Reflections of a Trauma Nurse/Counsellor’s Academic, Research & Clinical Experiences   Mid-Way – Traumatogenic Wounds & Beacon Messengers

In my mid-thirties in the mid-eighties, I remember sitting in a sociology class and our professor announced that every family system has skeletons in their closets somewhere down the line and across the generations.  Not only was I naïve about deception, I was also unaware of skeletons contained and held secret (closeted) by at least one living family member who contains the  transgenerational wound – traumatogenic [11]. 

My masters to doctorate process spanned 8 years of intense theoretical studies and I progressed to bifocals.  I am indebted to the vast number of academic/clinical teachers involved in my career/skill sets and development – quite amazing when I think back to the 16 year old who dropped out of school to simply be a practical nurse.  I still like those two words.  I am unable to formally acknowledge/thank all of my teachers to whom I remain grateful, however, there are some I refer to as ‘beacon messengers.’ It is their messages that stay with me and I hold onto dearly to sustain my faith, hope and fortitude to remain on track so that the bedside trauma nurse could and indeed did transition to become a trauma counsellor.

From 1989 to February 2012, I operated as a dual-role professional:  a Canadian Certified Counsellor (CCC) and Registered Nurse (RN).  In June 2012 and after 46 years of service, I prematurely, but gracefully surrendered [4] and placed myself on the RN inactive list and this is another story.  My current plan is to maintain my status as a CCC and owner, senior consultant of Matrix of Trauma (© MOT ™) for as long as my services are required and deemed helpful by the client population I serve.  My beacon mentors originate from both fields of nursing and counselling:

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

My Beginning:  Have Trauma Will Travel & Rude Awakenings:

In 1989, this is what I said to myself ‘have trauma will travel’ on a novel path and idea that this trauma nurse, retiring from bedside intensive care unit (ICU) nursing could transition, with transferable skill sets gained as a mid-life professional, into a private nursing practice to be a grief counsellor.  A good naïve innocent thought until I realized from my own bereavement that the phenomena of grief requires master level education/training in order for me to be helpful or acceptable in any professional association providing counselling services[21]. 

Google search Psychotraumatology and Wikipedia high-lights three professionals: Frank Ochberg, MD is named the founding father of modern Psychotraumatology; Gottfried Fisher, PhD is named the founder of Psychotraumatology in Germany, and Steve Abadie-Rosier is an expert in criminology and considered the ‘psychoanalyst of the irrecoverable or the borderline.’  Goggle search Psychotraumatology Canada and Wikipedia high-lights the Canadian Friends of Herzog Hospital.  I was pleased to see the range of services now available and of particular interest to me is The Soldiers Project.  My father was a WW2 veteran and post-war a firefighter. During his end-of-life and palliative care journeys, I suffered great sadness alongside my family as my dad, my hero – died so hard.  This is another story.

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