How Intensive Trauma Therapy Can Help Youth—and Why It’s Worth Taking Time Off School When a child or teen has a serious emotional issue, it often shows up in school: disruptive behaviors and/or academic under-achievement. So send
If you ask a hundred prospective therapy clients, “Would you rather get the results of your therapy in a week, or in a year?” you can bet that at least
When I learned EMDR (eye movement desensitization & reprocessing) in 1992, I recognized it as a game-changer. I was already an effective trauma therapist, but EMDR enabled me to do
I’m not only old, I’m also old-school in some ways. So when we were first considering offering intensive trauma-focused psychotherapy online, I was opposed. I did not want to compromise
Everyone remembers where they were. I was trying to get into the building where I worked, at Mt. Sinai Medical Center in NYC, but it was blocked off. I asked
Did you ever notice how unsatisfying some apologies are? Like, “I’m sorry if you were offended,” or, “Sorry, I was just joking, I didn’t mean anything.” Because those are not
An essential element of social justice is repair of the harm done, so the injured person can recover from the injury and have their best opportunity to live according to
A couple of months ago, during the peak of the Black Lives Matters protests, we had a staff meeting. Our staff wanted to make a statement in support of BLM,
Welcome to the disrupted, surreal world of pandemic. The mental health community and its stakeholders have been stepping up to enable continuity of services in the wake of social distancing
This is a question I often hear, not only from prospective clients, but also from friends and acquaintances. So first of all, I’m not one of those people who sees
“I am such a loser!” “Everyone hates me!” “I will never succeed at this!” Have you ever found yourself thinking these thoughts or something like them? Ever wonder why you
My nonprofit org provides a lot of intensive trauma-focused therapy, which enables most of our clients to recover even from significant trauma within a couple of days to a couple
A while ago these two things happened on the same day: 1) I read about a psychiatric patient who had just gunned down his doctor and whoever else was nearby.
Christmas, Passover, Thanksgiving, weddings, funerals, birthdays, graduations, reunions, any special occasion… wonderful in theory, but can be challenging in real life. Here are some of the most common types of
EMDR is arguably the leading trauma therapy, but many or most therapists who obtain EMDR training don’t end up using it much. This is largely due to inadequate training. Unfortunately,
Last Thursday I didn’t get much work done because I was watching the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in which Dr. Christine Blasey Ford and Judge Brett Kavanaugh testified. And then
They say you can’t run away from your problems. That’s certainly true when it comes to post-traumatic stress: although pushing the memories, thoughts, and feelings aside can provide some quick
You don’t have to be Hindu, or spiritual, to do Yoga, a Hindu spiritual practice that involves prescribed physical activities as well as breathing and mindfulness exercises. Over 20 million
If I could get my trauma therapy done by lying down and receiving massages, I’d definitely do it! Wouldn’t you? Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way. Memory reconsolidation – the
Did you ever have a mood ring? This type of ring features a clear plastic or glass “stone” with liquid inside that changes color as it changes temperature. Mood rings
Mindfulness is rightly enjoying considerable popularity lately. Mindfulness is a practice of non-judgmental awareness of thoughts and feelings as they arise in moment-to-moment experience. Mindful awareness is correlated with increased
No, you’re probably not going to cure your PTSD by hanging out with a horse or a dog. Get your trauma healing done with an efficient, proven-effective method like EMDR,
The recently developed Flash technique enables a therapy client to rapidly and (nearly) painlessly reduce the distress level of an upsetting memory. Pending further research, Flash appears to represent an
One more way that life’s not fair: The people who need it the most get it the least – it being relationship support in the context of therapy. We know
How long does it take to get traumatized? A few minutes? A few seconds? The brain can make profound changes very quickly – right? So how long does it take
Some women are naming names. And their outed sexual harassers/assaulters are losing important business relationships. Just in the last couple of weeks, the casualty list includes chef John Besh, filmmaker
This morning I stopped in the gym to work out for a few minutes on my way to work: a day of teaching trauma therapy. On one of those stepping
When I started using Facebook several years ago, it was expressly for professional purposes such as networking and disseminating information relevant to trauma therapy. I avoided posting on political issues,
Like most people, I never set out to develop a new trauma treatment. It happened more or less by accident. I had long regarded eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR;
One of the striking features of eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR), as well as progressive counting (PC), is that the therapy action seems to occur entirely inside the client’s
Is there a best child trauma therapy yet? Trauma-focused cognitive-behavioral therapy (TF-CBT) appears to be the clear leader in that it has a ton of research support (Cohen, Mannarino, &
After completing trauma healing therapy (such as EMDR, PC, etc.), most clients report feeling and doing a lot better. But a few do not, for a variety of reasons addressed
It’s tough to repair a marriage following infidelity, even if both parties really want to. I’ve seen it over and over, variations on a theme: Frankie cheats, and then says
The other day my five-year-old and her friend were excitedly planning their next get-together. Mine said, “And we’ll play hide and seek!” and her friend said, “And we’ll think all
Most of our intensive therapy clients achieve profound healing from their trauma and loss memories. This typically leads to a dramatic reduction of symptoms, which in turn enables them to
We’re in the golden age of trauma therapy. We have research-supported treatments that are effective, efficient, and well-tolerated by clients. A lot of traumatized people are getting a lot more
I know a lot of people think that sliding scale is a cool thing to offer. I am opposed to sliding scale. I’ll tell you why: Because in my first
As the director of our intensive trauma-focused therapy service, I receive a lot of phone calls from people who would like to be feeling better and/or doing better. Some are
A slide in one of our training programs used to list prolonged exposure (PE) as “the gold standard” of trauma therapies, but then we took out the “g.” For two
It’s an old lament: They don’t like us, and we don’t like them. Practitioners and researchers, that is; us and them being whichever one you are, and aren’t, respectively. So
Does being a transgender child entail being doomed to a life of posttraumatic stress and misery? At first glance it doesn’t look so good. Let’s start with the 41% attempted
Here’s the problem: An estimated one in six women has been the victim of either an attempted or completed rape. Fewer than an estimated 1/3 of rapes are ever reported.
