PROJECT DESIGN: February 2013 to Launch of November 2013
Project Time Frame: November 2013 to November 2017
Candidate Participants: 7 females – mid-twenties to 50+ [mean 56]. 6 Canadian; 1 American
SLCHG-Core Practitioners: 4 – 1 Trauma Counsellor, 1 Naturopath/Chiropractor,
1 Classical Naturopath + 1 Body Therapist/Intuitive Healer
3 PHASE HEALING-TO-CURE PROGRAMS:
Entry Program: Intake, Significant/Traumatic Lifetime Events History, Crisis + Critical . Occasion Stabilization, Medication Review, Symptom Complex [SC]. Graph, Pre-Treatment Assessment , Establishing Collaborating Team + SC Dissipation + Stabilization [able to contain]
Fulcrum Program : Stabilized, attending, engaged + compliant with collaborating core + local practitioners with ability to decompress/contain/maintain basic stability/ADL function while processing/integrating trauma memories between treatments sessions
Cure Program : Feels trauma vortex containers released, reconciled with historic TLE, . majority of traumatic bereavement=forgiveness of self/others done. Working on positive sense of self / and has well enough worldview. Able to adapt, self-regulate stressors + accommodates in situations, relationship with significant others, contributes @ home + work.
Transition Program Option: treatment program suspended for an undetermined period of time as participant attends to acute medical issues, critical or crisis life events.
PRE/POST PROJECT ASSESSMENTS:
1) Mood Scale [4]
2) Braverman Nature + Deficiency Tests [3 – pgs. 44-58]
3) Dissociative Experience Scale [DES] [12]
4) C-PTSD Criteria [10] Research Instrument [16]
5) Feeling Faces Inventory [FFI] Grief Work Instrument [14]
6) Draw-A-Core [DAC]: Projective Core Test [1997] – Personal Core Healing Work
7) 5 Symptom Complex Graph [SC Graph] Research Response Log [16]
8) Treatment/Progress Reports + Evaluations
PROJECT MATERIALS:
1) Trauma to Healing Vortex Collaborative Case File
2) Literature Reviews [Counselling Connect]
3) MOT: Homeopath Standing Orders: Trauma-Specific SC Trials/Single Session Use [15]
COMPLEXIETY + DIVERSITY:
There is much work to be done and I will continue to do my best creating/revising the research design + materials to suit the purposes of the project: procedures, collaborative case files, assessment instruments, plus these articles. I am always going to be behind for the front-line clinical service work comes first. The most important matters that presented at launch and manifested during the first 3 months [6%] of the project’s Entry Program surrounds Conflictual Treatment Issues + Consensus of Opinion. These presenting barriers [obstacles] challenged us and the launch was not as smooth as I hoped for because each individual client and their selected collaborating practitioners all have different opinions.
How effective I am in my primary, varied roles/functions as researcher, manager, co-ordinator and trauma psychotherapist to intervene and help us work together towards the participants and project goals is also a complex and loaded question. However, I will regularly provide brief reviews to the best of my ability. I welcome + encourage all in this project to provide feedback.
I do believe individual difference is a gift and blessing in disguise [spice of life] and ought not be a human-factor barrier that obstructs the flow of any collective healing experience. My naïve innocence is shinning through again and that is OK for I do believe this statement holds truth.
Launch, Entry Program [6% of the Journey] Factors:
Each of us brings our own unique personal and work-related, accumulated life experiences and perspectives to the project floor. A very interesting launch group of 24 people [array of floor tiles], are travelling on this journey for the next 4 years and hopefully, laid down a useful patterned [seen + felt] ground we can all traverse. Is it biologically plausible that our collective, collaborative associations [bio: rhythms, clocks, markers, knowledge, insights] will lead to coherence to advance treatment and the existing information available on C-PTSD?
