Psychotherapy for Traumatic Stress After 9-11
David Feinstein, Ph.D.
Of the hundreds of recent articles commemorating the tenth anniversary of 9-11, one is particularly sobering for psychotherapists. A New York Times piece reported that following the attacks, well-meaning mental health workers flooded into New York City, setting up makeshift therapy centers and providing free services in fire stations, offices of major employers, and other convenient locations.
Investigations of the outcomes of this counseling showed that in many cases the mental health professionals were much more enthusiastic about its benefits than the recipients. Some people "undoubtedly benefitted, researchers say, but others became annoyed or more upset." An approach that was widely used, "in which the therapist urges a distressed person to talk through the experience and emotions, backfires for many people. They plunge even deeper into anxiety and depression when forced to relive the mayhem."
For those of us trying to advocate the use of Energy Psychology for post-disaster mental health care (see "Energy Psychology's Magical Mystery Tour of the U.S. Congress"), knowledge of these missed opportunities or actual harm done is particularly poignant. The congressional leaders we visited were well aware that the treatment being offered to our more than 300,000 veterans who have returned from Iraq and Afghanistan with the terrible symptoms of PTSD is woefully inadequate. And we were able to present them with research that demonstrates the effectiveness of Energy Psychology interventions with PTSD. Studies being conducted within the military were initiated from that effort.
Meanwhile, the preliminary data that already exists is impressive. An investigation of 59 combat veterans with PTSD symptoms showed that their scores on the military version of the Postraumatic Stress Checklist, a standardized measure in outcome research of PTSD treatment with veterans, went from high in the PTSD range to well below it after six sessions for 86 percent of the participants. No study of any other therapy in the mental health literature matches these results with PTSD, yet the American Psychological Association still treats Energy Psychology like snake oil, actively preventing psychologists from receiving continuing education credit for studying it.
Is the research on the veterans receiving Energy Psychology treatments described above just a fluke? We've summarized nine professional papers suggesting that Energy Psychology is strikingly effective, including six empirical investigations and three reviews. A ten-minute video clip showing four combat veterans before, during, and after treatment (below) is also quite stunning. We hope you will review the evidence and spread the word within your local community that more effective treatments for the PTSD epidemic (which inflicts more than 5 million Americans) are available.
Brief Vignettes of Four War Veterans Receiving Energy Psychology Treatments
Excerpted with permission from the full-length documentary
OPERATION: Emotional Freedom.
Learn more about the film or order the full DVD
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In March 2008, eleven military veterans or family members, all with PTSD, participated in a pilot program where each received 10 to 15 hours of EFT, a form of Energy Psychology, over a 5-day period at a location in San Francisco. This pilot program and its follow-up are the centerpiece of OPERATION: Emotional Freedom, a full-length documentary film. The 10-minute excerpt here shows brief segments from the intake interviews of four of these participants, all combat veterans, snippets of their treatment, and brief segments of their comments at the end of the 5 days. The text embedded in the film shows their initial symptoms and their progress three months later. The improvements held on one-year follow-up.
Comment by the Film Maker:
Eric Huurre traveled throughout the country to visit the participants and to film follow-up reports on their progress. His summary:In every situation, what I found was even more healing, more recovery than I'd seen back in San Francisco and far more than I'd expected – lives changed back to hope, promise, and calm. And it wasn't just wishful thinking on my part or overstatements from the veterans. Without question every partner, parent, child, or friend of our subjects was amazed and overjoyed to see the changes first brought home and then refined and kept alive as months went by. This was not a one minute wonder, nor a parlor trick. The changes were real and lasting. The benefits were profound. Sleep returned. Reliance on medications changed drastically. Relationships improved and partners and family members were given the chance to reunite with the people they'd known prior to their military exposure. Most encouraging were how children reconnected with parents and vice versa where formerly little or no compassion, understanding or forgiveness was possible.
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