The standard of care in trauma therapy includes a stabilization phase prior to engaging in the trauma resolution work. This preliminary phase gives clients an opportunity to improve their affect
I like gambling; used to play in a regular poker game. But I prefer fair odds, so I’m not a fan of playing against the house. I did it only
Therapists often ask me which trauma treatment they should learn: eye movement desensitization & reprocessing (EMDR) or progressive counting (PC). First of all: Yes – you should learn EMDR or
I don’t really know. Self-help books have kind of a bad reputation, right? They’re like diets: you get the suckers to pay for each new one that comes along, and
Maybe this story starts when, at age 11, I tell my uncle that when I grow up, I want to make the world better. He both smiles and scoffs, knowing
We have a project looking for a home. We want to create a brief intensive trauma therapy diversion program for teens on their way into residential placement. The goal is
So you’ve found a good trauma therapist, now you can just relax and get treated, right? Well, not exactly… getting psychotherapy is not like getting a massage. Your therapist will
So you want to go for it, but you’re not sure how to go about it? Here’s the step by step. Get Referrals One good source of referrals can be
Is it possible to inoculate, or de-traumatize, someone who has just experienced a probably-traumatic event? This would entail somehow interfering with the traumatization process, if slightly after the initial fact
The concept of post-traumatic growth has been around since long before the term was coined. For example, people have long proclaimed, “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” The thing
Economic value is an important consideration in obtaining mental health care. Nobody wants to spend more than they have to, and that applies to individuals as well as grant funders,
Perhaps Freud said it best over a century ago: a healthy person is able to work and love. This is pretty much what parents want for their children (along with
In our clinical practice and training programs, we use a highly structured and directive treatment approach. The reason for this is that you (the therapist) are the professional, and your
Want to know why some relationships thrive and others deteriorate? This excellent and readable summary of the research tells us that it comes down to two things: emotional stability, and
The medical model has historically been promoted as the foundation of the psychotherapy approach, despite being a poor fit for psychotherapy (Wampold, 2010). In medicine one can actually provide a
The landmark Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) study found that childhood experiences such as abuse, neglect, exposure to domestic violence, death of a parent, etc., incurred lasting and deleterious effects not
I have a lot of beefs (beeves? plenty beef?) with extant trauma training practices, so I might be offending a lot of prominent people here. Hopefully to good purpose. However,
What makes trauma treatment work? And what can make it work better? This is another in an irregular series of posts focusing on key elements of trauma treatment. One of
How different things will be when we better understand how trauma can affect people! “Michael” was a mid-40’s married professional who had been subjected to extensive childhood abuse. In the
Last Saturday my 5-year-old daughter saw her friends go by on their way to shul, and she decided to try to catch up to them, before the rest of our
Chicken and egg. Someone is unstable due to traumatization. So do you focus on stabilization interventions, which means the client continues to struggle with the trauma? Or do you take
Perhaps the most frequent theme across posts in this blog is the promotion of psychotherapy for healing – via memory reconsolidation – as opposed to only symptom management, coping skills,
What makes trauma treatment work? And what can make it work better? This is the first in an irregular series of posts focusing on key elements of trauma treatment. A
Have you wanted EMDR training but it was too expensive? If so, you’re not the only one. When I ask this question at trauma workshops, nearly every therapist who has
Maybe there’s no nice way to say this, but I’ll give it a try. First of all, I’m not trying to put anyone down. Someone wants to tell their story,
The last blog post focused on the value of the intensive treatment format. The main point was that if the client comes to solve a problem, why not just get
Why is therapy for an hour per week? Probably because: You can fit it into a weekly routine. Each session’s work can interact with the client’s life for incremental benefit.
Since developing Progressive Counting (PC) in 2007, I’ve been teaching it quite a bit, often to therapists who are already trained in other trauma resolution methods. I enjoy the reactions:
Much has been made of the importance of non-specific factors (such as empathy, therapeutic alliance, etc.) to therapy outcome, and rightly so: therapists who use the common factors get better
When I call therapists in other locations to check them out for a referral, I briefly describe the case and ask what their approach would be. Quite a number of
Hi. Ricky Greenwald here, founder and director of Trauma Institute & Child Trauma Institute, and this blog’s author. Welcome to our new/revised web sites, not to mention this new blog,
