol is the most destructive and desperate miasm, the Syphilitic.
Syphilinum is the pure nosode for this family miasm.
See the movie, “Once Were Warriors” to observe and feel this miasm at
its horrific work. Sankaran describes the miasm as so unable to cope with the situation
that it is desperately driven either
to kill or to die.
After years of psychotherapy and homeopathic treatment, one client no
longer needed therapy after Syph CM.
The inner desperation that came from a childhood of abandonment and
physical abuse was healed by this remedy.
The feeling state of Syphilinum "A black rage; this must be over
and done!"
Conclusion
Many of the cases a homeopath sees have trauma as part of the picture.
Awareness of trauma and its impact may help you to understand the case and
select the right remedy.
As usual, careful selection of a remedy that covers the whole case will
be the key to your success. With cases with significant trauma, it is helpful
to have your client see a psychotherapist
adjunctively to help manage the overwhelming feelings that can emerge in
the healing process.
For prescribing, it is best to start low and go slow. If you would like
to read about the homeopathic treatment of trauma in greater depth, go to.
[Stephanie Nile]
Trauma and the Practitioner
I'd like to share a few notes describing how trauma can affect the
Homeopathic Practitioner, and describe one of the remedies that helped me
regain my own balance.
Situation: Serious accident: I became very close indeed to someone I care
very much for, almost joined at the hip you could say. After caring for him for
over six months through intensive pain
and so much mental/emotional suffering I lost the ability to 'be' with
myself. Every second was devoted to my patient, night and day.
Analysis:
Cocc-i.: is the traditional remedy for caring and
long night-watching. It didn't match my feelings. Sankaran's sensation method
associates the Malvales with close bonds and connections.
The bond was so close as to be inseparable. Too close. My individual
identity was virtually forgotten.
Remedy:
I took Kola 1M (classified in the Leprous Miasm
characterised by profound separation). Kola nuts are traditionally given to
welcome strangers - so you can see the connection with human bonds
and social inclusion already!
I accomplished the 'leprous' separation I was looking for and I became
self-sufficient, i.e. centered on my own self and needs, but also, as you might
expect from a leprous remedy, hard, superior and outspoken with it (a complete
'twat' in other words). However, the important thing is that the bond was
broken. At long last! I can now enjoy quality time with my own self! I can
forget my patient and get on with other work, meditation, or whatever I want',
(Sep. comes close to this situation).
Today I had a bite of Bournville (dark chocolate) and suddenly found
myself wanting to cry, and Oh No! Wanting LOVE!
Aha, you might say ... remedy effect undone! -but no, not so fast- now
its with sense of my own precious separate self.
Conclusion:
The Bournville experience really shows the effect of potency ... the
mother substance itself (Theobroma) vs. 1M potency, AND the importance of
getting a grip on the organic chemistry of the Botanical Family.
Interesting to note also that ALL the remedies in this fascinating
Botanical family centre around 'loss of connection' in various ways - not just
the leprous ones.
[James G. Gilchrist, M. D., (1842-1906)]
keynotes for shock and traumatic delirium.
Excerpted from: The Homoeopathic Treatment of Surgical Diseases (1873)
by James G. Gilchrist, M. D., 1842-1906
Shock is a state of depression or nervous prostration present after all
mechanical injuries, and varies in intensity according to the gravity of the
accident. The symptoms accompanying the
immediate results are, coldness, faintness and trembling, pulse small, weak and
fluttering.
The mind is shown to be disordered by the face exhibiting mental
disquietude, and by anxious and incoherent speech. Death may be the result of
shock alone. Even in apparently trivial accidents, the patient may be in a
state of physical or mental depression that is sufficient to render the mere
shock fatal.
Remote effects may not exhibit themselves until considerable time after
the accident. A blow has been received, and weeks, or even in some cases months
have elapsed, when neuralgia or inflammation is developed, traceable directly
to this blow.
Therapeutics. — The treatment of shock may be moral or medicinal. Often,
kind and encouraging words will rally the patient, without any other treatment.
An operation should not be performed during the shock. It is best to wait for a
reaction. The rule is, in civil practice, wait for reaction, in military,
operate as soon as possible after the accident.
The remedies that will be found the most frequently indicated are
Arnica, Camphor and Opium. Aconite., Ruta, Rhus, may be, occasionally. Arnica is always more or less useful, and
should be administered even if you have to use stimulants. I find it the most
useful where there is diarrhoea.
