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The impact of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is persistent, pervasive and life-crippling. Academic achievement can plummet without apparent reason. Emotional maturation can stop. Physical growth can be stunted. A child's personality may be so changed that mother may say: "I lost my son."
What seems not so major to us as adults can leave a child with Post-traumatic Stress Disorder.
Post-traumatic Stress Disorder can be triggered in a sensitive child by observing a shocking scene. For example a child falls out of the ddor of the school bus as it goes down the highway. The bus driver closes the door. Does not stop. Some of the children who observed this scary event have even 'forgotten' the whole thing by that evening. But school marks go down dramatically. One child who observed this is, from then on, considered to have a learning disability. Wrong diagnosis. It is Post-traumatic Stress Disorder received by observing a frightening event unfold before his eyes and then learning to 'forget.' When the mind needs to forget intense emotion it effects all learning so that this child immediately did less well in school learning. (Therapist's notes: One indication, then, of a trauma is the impact on school learning - marks go down. One benefit of healing trauma is that learning aptitude - IQ - can return to pretrauma levels. The way the mind handles a trauma involves strong mechanism such as dissociation that can cripple one's emotional development for the rest of one's life. One's emotional IQ can become stunted. Therefore another benefit of healing of trauma is the normalization of emotional capacity - or the capacity to mature emotionally.)
An 8 year old boy observes a young man in the middle East being seized by a group of men, bound by ropes and then knifed to death. The scene stays vivid in his mind. Years later he describes the event to my client, his sister, and she imagines it vividly herself. "It was like I was there." She, too, becomes traumatized. When she shares this in the therapy session we go into prayer. I ask her to remember the scene, a few days previous, where her brother described this scene. Reluctantly she agrees. I ask her to invite Jesus into the scene, to come in between her and her brother and sheild her from the trauma. This she does. As she pictures this I ask Jesus to be the Good Shepherd for her and a shield. Afterwards she says, "Something left my head. I feel lighter." (Therapist's notes: The use of imagination in prayer moves the faith action to the heart level. What we "see" is what we "believe." Heart level faith opens us up to the real action of God in the realm of the spirit. The therapeutic method used here is what I call "Jesus-in-between." This is effective for bringing and end to spiritual transference, curses, and emotional soul ties.)
Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) - comparing therapies.
Post-traumatic Stress Disorder does respond to Listening Prayer Therapy, however, it is now clear that normal 'talk therapy,' even at the immediate time of a trauma, is not sucessful in stop the persistent, pervasive life-shattering impact of trauma on the lives of those shocked deeply by an event.
I like Bob Murray's description of two stage causation. Step One is is something traumatic in childhood which can be direct abuse or the observation of abuse of others. Step Two comes at a later stage when another trauma triggers into the underlying childhood depression, anxiety and dissociative disorder. See the origins of PTSD post traumatic stress disorder.
Post-traumatic Stress Disorder may respond to Cognitive Therapy (cognitive behavioural therapy, CBT), however, that would require persistent application over long time periods of time and many sessions. Because God's word does not return void but accomplishes the purpose for which it is sent, Listening Prayer Therapy is more effective. One could estimate that one session of Listening Prayer Therapy may accomplish the equivalent of 5 to 10 Cognitive Behavioural Therapy sessions.
Listening Prayer Therapy and Life Transformation Therapy offer such promise because they are able to dismantle belief systems very quickly. Life Transformation Therapy moves to replace negative core identity beliefs with positive beliefs and thus remove the long-term efffects on identity of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). God's Word may be able to penetrate and heal what cognitive and rationa methods cannot.
Search through the website www.HealMyLife.com for more information about this therapy as I practice it. Questions may be directed to Mr. Hartwell in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. PHone (416) 234-1850 or 877-854-3990.
According to The Globe and Mail story: "Pensions For Stress Disorder Skyrocket" (May 14, 2005), more than 5,000 ex-soldiers in Canada are now receiving disability pensions for post-traumatic stress disorder. But the fact that there is such a high number does not necessarily indicate abuse of the claiming process. Another possibility might be that the Canadian Forces are not capable of preventing, recognizing, treating or curing the effects of PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder).
It took Matthew Gray two decades to come to terms with his life
as a broken soldier. And when the 43-year-old Manitoba man was at
last awarded a disability pension from the military, it was not
because he saw combat, or because he was sent to war-ravaged lands
such as Somalia, Rwanda, Bosnia or Afghanistan.
Instead, the paratrooper was found to be suffering from post-traumatic
stress disorder (PTSD) because of events he endured in
the early 1980s, most of them occurring while he trained in Canada.
He says that a fellow soldier assaulted him in 1984 and
that crime, and several deadly military accidents he witnessed, haunt
him to this day.
The substance of the psychologist's report that swayed
Veterans Affairs to grant the pension is that Mr. Gray credibly
recalls being sexually assaulted by a sergeant in 1984. While serving
as a peacekeeper in Cyprus, he was behind the wheel in a car accident
that involved several other soldiers. He also says he saw several
fellow soldiers die in accidents or by violence.
"Your post-traumatic
stress disorder is attributable to traumatic events in
your service in Cyprus as well as being related to those traumas in
your Regular Force service," Veterans Affairs ruled, approving
Mr. Gray's claim.
Like many former soldiers, Mr. Gray credits former
general Roméo Dallaire's outspoken remarks (about his traumas
from his inability to prevent the Rwandan genocide) for helping him
to learn more about post-traumatic
stress disorder (PTSD) and inspiring him to apply for a
disability pension.
May 18, 2005 Ottawa -- Re Don't Panic, But A Stress Epidemic Is
Sweeping The Land (May 17): I am the survivor of a fatal car crash.
Two and a half years later, I am not able to care for my children,
work at the job I love nor emotionally support my partner of 15 years.
Countless psychologists and psychiatrists have confirmed
that I am suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder PTSD and
depression as a result of the car accident. Yet, this truth is often
met with skepticism.
Former lieutenant-general Roméo Dallaire urged
international action to stop the violence in Sudan, evoking Wednesday
the decade-old massacres in Rwanda to give weight to his plea.
Gen. Dallaire has firsthand experience of what can
happen when the world decides not to intervene. He commanded a small
United Nations peacekeeping mission in East Africa and was given
neither the manpower nor the mandate to be able to stop the Rwandan
genocide. An estimated 800,000 people were killed in barely three months.
He frankly admits that the experience scarred him,
leaving him with post-traumatic
stress syndrome (PTSD), and he now dedicates his time to
conflict resolution studies at Harvard University. But he has
retained his faith in the United Nations and on Wednesday spoke of
the world body as a uniquely necessary institution.
Treatment of PTSD with Life Transformation Therapy provides hope for those who need answers.