Back in World War I when we were trying to treat soldiers experiencing “shell shock” (later known as PTSD), a new profession known as Occupational Therapy was founded.
The thought at that time was that these shell shocked soldiers would find relief quicker by doing something rather than just talking about their experiences.
Hmm.
It has taken the mental health field decades to catch on to this idea.
Talk therapy can do wonders in many circumstances, but it can also run the risk of re-traumatizing patients suffering with PTSD.
Bill O’Hanlon, LMFT, made the point in a recent interview that talk therapy has been known to traumatize even the therapist.
So what else can we do?
Lots of things. We’ve known for years that exercise was helpful in treating depression but a new study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine reported that patients who exercised experienced a 20% decrease in anxiety compared to those who didn’t exercise.
Researchers from the University of Georgia analyzed the results from 40 randomized controlled clinical trials involving nearly 3,000 patients who suffered from a variety of medical conditions.
In 90% of the studies, participants who were assigned to the exercise group exhibited fewer anxiety symptoms, including worry, apprehension and nervousness than those participants in the control group.
And individuals who exercised for 30 minutes or more per session received more anxiety relief than those exercising for shorter periods.
So let’s follow the original Occupational Therapy message and add exercise to our arsenal of treatments!
Because PTSD is so pervasive and because a history of trauma is frequently associated with chronic disease, it is a subject brought up often in NICABM’s programs on trauma treatment.
Leave a comment below and tell us about your experience in treating patients with PTSD.
Check that off the list of things I was coefsund about.
Thank you so much for this posting and the mention of Occupational Therapy’s origin. This profession has been so fulfilling having practiced for over 35 years. Finding the meaningful and purposeful activity, task or what we call “occupation” is the key in brain alert and the jump start I look for in each individual. Then what happens is divine I think. Something that is deep inside their brain, touches their heart helps them to take action and they respond. I couple CranioSacral therapy Somato Emotional release techniques, a hands on modality, with traditional OT to help someone release the block when the body is ready and the individual lets it go with tender assistance, sometimes talking them through it and sometimes through imagery. It is a powerful way of releasing emotional and tissue trauma memories at a cellular level throughout the whole body. I cannot say enough about this and I wish more individuals would come to my clinic in Southfield to experience this or find a therapist near them by visiting the Upledger Institute in Florida founded by John Upledger, D.O. who did his research here at Michigan State University 40 years ago. I have been able to take courses through their trained and certified experts in the field. Recently, I interviewed Gayle Breman, PhD psychologist who is pioneering her new conceps and has been all over the world teaching as an ambassador for the Upledger Institute. The archive of our show will be available on my focuspointtherapy.com website in a week on the events page. The date I interviewed her on my global talk radio show, Focus Point Review on VoiceAmerica.com Health and Wellness channel was April 13, 2012. We shared individual cases that we each had tremendous outcomes with positive and better than would be expected experiences using CranioSacral therapy in combination with OT traditional modalities and her with talking. I hope this is helpful to those searching for help beyond traditional interventions. The length of time since the trauma does not make any difference with the outcome of this therapy. I personally had a visual problem since birth, corrected in 5 minutes and it has remained corrected for 6 years now assisted by someone who sat next to me in a craniosacral workshop. The instructor demonstrated the sphenoid bone adjustment and we as participants tried it for the first time on eachother. I worked on my partner for 5 minutes and she on me. Next thing I knew, the Duane’s Syndrome was corrected and my left eye had full range of motion for the first time in 50 years. The lateral muscle had not deteriorated and the unblocked nerve was able to transmit the signal to my eye for the first time. It changed my thinking about “use it or lose it” that is pervasive in our medical model but is changing as we find out more about brain plasticity and therapeutic modalities like the Interactive Metronome. When the timing is interrupted in the brain, it impacts daily skill function. IM in combination with functional occupations has proven to be another powerful advanced brain training program bearing better than expected outcomes. I also mention this on my website. I also had a personal improvement 10 years ago Beta testing this computer-based program. After 15 sessions, my lifelong reading comprehension problem was corrected without ever working on reading skills. My left and right eye were not timed in synch with eachother as they tract words across the page. I had a reading style described as a ratchet process. I couln’t make pictures in my brain without the stream of words, or reading fluency, to make the pictures. No pictures, no memory. No memory, poor test results. Poor academic success, poor self esteem. Academics seems to be the only measure of a person in our society. Too bad we miss so much in so many. I found out I am not stupid after all. Thanks for the spot to give hope to those who have hit a wall or insight to practitioners about where they can send their clients to tandum treat or where you might consider going for your next workshop and skill development for your tool box. God Bless America and all who serve our country. Maureen Palmer, MS, OTRL
I definitely accept as true with what you have mentioned. In reality, I browsed throughout your various other content articles and I do think that you are certainly correct. Great job with this site.
A fascinating research-based book on the connection between emotional trauma and brain damage:
Does Stress Damage the Brain? By Douglas Bremner, MD, a psychiatrist who was, last time I checked, working for the VA and doing PET scan research at Emory University in Atlanta.
My father experienced shell shock in WW1 and reportedly would wake in the night in a cold sweat and go for a walk. He did this for a few weeks, and to my knowledge had no residual trauma problems. In fact, he was a master at not being traumatised.
It seems imperative, to me in my work, to hold back from any particular theoertical approach, and following Erickson’s invitation, to look with each individual person for what is missing for them so that they can be OK.
Hello Shona
What is ‘Human Givens’ therapy please? It sounds very interesting.
Lerman, it is a great post thanks for writing it!
An interesting article appeared in Science magazine: Shell Shock Revisited: Solving the Puzzle of Blast Trauma, 1/25/2008, Vol. 319 Issue 5862, p406-408.
The article says that some “shell shock” may actually be due to shock waves that cause neurological damage and be quite distinct from PTSD.
Here’s the abstract:
The article focuses on the theories of blast-related traumatic brain injury. It relates that neurologist Ibolja Cernak argues that, based on her animal studies, blast wave can cause neuronal damage with symptoms such as memory deficits, dizziness, speech problems and difficulties with decision-making. It is noted that the U.S. Department of Defense is funding various researches on TBI, aimed specifically at understanding trauma caused by shock waves, heat and electromagnetic radiation emanating from blast.
Clear, iniofmatrve, simple. Could I send you some e-hugs?
I have found Human Givens (HG) therapy to be immensely helpful in treating PTSD. Research that I have been involved with (and am currently publishing) has also shown excellent effects.
It is a biopsychosocial model. It provides a set of organising ideas to help make sense of why certain treatments work, such as why being occupied (like the occupational health in WW1 that was mentioned in the blog) can be helpful. It has a very specific treatment for trauma called the Rewind, which is very effective for flashbacks and nightmares.
I have successfully treated people using Rewind without knowing any details of the trauma (this helps with vicarious trauma for the therapist). This technique takes one session, and most people actually describe the treatment session as having been ‘enjoyable’!! This is far from the traumatic experience of Reliving types of therapy. Obviously, there is more to treating trauma than just the flashbacks and nightmares, but this does help people progress more quickly.
Again, I would echo Bill’s statement that not all types of therapy help all people, but in a study of over 1300 clients with 46 therapists, Human Givens therapy was found to be as effective as CBT, and did not have the exclusion criteria found in many CBT studies.
I am looking forward to hearing the rest of the talks.