NOVEMBER TO DECEMBER 2013:
Demographics:
4 participants are admitted into their individualized Entry Program and selected the collaborating practitioners they want to work with during this project. They are:
1) 8 Doctors – 4 primary care, 1 psychiatrist, 2 naturopaths + 1 trauma psychotherapist
2) 8 Body Therapists – 1 physiotherapist, 2 craniosacral, 1 massage + 4 intuitive healers
3) 4 Allied Professionals – 1 homeopath + 3 herbalists
NOV 2013 TO FEB 2014 PROGRESS NOTE:
All [100%] of the participants experienced an acute medical illness: flu, adverse drug effect, Bell’s Palsy, Return Travellers GI Problem and ocular migraine. One completed her Entry Program and 3 participants are in Transition Programs while attending to treatment to stabilize concurrent medical issues.
Author: Dr. Linda AK Thompson, PsyD, PACCC, CCC, FAAETS
Owner, Matrix of Trauma (© MOT ™): Research, Advocacy, Healing
References:
Allen, J.G. (2001). Traumatic Relationships and Serious Mental Disorders. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
APA (2013). Desk Reference to the Diagnostic Criteria from DSM-5. Washington: American Psychiatric Publishing.
Braverman, E.R. (2005). The Edge Effect: achieve total health and longevity with the balanced brain advantage. New York: Sterling Publishing Co. Inc.
Calgary Health Region (CHR – 1999). Geriatric Depression Scale [GDS]. Adapted from Sheikh, J.I. & J.G. Yesavage (1986). Clinical Gerontology: a guide to assessment & intervention 165-173. New York: The Haworth Press
Cardena, E.; S.J. Lynn & S. Krippner. (2000). Varieties of Anomalous Experience: Examining the Scientific Evidence. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association
Courtois, C.A. (1999). Recollections of Sexual Abuse: treatment principles and guidelines. New York: W.W. Norton & Co. Inc.
Goulding, R.A. & R.C. Schwartz. (1995). The Mosaic Mind: Empowering the Tormented Selves of Child Abuse Survivors. New York: W.W. Norton & Co. Inc.
Herman, J. L. (1992). Trauma and Recovery: the aftermath of violence – from domestic abuse to political terror. New York: Basic Books.
Noll, R. (1997). The Aryan Christ. The Secret Life of Carl Jung. New York: Random House
Pelcovitz, D.; van der Kolk, B.A.; Roth, S.; Mandel, F.S.; Kaplan, S. + Resick, P.A. (1997). Development of a Criteria Set and a Structured Interview for Disorders of Extreme Stress [SIDES]. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 10, p.9. Copyright 1997 by the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies. Printed with permission pg. 88 in Courtois.
Scaer, R.C. (2005). The Trauma Spectrum: Hidden Wounds and Human Resiliency. New York: W.W. Norton & Co. Inc.
Sidran Institute (1995). The Dissociative Experiences Scale [DES] by Bernstein Carson, E. & Putman, F.W. (1986). Permission granted in 1995 for use in MOT Research.
Siegel, B.S. (1986). Love, Medicine & Miracles: lessons learned about self-healing from a surgeon’s experience with exceptional patients. New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc.
Thompson, Linda A.K. (1996). The Matrix of Trauma: A dissertation – partial fulfilment for requirements for degree of doctor of psychological traumatology in psychological assessments and etymology. © Unpublished/Sealed. Summit University of Louisiana, New Orleans: Louisiana.
Thompson, L.A.K. (2005). Harmony Project: Woman’s Support & Enhancement Group: Nursing Counselling Services (NCS 1990-2012), Private Practice. Water Valley, AB.
Thompson, L.A.K. & C.A. Zimmerman (2013 – 2017). MOT: Pilot Project – Silver Linings Core Healing Group [SLCHG]. A Complex-Posttraumatic Stress Disorder [C-PTSD, visionary healing-to-cure, experimental, experiential, applied trauma psychotherapy protocol.
Wilson, J.P.; M.J. Friedman & J.D. Lindy (2001). Treating Psychological Trauma & PTSD. New York: Guilford Press
*The views expressed by our authors are personal opinions and do not necessarily reflect the views of the CCPA