New Haven: Post Traumatic Stress Center
Since my last blog post, I completed the rest of my visit to the Post Traumatic Stress Center (PTSC) in New Haven, Connecticut.
I was honoured to spend time attending the Strong Leaders summer programme. The programme works with a group of high school students over a three week period. The sessions use drama-based games and exercises focused around a certain theme. Examples of themes include trust and boundaries. The exercises naturally lead into periods of discussion and reflection, providing the participants with the opportunity to talk about the issues brought up and reflect on how these link to their own experiences. There are times where there will be opportunity for the facilitators to bring in psychoeducative material if this naturally links to the issues that have arisen in the group.
The Strong Leaders programme culminates in the participants planning and creating a social action project and an issue that is important to them. This could take one of many forms, for example a play, zine, film etc. The participants are able to choose the area of focus and this often naturally emerges from the earlier sessions of the programme.
I also learnt about the wider work taking place at PTSC. Individual and groups therapies are offered, based around Trauma-Centered Psychotherapy and Development Transformations (DvT), models developed by the PTSC co-directors Dr Lubin and Dr Johnson. Throughout the school year they offer services in various local schools. In addition to the Miss Kendra letter-writing project (see my last blog post) the PTSC clinicians offer 'stress reduction' sessions to students during school time. These short 1-1 sessions use dramatherapy exercises to help students identify experiences and issues that may be underlying any current difficulties they are experiencing. The exercises then enable the student to express their feelings relating to challenging life events and also expel some of the stress that they are experiencing as a consequence. The PTSC reports seeing excellent outcomes from this work, which is considered a preventative measure for post traumatic stress symptoms in later life. This area of work is clearly of great importance, particularly as practitioners across many disciplines are increasingly becoming aware of the significance of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and toxic stress during childhood.
One thing that stuck out to me during my visit was the use of artwork throughout the PTSC. The PTSC ethos is that it is important to be able to communicate and address traumatic experiences at an early stage, and that no issue or traumatic experience is so awful that it cannot be spoken about with another human being. The artwork generally all conveys this message in one way or another. Many of the pieces are interactive and allow clients to engage with the pieces at symbolic moments in their therapeutic journey.
'Remnants of Recovery' is a wall-mounted art piece where clients can choose to 'leave' things that they are ready to leave behind. It is possible to drop drawings, writing or artefacts into the boxes that make up the piece:
Remnants of Recovery
'In the wake of my recovery
lay these remains
page upon page
of sorrow and trembling
etched in the dark ink of night
time now for an unburdening
let them lay here
in this quiet place
markers of the winding path
that leads on and up and far ahead'
'Reconnecting... one memory at a time...' is another wall mounted piece. It could be considered to symbolise many aspects of reconnect in relation to trauma healing; memories, adaptive information, social connection, emotional connection etc:
The piece contains many wires that can be twisted and joined together at will. Clients are invited to manipulate the wires as they wish, often it may be at a moment that a particular connection or breakthrough had been made in therapy that someone may want to mark this through the connection of wires.
As I left New Haven, I felt extremely grateful to all at the PTSC who made my visit possible and were so generous with their time and expertise. And of course the participants in the Strong Leaders programme who it was a privilege to spend time with and observe the amazing work they are doing.
I was honoured to spend time attending the Strong Leaders summer programme. The programme works with a group of high school students over a three week period. The sessions use drama-based games and exercises focused around a certain theme. Examples of themes include trust and boundaries. The exercises naturally lead into periods of discussion and reflection, providing the participants with the opportunity to talk about the issues brought up and reflect on how these link to their own experiences. There are times where there will be opportunity for the facilitators to bring in psychoeducative material if this naturally links to the issues that have arisen in the group.
The Strong Leaders programme culminates in the participants planning and creating a social action project and an issue that is important to them. This could take one of many forms, for example a play, zine, film etc. The participants are able to choose the area of focus and this often naturally emerges from the earlier sessions of the programme.
I also learnt about the wider work taking place at PTSC. Individual and groups therapies are offered, based around Trauma-Centered Psychotherapy and Development Transformations (DvT), models developed by the PTSC co-directors Dr Lubin and Dr Johnson. Throughout the school year they offer services in various local schools. In addition to the Miss Kendra letter-writing project (see my last blog post) the PTSC clinicians offer 'stress reduction' sessions to students during school time. These short 1-1 sessions use dramatherapy exercises to help students identify experiences and issues that may be underlying any current difficulties they are experiencing. The exercises then enable the student to express their feelings relating to challenging life events and also expel some of the stress that they are experiencing as a consequence. The PTSC reports seeing excellent outcomes from this work, which is considered a preventative measure for post traumatic stress symptoms in later life. This area of work is clearly of great importance, particularly as practitioners across many disciplines are increasingly becoming aware of the significance of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and toxic stress during childhood.
One thing that stuck out to me during my visit was the use of artwork throughout the PTSC. The PTSC ethos is that it is important to be able to communicate and address traumatic experiences at an early stage, and that no issue or traumatic experience is so awful that it cannot be spoken about with another human being. The artwork generally all conveys this message in one way or another. Many of the pieces are interactive and allow clients to engage with the pieces at symbolic moments in their therapeutic journey.
'Remnants of Recovery' is a wall-mounted art piece where clients can choose to 'leave' things that they are ready to leave behind. It is possible to drop drawings, writing or artefacts into the boxes that make up the piece:
Remnants of Recovery
'In the wake of my recovery
lay these remains
page upon page
of sorrow and trembling
etched in the dark ink of night
time now for an unburdening
let them lay here
in this quiet place
markers of the winding path
that leads on and up and far ahead'
'Reconnecting... one memory at a time...' is another wall mounted piece. It could be considered to symbolise many aspects of reconnect in relation to trauma healing; memories, adaptive information, social connection, emotional connection etc:
The piece contains many wires that can be twisted and joined together at will. Clients are invited to manipulate the wires as they wish, often it may be at a moment that a particular connection or breakthrough had been made in therapy that someone may want to mark this through the connection of wires.
As I left New Haven, I felt extremely grateful to all at the PTSC who made my visit possible and were so generous with their time and expertise. And of course the participants in the Strong Leaders programme who it was a privilege to spend time with and observe the amazing work they are doing.
