17 February 2014
A Witness To Trauma
“Can I get a witness?
Can I get a witness?”– from the song, Some Kind of Wonderful
There are many possible reasons why people who have experienced some form of traumatic event in their lives go on to develop some form of post-traumatic stress (with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder being at the extreme end of the scale), whereas others do not. To get to the bottom of this, we can explore each person’s childhood and look at their family attachment style to see whether there were underlying fissures. We can also take our cues from psychophysiology, which gives us insights into how we process stressful situations in our brain (and reciprocally storing those experiences and feelings in the body). Naturally, we can also weigh the significance of the traumatic event in question (assuming it is known). It’s hard to say who will and who will not retain some kind of ill influence from whatever trauma they may have experienced.
In her book, Emotional Understanding, author Donna M. Orange makes an interesting observation–that sometimes the difference between those who develop PTS and those who do not sometimes comes down to whether there was someone around us at the time of the traumatic event to bear witness to our experience (either during or after the event). (more…)
If you are interested in learning more about my services, about me, or perhaps booking an appointment, please call me at 416-873-7828 or email me at info@downtowntherapy.ca for more information.
filed under: anxiety• general info• psychotherapy• PTSD• stress
30 January 2014
Therapy Myth: The All-Wise Therapist
On this blog, I would like to briefly and intermittently explore misconceptions about psychotherapy. Talk therapy – to use a blanket term encompassing everything from old-school Freudian psychoanalysis to newer approaches, like relational psychotherapy (which I practice) – view clients’ issues from different psychological, philosophical, and scientific angles. Because it has been around since the turn of the 20th century and has undergone so many changes, and because the way talk therapy as depicted in mainstream media sometimes stands in contrast to reality, I feel it necessary to address some general problems with perception. These “myths”, as I like to put it, are presented in no particular order.
The All-Wise Therapist: It goes without saying that we should aim to find a therapist who has undergone accredited training, who is a member of a recognized governing body or society, and who has done their own therapeutic work (sometimes referred-to under the generic moniker of “self-care”) and supervision. And yet there is a perception, not helped by some film and TV stereotypes, that all the client has to do is lay down and talk and the therapist – by virtue of her intelligence and analytical acumen alone – will solve all the riddles and guide the client towards necessary realizations. In other words, it’s a Sherlock Holmes episode where progress is predicated on the therapist’s insight.
Progressive approaches to therapy understand that the client is just as capable of guiding the therapeutic process as the therapist. Better still the therapeutic alliance – what we call the connection between the therapist and client during their work together – is capable of more empathetic and substantial discoveries than under the traditional (and outmoded) “you associate/I interpret” approach. (more…)
If you are interested in learning more about my services, about me, or perhaps booking an appointment, please call me at 416-873-7828 or email me at info@downtowntherapy.ca for more information.
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