trauma Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

New Mental Health Trauma Therapy Eliminates Anguish

The whole purpose is to reset the brain from traumatized to no longer living with those distressing images and sensations and emotions.

Imagine eliminating the anguish of experiencing a traumatic event – or dealing with dyslexia, anxiety or pain management – without speaking a word about the trauma, or the issue itself.

Randy Yohe spoke with Christie Eastman, manager at the Cabell Huntington Hospital Counseling Center, who is on a mission to train West Virginia mental health professionals in a technique to better treat trauma.

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.

Yohe: You’re training West Virginia therapists and mental health providers in a better way to treat trauma. What is trauma?

Eastman: Trauma is not what happens to a person from the outside. It’s the way that the brain encodes the experience. And so something that is experienced as a trauma changes the brain and makes an imprint on the part of the brain that is always scanning to differentiate between what is safe and what is unsafe. The data that the brain encodes from that experience is encoded as data that the brain scans as unsafe into the future.

Yohe: How prevalent is this trauma, and who are you targeting? What issues can you deal with to help?

Eastman: To some extent, if we live long enough, all of us have experienced something that has resulted in trauma in the brain. Therefore all of us can benefit from therapy. When we talk about trauma and the treatment of trauma, we’re talking about things that significantly impact a person’s life, such as a traumatic incident that we would all recognize – a terrible car accident or witnessing a shooting or sexual trauma, like a rape, or combat trauma. It could be another experience in which a person felt very threatened or where someone else was potentially at great harm to themselves, or even death where the person witnessing the experience or that event, felt helpless and unable to, to prevent that from happening.

Yohe: We hear that “talking it out” offers trauma relief. Your approach is called Accelerated Resolution Therapy, or ART. What’s the difference between the two?

Eastman: There are other therapies, talk therapies where people rehash, either verbally or sometimes in writing, the incidences that led to their traumatic experience. Ours is different in that the person recalls the event in their mind silently under eye movements, that the therapist directs with their hand or with a light bar or some other instrument. The eye movements help the brain process very rapidly. They’re also very calming, and the person is recalling the events in their mind, not verbally, so that’s a big difference. And what people report and what we experienced as therapists, is that the individual doesn’t have to be re-traumatized, or get tremendously upset or have to verbally recall those difficult moments in their life. And the therapist doesn’t have to witness all of those details. Usually, that part of the therapy process only takes between in one session, you know, 30 seconds to maybe 10 minutes, and then that phase of the therapy session is already completed without the person having to speak about, or write about the event.

Yohe: That special aspect of ART is when clients replace negative images with positive ones, then they don’t need to talk about the details of the trauma. Explain why.

Eastman: Because all of the psychological processing and change is happening in the brain. As I said earlier, a trauma is how the brain encodes an experience. Any of these therapies that are developed to heal trauma are about rewiring the brain from that unsafe state, to a safe state. The brain doesn’t get reset to not any longer have vigilance over things that we need vigilance for. We just remove the hyper vigilance, which is that constant sense of being on alert or responding in an exaggerated way to a neutral stimulus.

How it works is as the person early in the ART session visualizes the defect difficult memory, the eye movements are used so that they’re silently recalling that and we break it up so that the person is alternately recalling the difficult experience and then calming their body and then going back in to seeing the difficult experience and then calming the body and all this is guided by the therapist. Once they’ve seen that difficult memory one time, then the memory begins to change as the therapist continues to guide the individual through the protocol. Then we come to a point where the individual is voluntarily choosing what they want to replace the images with.

Although this may sound kind of strange and unlikely, research has demonstrated for quite a long time that every time we recall a memory, it becomes malleable. Even though we’re not really aware of it, we’re kind of changing our memories every time we recall them. That neural network in the brain that’s now open, that person gets to put in that neural network what they would rather have there. So often it’s replaced with a really happy memory, or instead of being a victim, they weren’t a victim, and they were powerful, and they were able to do the things that they wish could have happened, so that the whole thing could have been prevented. Or if it’s something that they can’t, and don’t really want to erase like the death of a loved one, or, or maybe a buddy in combat, they may just simply replace that memory with with one of the happiest moments that they had with that person, or just another really good memory from their life.

