What Soldiers can Teach Therapists who Work with Trauma: A Qualitative Examination of Contemporary American War Writing

Publication date: Available online 21 December 2018Source: The Arts in PsychotherapyAuthor(s): Haen CraigAbstractEight contemporary memoirs and biographies focused on American soldiers who served in Iraq and Afghanistan were used as data sources for a qualitative investigation of war and its aftermath. Coding of these texts produced 6 themes that captured the experiences of soldiers in combat: Two Worlds (Away and Home); Teach you with Pain; the Ideal of Hero/ Be a Man; Male Intimacy/ Belonging; Old Me, New Me; and the Inevitability of Death. These themes are discussed as they inform an understanding of how soldiers are both similar to and unique from other traumatized populations. Clinical ramifications for trauma-focused psychotherapy are discussed, as are the potential for arts-based approaches in the treatment of soldiers.
Source: Arts in Psychotherapy - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research