Reflections of a Trauma Nurse/Counsellor’s Academic, Research & Clinical Experiences

Introduction to Psychotraumatology

I have decades of reflections I am ready to share concerning my academic, research and clinical experiences as the trauma nurse who became a trauma counsellor.  However, a brief introduction into the emerging field of Psychotraumatology, as experienced by myself across North America, but mostly in Canada, is a good place to start. 

I presented similar versions of the following brief, introductory material.  The first was an in-service in acute psychiatry (Thompson, 2004), and the second was as a topic of interest, Harmony Project:  Woman’s Support & Enhancement Group (Thompson, 2005), attended by survivors with diagnosed, Complex, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (C-PTSD; Herman, 1972).

From 1985 to 1996, I completed all requirements at-a-distance and obtained a PhD in Psychology.  My dissertation was named Psychological Traumatology and a decade passed before the American Psychological Association (APA) founded Division 56 – Trauma Psychology (APA – 2006).  In Canada in 1989, when I established a private practice to provide trauma, exit and grief nursing/counselling services, I was perceived as eccentric and fringe, especially when serving client(s) engaged and in the midst of volatile and hostile agendas and the use of coercive persuasion (Lifton, 1961). 

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