Even though the person is very alert and awake and sometimes extremely alert, they say at the end of the session, “I feel a lot of mental clarity.” While they’re under the eye movements, their brains are in a kind of a theta wave state, so that it becomes a little bit of a dreamlike experience. And the brain loves metaphors, and as people we dream in metaphors. So replacing those images can be with anything, including something that’s not even reality based. The whole purpose is to reset the brain from traumatized to no longer living with those distressing images and sensations and emotions.

Yohe: There seems to be a myriad of issues that ART can help relieve, right?

Eastman: There’s a lot. Anxiety, depression, phobias. ART can help people resolve panic attacks, obsessive compulsive disorder, post traumatic stress. It’s used for addictions, for performance anxiety. For athletes or people that are preparing for a very significant test, family issues, victimization of many kinds, poor self image, relationship issues, grief, job related issues, pain management, memory enhancement, and even dyslexia anxiety.

People whose dyslexia for instance, is really based from what was going on during that period of time when they were learning to read and something was going on in their life, maybe in their family life, where they were held back or where they were teased or bullied by their peers, therefore their ability to learn to read was disrupted. There are people that have lived with dyslexia for a long time who can be cured. People come for therapy and can be cured in as quick as one to five sessions, which is absolutely remarkable.

Something that is a bit new, that I’m discovering and working with here at Mountain Health Network and with the neurology department of Marshall Health, is working with people with neuromuscular disorders to help with pain, and with some of the other symptoms that come from living with chronic, traumatizing effects of living with such illnesses as ALS.

Yohe: You want to put out a hue and cry for West Virginia therapists to learn to use ART. Well, here’s your opportunity.

Eastman: My fellow therapists that are in the trenches with people who suffer so much, this is a therapy that will help you do what you’re in the field to do, which is actually heal. To heal the terrible experiences that people live with that affects their lives so much. These people that you care so much about, and that you go to work to help every day. We’re in a crisis right now, as you know, there are so few of us out there.

One of the reasons that our training will be so important for you and your practice is that rather than turning people away, because you’re not able to accommodate all the needs, you can help people rapidly so that you can continue to accommodate new people who are in need of therapy. Instead of feeling heavily laden by how long it takes and how hard it is for your clients, you can experience, session after session, the buoyancy of the joy of this model and seeing the remarkable delight and excitement in the lives of your clients as they see their lives change right before you.

To those that live with trauma and other things that change their lives, I encourage you to keep the faith, know that your life is worth living, and that you can be healed from things that perhaps you wonder if you will be living with for life. Although there are not a lot of ART trained therapists in West Virginia right now, there are some of them, and it’s growing. Because this works so rapidly, it’s worth looking on the ART website for ART therapists, even if you need to travel, because you may be able to resolve something in as quickly as one session. But there is absolutely hope.

I meet with folks every day, that’s what I wake up in the morning to do. And I know that there are people like me all over the state, who are eager to be a support to you and all over the country. Don’t live with your suffering. Find help for it now.

To get information on ART training and treatment, contact Christie Eastman at Cabell Huntington Hospital’s Counseling Center; Christie.Eastman@chhi.org; CabellCounselingCenter@chhi.org (304-526-2634), or go to artworksnow.com.

Finding A Nursing Home And Treating Trauma, This West Virginia Morning

On this West Virginia Morning, more effectively treating trauma and moving a loved one into a nursing home

On this West Virginia Morning, Randy Yohe spoke with Christie Eastman, the Cabell Huntington Hospital Counseling Center manager, who is on a mission to train West Virginia mental health professionals in more effectively treating trauma.

Also, many families have to move a loved one into a nursing home because of dementia. The experience often comes with grief and loss and a sense of failure. For his series Getting Into Their Reality: Caring For Aging Parents News Director Eric Douglas spoke with Julia Smythe, the dementia program director and Natalie Petty, the director of Admissions and Marketing, for the Marmet Center nursing home with a memory care program for people with dementia.

West Virginia Morning is a production of West Virginia Public Broadcasting, which is solely responsible for its content.

Support for our news bureaus comes from Concord University and Shepherd University.

Listen to West Virginia Morning weekdays at 7:43 a.m. on WVPB Radio or subscribe to the podcast and never miss an episode. #WVMorning

Teaching Teachers About Trauma Helps Kids Learn

Liam Rusmisel is a different kid this year. On the first day of kindergarten he walked into the classroom, head held high, according to his teachers. This is no small feat for a kid who had a bit of a rough start to last year.