Opium is indicated when there is coma, incomplete insensibility. The
patient will be aroused for a moment on addressing him in a loud tone of voice,
and then relapses into stupor, extremities and face bluish, or of a livid
color, loud, stertorous respiration, and coldness of the skin.
Camphor is a valuable remedy, and will frequently produce an effect when
Opium fails. Cold hands and feet, trembling tongue, trembling of the hands and
feet on raising them up.
These three remedies have acted beautifully in my hands. As I have had
the privilege of treating a great number of cases of accident, they have had a
fair trial. Therefore, I would advise, discard all notions of stimulation and
stick to homoeopathy.
Traumatic Delirium
Traumatic Delirium is nothing more than shock modified by existing
circumstances. If an individual of a highly nervous or irritable disposition
receive a great injury, the shock either degenerates into a delirium, or this
condition is present from the first. This delirium is usually of the furious,
raving form, though it may occur in almost any form.
Therapeutics — In both of these forms we have a variety of remedies to
choose from. Among the most prominent are Aconite, Bell., Bryonia, Cuprum
acet., Cuprum met., Ferrum acet., Hell., Hyos., Ign., Lach., and Stram.
Aconite: Inconsolable lamentations, anguish, piteous bowlings,
reproaches from trivial causes, disheartening apprehensions, despair, loud
moaning, bitter complaints and reproaches, palpitation of the heart, oppressed
breathing, increased heat of the body and face, great weariness, apprehensions
of approaching death, a strong tendency to be angry or frightened.
Belladonna: Melancholy , great anguish about the heart, merry craziness,
sings and warbles an air, immoderate laughter, foolish manners, violent
weeping, moaning and howling, tearfulness, despondency, dejection of spirits,
apathy, great irritability of the
senses, rage, frenzy, bites everything in his way, shy craziness , tries to escape, violent redness
of the face , dark, red and bloated
face, shining, sparkling eyes.
Bryonia: Apprehensions , uneasiness, and dread on account of the future
, vehemence, cold sweat on the forehead and head, faintness and nausea on
sitting up in bed, has to lie down again, bloated, red and hot face, delirium
about the day’s business. (compare
Veratrum alb.)
Cuprum acetic: Great absence of mind, tendency to start, the eyes are
sunken, staring, as if riveted in the sockets, cold sweat, spasmodic distortion of the face.
Cuprum metallicum: Anguish , restless tossing about and constant weariness, delirium, attacks of
craziness and vertigo, slow pulse, flushes of heat, colic, red, inflamed eyes,
with wild looks, pale face.
Ferrum acet: Vehement,
quarrelsome, anxiety, great languor, fainting spells, coldness, want of animal
heat, viscid, exhausting sweats, livid
or pale face and lips sometimes fiery red face.
Helleborus: Silent melancholy, involuntary sighing, obstinate silence,
spasmodic rigidity of the limbs, with concussive shaking of the head, general
sweat, dullness, confusion of the head, inability to reflect, pale face.
Hyoscyamus Nig: Indomitable rage, horrid anguish, complains of having
been poisoned, raging, desire to go naked day and night, sleepless, screaming,
repeated fainting-fits, cold and sour
sweat, complete stupefaction, loss of sense, does not know his relatives, red, sparkling eyes, staring,
distorted eyes , open eyes, distorted in different directions, bluish face ,
cold, pale face, or brown-red, swollen face.
Ignatia: Great tendency to start, boldness, the slightest contradiction
irritates, ill-humor and anger, impatience, irresoluteness, quarrelsome,
intolerance of noise, sadness, weeping and laughing almost in one breath, sweat
on the face, face pale, red or bluish, involuntary sighing.
Lachesis: Feels sad, discouragement and loathing of life, mistrustful,
suspicious, doubts everything, peevish, fault-finding, malice, hurriedness and
uneasiness, great nervous irritability excessive moaning and complaining of
one’s pains, morbid talkativeness, small and quick pulse, distension of the
face, sunken face, showing great suffering, pale face.
Stramonium: Indomitable rage, talkativeness, great desire to bite, fear,
convulsions, weariness of the mind, subsultus tendinum, spasmodic movements ,
strong pulse, copious sweat, swollen and red face, sparkling, glistening eyes,
staring somnolent eyes.
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