| TRI
has devleloped effective techniques to help you recover from
Trauma
 At
TRI we treat patients with a variety of disorders, ranging
from simple Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) to Dissociative
Identity Disorder (DID). We treat people who have experienced
mining or industrial accidents, medical trauma, childhood
sexual and physical abuse, car accidents, domestic violence,
and rape. Many of our patients have been hospitalized repeatedly,
are chronically suicidal, or have received a number of different
psychiatric diagnoses. What they all have in common
is a history of trauma. We believe that short term,
effective treatment of trauma is possible and have developed
a specific set of tasks that allow our patients to make significant
progress without re-living upsetting and frightening experiences.
The Basic Tasks of Trauma Therapy
Narrative
Processing
Narrative trauma processing is the first of three basic tasks
in trauma therapy as we conduct it at the Trauma Recovery
Institute. In our approach the more conventional goal of dealing
with the meaning of the trauma comes only after narrative
closure is achieved and the traumatic dissociation is repaired.
Only then do we expect the person to be able to gain a perspective
that makes it possible to change one’s assumptive world
and replace the mythology of being hopelessly vulnerable.
The goal
of narrative processing is for the patient to reconstruct
a complete narrative of the traumatic experience. That is,
we ask patients to tell the story of their traumas. The creation
of a detailed coherent narrative with a beginning, middle,
and end brings together the fragmented images of the trauma.
Telling the story from start to finish, complete with all
the details is crucial to helping patients reverse their dissociation.
TRI staff are trained to use a variety of techniques, such
as, guided relaxation and art therapy
to assist patients recover the critical elements of
their traumatic experience without re-living it.
Once these dissociated experiences are identified, we find
that patients have fewer intrusive, arousal, and avoidant
symptoms.
Reversing
Dissociation
Most
people who have survived a trauma become aware of separate
aspects of their personality that they may try to ignore or
disown. These personality states represent the traumatized
self that is experienced in flashbacks or "voices"
that have points of view . The task of reversing dissociation
is to engage in active dialogue between these opposing voices
that are different or even opposed to conscious thoughts.
Our simple and rapid procedure of video
dialogue has proven very effective in reversing dissociation.
What
is video dialogue?
Video dialogue uses the technique of "self talk"
to work with these dissociated parts.
How is
it done?
In a video
dialogue session the therapist works with the patient to facilitate
discussion with the frozen traumatized self or "voices."
The patient holds a dialogue with the split-off self that
was suspended in time during the trauma response. The patient
simply talks to that self. This is videotaped and played back.
Then the patient speaks for the dissociated self and this
is videotaped and played back in turn. What the patient experiences
is a change in which the dissociated self and the present
self become so alike that they can no longer be differentiated.
How do
people benefit from video dialogue?
Most people
feel diminished by the traumatic dissociative split and then
restored when the split is resolved. Dissociative voices often
make unwanted demands and one may feel some compulsion to
obey. Video dialogue helps to:
- Embrace
the disowned parts
- Reclaim
lost emotions
- Discuss
differences of opinion and resolve conflict
- Know
the voices as parts that can be reclaimed
Resolving
Victim Mythology
The final task of resolving victim mythology is also simplified
by the use of video technology. Patients are encouraged to
actively question the assumptions that one is permanently
damaged. The patient reviews the videotaped session in which
he or she explores the mythology of a damaged individual trying
to survive in a dangerous world. In that review the person
discovers that his or her hope for happiness would be doomed
by that mythology and that it is necessary to change those
dire assumptions. Without video technology this phase of treatment
would require extended conventional psychotherapy. Instead,
we provide our patients the opportunity to immediately confront
the fact that they cannot be happy in the assumptive world
of their victim mythology. We help them to reevaluate the
issues of safety and risk and record their conclusions on
tape for later study and self-confrontation.
Recovery
through Art Therapy 
Trauma work requires the patient to recover all of the details
and images of the traumatic experience and to construct a
narrative that unites the memory fragments and brings closure
to the experience. This must be done at both conscious and
unconscious levels. Trauma work converts the unfinished experiential
memory fragments into a coherent memory of the past event.
To accomplish this ,it is necessary to reach the nonverbal
mind, despite verbal resistance and prepare the narrative
for verbal presentation to the person. The patient can then
assimilate and avow the experience.
 Art
therapy provides access to nonverbal memory. The patient completes
a graphic narrative of the trauma in a manner that unites
the fragmented images and brings closure to the experience.
The drawing "unfreezes" the fixed image, illuminates
the traumatic altered state of consciousness, and fills the
gaps in conscious memory. Amnesia is frequently reversed by
drawing, as if "the hand remembers what the head forgets."
This is because the graphic narrative is "out there,"
relatively detached from the artist, making it easier to manage
emotional distance and hold an objective viewpoint. Once closure
is achieved through graphic narrative the traumatic event
becomes historical memory rather than unfinished experience.
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