When Liam started preschool in 2016, he was antisocial, hyperactive and had very poor speech acquisition.

“Even I had trouble understanding him and I lived with him!” said Pam Riggs, Rusmisel’s grandmother and guardian.

Even though Liam lives with both his grandmother and mother, his grandmother has been his primary caregiver for the past three years.

“Because his mother was on drugs and she suffers from you know, probably because of drugs she goes into depressions, she lays around a lot, she didn’t really play, except for really being in the household, any role in his education, his upbringing,” Riggs explained.

But Liam’s introduction to school couldn’t have come at a better time. Last year, Madison Elementary was in their second year of participating in the Critten Services-backed program called Trauma Informed Elementary Schools, or TIES. The program was initially funded by the Benedum Foundation, which also funds Appalachia Health News, and grants from the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources.

The program is now in 11 West Virginia elementary schools and focuses on kids in pre-K through 1stgrade. The aim is to train teachers to recognize signs of developmental trauma and work around barriers to learning that trauma can pose for children.

“At Madison Elementary, we serve many students that come from homes where a trauma has occurred,” Madison school counselor Jessica Watt said.

“And that can be a whole gamut of things from neglect and abuse to hunger, and incarceration of family, domestic violence and things of that nature,” she said.

Watts said about 50 percent of Madison Elementary School students come from an unstable or traumatic home environment.

“And when they come to school with brains that have been exposed to traumas like that, it often interferes with their ability to learn in a traditional way,” she said.

Watt said it also helps with early identification of students with special needs and hooks them and their families up to community resources and mental health services so any issues that are present can be addressed.

For Liam, that meant connecting him and his grandmother to a child psychiatrist who could prescribe him medication to assist with the hyperactivity.

Lisa Armstrong, his preschool teacher, said after connecting the family to resources, the change was almost immediate.

“Once Liam had seen the doctor and the appropriate measures were taken, Liam’s behavior not only improved, but his social interactions were so much more positive with the other children and he was so excited to be at school. But more than anything, learning truly began to take place, where before he was frustrated in his own skin,” Armstrong said.

School teachers and administrators say TIES isn’t just about referring students and caregivers to community services, but also working with the TIES liaison, a masters level clinician, to help the children learn better emotional and behavioral coping mechanisms.

“In West Virginia, we do see a lot of intergenerational traumas, we see a lot of adverse childhood experiences, that a lot of people are coming from,” program director Joe King said. Adverse Childhood Experiences is the theory that experiences like physical, sexual or emotional abuse can have lifelong health implications.

“You know, when I’m learning about how trauma affects people across the lifespan, you kind of have this aha moment…you realize that a large portion of the clients you’ve been working with throughout your whole career have had a lot of these adverse experiences and not only that, but the families have gone through intergenerational traumas,” King said.

He said people are starting to realize that trauma is cyclical and a pattern exists. The hope with TIES is if they can disrupt the pattern, they might not only help this generation, but generations to come.

School counselor Watt said due to the training teachers received on how to recognize trauma in kids, they began to request safe spaces in their classrooms for kids to calm themselves down and self-regulate when they are coming into the building with rough starts.

“And it’s because of the training in trauma that they realized that oftentimes when kids are in bad moods and not able to learn, or what appears to be daydreaming and not paying attention that there is really something deeper going on in their little minds and little hearts,” Watts said.

King said early data shows promise as to how well the program is actually working, but that the numbers from the first two years are still getting crunched by social work students at West Virginia University. For people like Armstrong, Watts and Riggs, though, the value is indisputable.

Appalachia Health News is a project of West Virginia Public Broadcasting, with support from the Benedum Foundation, Charleston Area Medical Center and WVU Medicine.

Children Still Coping with Emotional Trauma After Floods

Children are still coping with the emotional aftermath of the June 2016 floods that devastated most of the central and southern parts of West Virginia, according to the nonprofit Save the Children.

In the weeks following the floods, Save the Children provided support to more than 44,000 children and caregivers, according to a press release. Starting in December, the nonprofit will launch its Journey of Hope program in the state’s five most heavily affected counties Clay, Greenbrier, Kanawha, Nicholas and Roane.

The program was developed after Hurricane Katrina and uses a series of team activities, including play, discussion and art to help children identify and manage emotions. These activities also help children develop healthy coping skills for stress and trauma.

