A research team from New York University and the University of Texas at Austin demonstrated that timing is critical in extinguishing a fear response – and this has groundbreaking potential for the treatment of phobias, anxiety disorders and posttraumatic stress.  Evidently, there’s a brief window of opportunity for rewriting painful emotional memories immediately after re-activating them, when the imprinted memory becomes labile and open to change.

Simple fear was created in 65 subjects by giving them a mild electrical shock on the wrist one third of the time when shown a colored square appear on a computer screen (Earlier research in conditioned learning shows that this is the frequency of ‘punishment’ that creates a lasting association).

The very inspiring Dr. James Gordon and his awesome, kickass team of volunteer mental health professionals are currently doing advanced PTS training in Gaza City.  This is something, folks.  Yep, they work separately with both Israelis and Palestinians, and continue in the wonderful tradition of what they did in Bosnia and post-Katrina New Orleans.
 
These folks get it that posttraumatic stress is a biochemical and neuro-physiological condition, and that the way to healing is through the primitive brain and nervous system.

Question:  

I am sponsoring a woman in AA who has PTSD-like symptoms from childhood sexual abuse. She is very functional in work and has a well kept apartment. Her finances are in order, and she is sober about 1 1/2 years.

She is suffering from frequent flashbacks of the abuse that are causing great suffering. I referred her to your website for the recordings/books. She is against using psych meds, which I support.

We live in a semi-rural area and the local community services board counselors are very psych med oriented. She went to a counselor for a few sessions who suggested meds., which my sponsee doesn't want and then the counselor was pretty vague about a treatment plan. She isn't going there now.

Well, as you might imagine, since the Fort Hood shootings, the phones have been ringing off the hook and emails have been pouring in.  People want to know why the Dept. of Defense and the V.A. aren’t using portable, digitized guided imagery in a more systematic way to combat PTSD in our troops, given the research results we’ve been seeing with it.

It’s hard to know where to begin, so I’ll just start with some random thoughts. Hopefully they’ll come across as sequential.

Question:
Someone told me that you recently mentioned using guided imagery and Reiki together. I am very much interested in this as I am a Reiki Practitioner/Master. I would love to hear your thoughts on this and any suggestions. Is there anything available I can use as a guide?
Tonya

Question:

Dear Belleruth,

I am a professional counselor (LMFT) who has been involved with Trauma and Critical Incidents of all types since 1987.  Early on I was trained in the Mitchell model of CISD [Ed. Note: This is Critical Incident Stress Debriefing].  I currently respond to these types of incidents on behalf of EAP providers who continue to value the CISD model.  

My observation of this model is that it has some effectiveness in the short-term.  Many people have commented on the improvement they have felt after completing the debriefing process.

However, I am now faced with evidence--most recently re-discovered on your Not Alone page - that talking about the incident, particularly immediately following the event may not only not be helpful but could re-traumatize the participants.

This comment about the impact of guided imagery was posted by an Iraq veteran with PTS, and it means a lot to all of us here in the office.  Getting this kind of considered feedback makes us feel like we’re helping – among many others - to make a dent in the suffering generated by all the ugliness our troops endure while doing their service.  She writes:

A few years ago, I was deployed to Iraq with the Armed Forces.  During my deployment, I saw and was involved in many things that still haunt me.

I'm proud to introduce performing artist, Vietnam vet and awesome guy "Big Mike,"who sent us a beautiful card (with some hilarious elements) last week.  He’s officially disabled, but earns his keep playing the 12-string guitar and auto-harp.  Included in the envelope was this wonderful picture of him performing, along with his bright orange business card, and a sticker that read, “I do the handicapped shuffle when I’ve got the disability blues”.

We found this testimonial on the power of guided imagery for healing long-standing posttraumatic stress on a posting on BR’s Huffington Post blog.  It’s not the first time we’ve heard this, but it’s always great to get a report like this: