Professionals working in trauma often receive requests for critical incident debriefing. Sometimes there is pressure from worried managers to ensure staff’s well-being is covered, and that the organisation’s liability will be minimised. However, the notion of debriefing ‘psychologically’ has shown to be ineffective, and may do more harm than good.
Precise risk factors for PTSD are very difficult to establish. In broad terms they can be divided into two parts. First is exposure to trauma(s), which is the first criterion of PTSD. The second factor is not to do with exposure to trauma, but personal circumstance, aspects of the trauma
There are many terms in psychology that can be confusing. Particularly when the concepts can be co-occurring. The difference between dissociation and tonic immobility will be explained below. It is useful to know this difference as it has clinical implications. First I will explain what dissociation is and what tonic
Is vicarious traumatisation something clinicians treating trauma need to be concerned about, what should they do about it? The notion of vicarious trauma was initially introduced by McCann and Pearlman (1990) in their article, Vicarious Traumatization: A Framework for Understanding the Psychological Effects of Working with Victims. The framework indicated
Knowing the difference between anxiety and paranoia is important for best client care. The challenge for clinicians is to clarify whether beliefs and protective behaviours to keep one safe from potential and unknown threats are different from the beliefs and behaviours that are driven by, and driving paranoia. Many clients
People usually think of PTSD as something you develop if you go to war, are sexually assaulted or suffer a similar easily identifiable trauma. However there is research showing that PTSD does happen in other circumstances. For example, Chan, et al. (2017) study of the course and predictors of post-traumatic stress
Complex PTSD has entered the vernacular of clinicians, yet there is no clear outline in any of the current diagnostic manuals, International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems version 10 (ICD 10) , Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders version 5 ( DSM 5 ) and The Psychodynamic Diagnostic
Childbirth is a significant event in a woman’s life. Awareness of postnatal depression and anxiety is increasing, however PTSD is an often overlooked mental health condition effecting women in the perinatal period. PTSD may arise as a result of experiences associated directly with the birth, or the experience of pregnancy
Many clinicians express concern about re-traumatising their clients. A simple google search recently produced 516,000 results with the term present. Some of the headlines appear below, but they seem to suggest that re-traumatising clients is something clinicians can and ought to avoid. 7 Ways to Avoid Re-Traumatizing A Trauma Victim
PTSD was classified as an Anxiety Disorder in the DSM-IV, consequently fear/anxiety was regarded as the core feature of the presentation of PTSD. This remains the case today, however the DSM5 reclassified PTSD into its own category and has outlined variations in the individual expression of the overall disorder, or
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