Trauma in Today's Society
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Trauma care. Wow, imagine we have to live in a society that involves so much trauma care.
Dissociation has its appeal, now doesn't it? Head in the clouds, emotionless, blissed out. Ahhhh...
But remember we're human beings. And part of the packaging is the set of emotions we are all
born with. From that bountiful selection, we are free to pick and choose those we deem most
appropriate and justified at the time, whether it be anger, happiness, anxiety, etc. The trick is in
the management of those emotions. It's fine to be angry. The real question is how do you express
anger and what do you do with the wonderfully powerful energies that anger evokes? Anger is a
fantastic motivator, if used to achieve that end. But what happens when anger turns into rage and
is used against some unsuspecting and innocent bystander? This is obviously not on the list of
healthy usages. Trauma hidden in our cellular system may prompt the release of uncomfortable,
and even potentially destructive, usages of emotion.Trauma does not only come to us as a society dealing with terrorism, but may be present in our everyday lives. There are countless ways that trauma can become embedded in our systems. Infants who experience birth trauma, or even in-utero trauma, may have that traumatic element embedded; the moms and dads dealing with that same birth trauma may also embed their own trauma over the event. No one can ascribe for another what trauma means for them; we all have our own ways of dealing with situation based on our life experiences. What may be meaningless to you may be profoundly traumatic to me based on my life's experiences. And then when you couple that with past life experiences, things get really complicated. Thankfully, there are emerging so many fine ways to deal with trauma. I am a certified debriefer (CISM) and help my clients through a very rigid and specific method of reuniting the two hemispheres of the brain, which split in trauma and cease to communicate with each other. While the method appears very simplistic, through a series of well aligned questions, the brain becomes reconnected, the "alarm" calms down, and normal living may resume, with potential lessened consequences such as PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder). Shamanic methods of soul retrieval involves the search for missing soul pieces that have been detached during trauma. Hypnosis and past life regression work also address trauma effectively. I and fellow healers also remove "items" such as knives, lances, bullets, etc. from people who are carrying around these trauma-induced weapons in their energy fields from this life or past lives. Various therapies and types of meditations provide "re-enactment" of the traumatic event with the creation of a different ending. And the list goes on and on. At this point in time, Connecticut has the finest preparedness structure in the country and has been chosen to participate in a national event at some point in 2005 involving the country's Who's Who of preparedness experts and officers. We have the finest state-assembled spiritual response teams in the country, and are looked upon as the model for other states who are constructing their own teams. I am lead contact of Region IV Crisis Ministry Team, and I can say that the folks who are part of this team are heart and soul committed to spiritual first aid. The focus is to reduce trauma as much as possible at the time of the event and post-event. The bottom line is that there is developing in our society the recognition that trauma residue is very present in many people, and there have been tremendous strides and developments to help these people. We are looking hard at the effects of terrorism. And we are finally looking at the veterans suffering with PTSD and trying to find ways to help them. Through these studies, we are beginning to develop ways to short circuit PTSD before it develops, along with panic attacks and other DSM IV diagnoses associated with trauma. In this issue, various ways of managing trauma care are described. All are effective and credible. Some are more active than others. Some involve more intimacy than others. Some involve a longer time commitment than others. All are fascinating and powerful. We hope that you enjoy reading about these wonderful life-changing modalities. Won't you consider the ways in which you, individually, are helping to make a difference to lessen the effects of trauma in your own life and in the lives of others. -Dory Dzinski |