What’s in a name? The U.S. Army’s General Peter Chiarelli believes that a name carries a lot of weight. He believes that people form opinions quickly when they hear the term Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and that these negative opinions are preventing soldiers from seeking the treatment they need.
Rapid eye movement sleep may be just what the doctor orders for people with posttraumatic stress syndrome, according to a new study from the University of California at Berkeley. The problem is that the symptoms of posttraumatic stress syndrome include nightmares, insomnia, and other sleep disturbances – meaning that victims are often naturally deprived of the very sleep that could cure their condition.
It is hard to estimate the number of military servicemen who have suffered from sexual trauma during active duty. Reliable statistics simply don’t exist. VA records show that one in every 100 male veterans treated by the VA reported being sexually traumatized by fellow servicemen during their military careers. Given that 18 million of the 24.5 million veterans don’t use the VA health system and that the majority of sexual assaults go unreported, the numbers are undoubtedly much higher.
By Meghan Vivo
Every client who comes to The Ranch leaves a piece of themselves there. A simple stone, carried around to represent the burden of emotional trauma, becomes a symbol of surrender. On a quiet night along the banks of the Piney River, men and women breathe their story into their stone, and in one powerful gesture of releasing the stone into the river, surrender their old story and begin anew.
A mixture of the fields of biophysics and psychology, somatic experiencing therapy, or SE, is gaining recognition for helping trauma victims recover. The therapy, borrowing strategies from the classic “fight or flight” response to trauma, is especially notable because it can be applied across the gamut – for children who have been in an accident, or for victims of violence or sexual abuse.
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