Viewing Volume 6 Issue 2 Summer 2003
Trauma - a practitioners guide to counselling
Trauma counselling works on the principle that the person you are and the person you work with, are far more important than any technique you might use. What naturally grows out of this attitude is that the clients needs begin to set the tempo of the counselling and the counsellor supports the clients recovery by helping maintain a pace at which the client remains empowered. The contributors to this book have sought through innovative practice to address the many areas of human experience impacted by traumatic events. What this book seeks to do is to move away from a cognitive or verbal practice alone and provide insight into how traumatic responses may be worked with in mind, body and soul.
Whilst writing this introduction, I had a dream, I dreamt of a man and a woman trapped in an underground cavern, which was rapidly filling with water. They were clearly in peril and there was a pervading sense that something terrible had happened. The man and woman were back to back, skittishly edging around one another in a bizarre shadow dance. The man was out manoeuvring her, ensuring that she did not see him. Only the man’s voice could be heard. It was calm and reassuring but stressed that it was imperative that the woman should not turn around, conveying a sense that she would become hysterical if she knew exactly how desperate their situation was. Almost at once from a watching place, I became aware that the man had been decapitated and that he was holding his head out of the water by the hair. This was the ‘something else’ terrible had happened which he was desperately trying to prevent her from seeing. The content of this dream is not unusual given the context of my work and experience but rare in its occurrence. However, it conceptualised well what has become my understanding of trauma to date.
Traumatic responses are created by life – threatening events either to self or others, (the man and the woman trapped in the flooding cave). The response often involves some degree of fragmentation of thoughts, (the calmly speaking male) and feelings (the female). The dance of denial taking place between the male and female elements of the self, represents to me the precarious management of feelings which is often indicative of how clients cope with their situation. The separation of cognitive from bodily sensation, (represented by the decapitated head) is also symptomatic of some traumatised clients. Dissociation – the ability to observe the traumatic experience and even talk about it in great depth without any apparent reaction (the watching position) -is also characteristic of the traumatic response. Beyond this there is the dreamer dreaming the dream. This is the transpersonal, higher or spiritual self that transcends the existential crises induced by trauma, bringing integration and understanding to life threatening experience.
Therefore if we begin to speak and write about trauma we must begin to address how we can encourage these elements to relate to each other once again in a way that is safe and restorative. This is what contributors have written about here: how in their experience safety, reconnection with and integration of traumatic events can be achieved. It is not about a particular model or technique and how to use it, but also about what practitioners have come to know to be true through practice. There may be no absolute truth but if ‘truth is found in life’ then there is truth to be found here, for all of what is written about is the real life experience of the counsellors and therapists who daily work with those who have been traumatised.
By:Thom Spiers. 2001.
Abridged introduction from Trauma
ANNUAL CONFERENCE - Friday 5th September 2003
‘PERSONAL TRAUMAS’
This years 10th Bereavement and Loss conference, personal traumas. The programme content will address numerous facets, theories and accounts of differing aspects of personal traumas.
It is a resource that will provide conceptual dynamics of grief support;
Why support is an essential part of grief reconciliation;
Explore aspects of bereavement support;
Understand the marginalisation that may accompany dying and grief;
Recognise the cultural needs of those grieving in the community.
This conference will be an ideal networking opportunity and to form partnerships with a large cross section of people within your area of interest or work.
The diversity of speakers is hard to beat in one day, Professor J.(Jack)D.Morgan one of our patrons is travelling from Ontario to discuss the cultural needs of those grieving in our communities. Keith Jenkinson from Sunrise Trust in Birmingham will discuss ‘Men and Grief – containing the chaos’. Professor Tim Eden from Christies Hospital will discuss ‘the impact of diagnosis related to models of loss’. Professor Jim Kuykendall a psychologist will relate to families experiencing HIV diagnosis. Eric Norbury one of our members will talk about his reflections on visiting New York, following 9/11/01. Ann Jones from Roadpeace will address ‘influences on interventions for the bereaved by road accidents’. Rosie Dixon will explain why support is an essential to there organisation, Support After Murder and Manslaughter. Whilst Peter Saunders will discuss how circumstantial losses may surround abuse.
By:A.T.
Support The Grief Centre by attending.
DIARY DATES 2003
Committee Meetings.
Tuesday 26th August 2003.
Tuesday 14th October 2003.
Tuesday 9th December 2003.
By:
~ WANTED ~
VOLUNTEERS
The Grief Centre – Manchester Area Bereavement Forum is looking to strengthen its management team by recruiting suitably experienced voluntary committee members.
We are based in East Manchester and a registered charity Manchester Area Bereavement Forum was formed in 1993 and has almost 100 members. The organisation is seeking people with management experience to join a fourteen strong committee. We are looking for people with good strategic skills, Knowledge of fund raising applications and who posses the knowledge and know how of running and developing the organisation.
The role within the organisation suits both the young career professionals looking to broaden their experience and the more mature executive looking to give something back to the community. Computer literate people with experience in marketing and event management would be especially helpful to us. It would be expected the non-executive members would give a minimum of ½ to one day per week.
By:
For further information, contact: ‘The Grief Centre’ 0161-371-8860
Or e-mail us on: grief@mabf.org.uk