So far, Save the Children has trained 10 master trainers who in turn will be training an additional 100 facilitators over the next six months. These facilitators will work with small groups of children and caregivers through June 2017, potentially impacting more than 800 children in 18 schools.

Appalachia Health News is a project of West Virginia Public Broadcasting, with support from the Benedum Foundation.

After Disaster: When to Worry About Children Post Trauma

Natural disasters such as the historic floods West Virginia experienced in late June can be particularly frightening for children.

“They are witnessing their caregiver, many times who is their person of trust, their person of security, experience panic, experience fear, things that that child may never have witnessed their caregiver experience and that can be as offsetting for a child as the flood itself,” said Emily Chittenden-Laird, executive director of the West Virginia Child Advocacy Center in a conversation with Appalachia Health News reporter Kara Lofton earlier this month.

Chittenden-Laird said the range of what children experience during natural disaster is really not just based on the fact that children survived a flood, but on what everyone in their community, in their sphere, is experiencing as well.

A few tips about how to support your child?

Listen.
Seek outside help when needed.
Give more time to complete school assignments.
Be present.
Create a new rhythm or structure to help build security.

Appalachia Health News is a project of West Virginia Public Broadcasting, with support from the Benedum Foundation.

Emotional Healing From Floods Can Take Just as Long as Rebuilding

Rachel Taylor stands on the front porch of her little yellow house in White Sulphur Springs. The front door is pasted with paw prints where her dog tried to get in during the flood.

Across the street, nestled between two battered houses, is an empty lot marked by a cross with an array of flowers and photos. It’s a memorial for a family washed away by the flood.

The dog? He survived the flood and is now with family in Kentucky. Taylor’s across-the-street neighbors, the Nicelys, did not.

“When I start feeling overwhelmed with this, I just look across the street at that memorial and I think, there’s nothing that we have lost that can’t be replaced or mended,” she said.

Taylor gestured at her gutted living room. She and her husband spent seven years renovating this 1930s Craftsman house, room by room. They were just about done with renovations when their house was flooded a few weeks ago.

“You know, the first couple of days it was very intense. It was kind of crisis mode. Maybe that’s the way I would describe it, because you didn’t really have time to think about it and process it,” said Taylor.

Once the full extent of the damage set in, Taylor said she developed severe nausea and carsickness to the point of not being able to drive.

A memorial for the Nicely’s sits across the street from Rachel Taylor’s White Sulphur Springs home.

“Talking to different people, they said, ‘That’s probably your nerves – you know, the stress level.’ You don’t realize your body is just having a response to this, [which] isn’t normal for you,” she said.

Taylor has flood insurance that will allow her to rebuild, but she said her family will likely move out of the neighborhood once the home is restored or ready for sale.

“I think the words we use when we talk about it are ‘I don’t know if I have it in me,’ ‘I’m not sure if I can do it again,’ things like that. And then we just say, ‘Well, we’ll take it one day at a time.’”

Experts say this kind of response is normal following natural disasters.

“It’s a physical aspect of the stress response – it will affect the body’s ability to concentrate, to rest and to be able to function,” said Marcie Vaughn, leader of the state-funded West Virginia Crisis Response Team. “Cognition is slowed and impaired,” she added.

In addition to Vaughn’s team, church disaster-assistance teams and the organization Hope Animal Assisted Crisis Response offered material and emotional support to victims, trying to be “a meaningful presence.”

“From the behavioral health perspective, we find we are more in need after the 10^th^, 12^th day, just because immediate needs of food, clothing and shelter take precedence,” said Vaughn.

In the first few days following the flood, Vaughn said her team split their time between helping people replace lost psychiatric medications and looking for signs of mental distress in people at shelters or feeding stations.

“We see fatigue, problems with cognition,” said Vaughn. “You have individuals who walk into a supply center and they have no idea what they need.”

A 2012 study published in the journal of Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology found that while most people bounce back a few months after a disaster, if you don’t address ongoing stressors – such as lack of a home, financial challenges and repeated exposure to the trauma – people will continue to struggle.

“As the fatigue sets in and the frustration, we see an increased need for behavioral health intervention,” said Vaughn.

But their work becomes hardest, she said, when national organizations and media have lost interest and real, tough problems persist, but only the local folks remain to extend helping hands.

Appalachia Health News is a project of West Virginia Public Broadcasting, with support from the Benedum Foundation.