Book Review: The Body Remembers, Volume Two

Years ago, a friend of mine told me about a case that still haunted him. It involved a little girl who had been sexually abused whose parents felt she should tell all on the witness stand so that she could recover. When her testimony began, she started screaming and could not stop. Often people come to therapy thinking they must relive the trauma in order to come to grips with it, and want to begin telling the story in detail almost as soon as they sit down. As Babette Rothschild points out in The Body Remembers, Volume Two, when clients do that, they can become overwhelmed and re-traumatized and unlikely to return to therapy. In fact, telling all may not be a requirement to get better for a person. At one of her workshops, Rothschild asked therapists to raise a hand if they had experienced trauma. Many raised their hands. She then asked how many were functioning well without having gone into detail in therapy about the trauma. Most hands, usually about half to four fifths, stayed up. “Trauma treatment does not need to be traumatizing,” writes Rothschild. The work of Pierre Janet is central to Rothschild’s work. At the end of the 19th century, Janet proposed a three phase treatment for trauma. The first phase is establishing safety and stabilization. This process, which Rothschild identifies as essential, can take anywhere from hours to years. Only after the first phase is established can phases two and three be addressed, but Rothschild says that ...
Source: Psych Central - Category: Psychiatry Authors: Tags: Abuse Book Reviews Domestic Violence Psychotherapy PTSD Trauma Treatment Source Type: news