Practical Strategies to Foster Post-Traumatic Growth

Transcription

1 Practical Strategies to Foster Post-Traumatic Growth Video 6 Linda Graham, MFT - Transcript - pg. 1 Practical Strategies to Foster Post-Traumatic Growth Making Sense of the Story A Major Key to Unlocking Post-Traumatic Growth with Linda Graham, MFT National Institute for the Clinical Application of Behavioral Medicine

2 Practical Strategies to Foster Post-Traumatic Growth Video 6 Linda Graham, MFT - Transcript - pg. 2 Practical Strategies to Foster Post-Traumatic Growth: Linda Graham, MFT Making Sense of the Story A Major Key to Unlocking Post-Traumatic Growth Dr. Graham: There is a way in which this forgiveness practice is a good segue to our section on Reflective Intelligence, Making Sense of the Story. A major part of post-traumatic growth is making sense of the story: How does whatever has happened fit into the overall narrative of the client s life? When has the client ever gone through other major upheavals in life, major life transitions? How did they cope with those transitions? What lessons did they learn? What lessons could they be learning now? James Pennebaker, chair of the psychology department at the University of Texas Austin, found that reflecting through journaling can be a very effective way for clients to make sense of their story. The brain processes information and experience differently when we are remembering or imagining experience from when we are talking with another person about the experience from when we are writing about the experience. Writing requires processing in the higher brain, the left hemisphere of the brain, the verbal, sequential, symbolic centers of the brain. So when a client writes about their experience, they are actually creating a little distance between the experience and themselves. Their observing ego or witness awareness can be less caught in the emotional turmoil of the experience. Journaling can be particularly effective when the client focuses on their process of recovery and what they are doing to cope to learn, grow, and change. When they can place the events they are writing about on a timeline in their life, there is a before, a during, and an after. So they can begin to see that there is an after. Journaling can be particularly effective when the client focuses on their process of recovery and what they are doing to cope to learn, grow, and change. And three, when they can create a complete, coherent narrative of the event, when it seems like a client is edging into the growth phases of post-traumatic growth, I will ask them to do a journaling exercise called the coherent narrative.

3 Practical Strategies to Foster Post-Traumatic Growth Video 6 Linda Graham, MFT - Transcript - pg. 3 I ve adapted this format from what I ve learned from Dan Siegel, developer of Interpersonal Neurobiology and a frequent teacher here at NICABM. In session or on their own outside, I ask the clients to reflect on these questions: This is what helped. These were the consequences. These were the resources, practices, Often there s another layer of insight or revelation that comes through when clients journal about what they ve learned about their recovery process and then what they ve learned from the journaling. tools, and coping strategies I used. These are the resources, practices, tools, and coping strategies I would use now, if I could do this over. These were the lessons I learned, the growth I experienced, positive meanings I found. This is how I reentered the world and helped others. This is what I now appreciate because of the event. Then I have the client pause and notice what it s like for them to do this exercise. Often there s another layer of insight or revelation that comes through when clients journal about what they ve learned about their recovery process and then what they ve learned from the journaling. There might be one more exercise in reflective intelligence I would take clients through in their moving into post-traumatic growth. I ve had them journal about what did happen, what they ve learned. But I can guide them through an exercise in reconditioning, memory deconsolidation and reconsolidation, where they get to use their imagination to rewrite what happened. The exercise doesn t change what happened, but it does change the client s relationship to what happened. And it doesn t rewrite history, but it does rewire the brain. The exercise is called Wished-for Outcome. Again, we start small one moment of one memory so the brain has a chance to reprocess the memory, and the client has a chance to develop a sense of competence in using the tool. So, as I always like to do when using reconditioning, we begin by coming into a sense of presence, aware of being in our own body in this moment in this place, and bringing a sense of kindness and openness to one s experience, evoking a sense of one s own true and deep inner goodness. (I m going through this more quickly in this webinar than I would in session with a client.)

4 Practical Strategies to Foster Post-Traumatic Growth Video 6 Linda Graham, MFT - Transcript - pg. 4 Then beginning the exercise by remembering one moment, one small moment, when an interaction between you and another person went awry, and you wound up feeling not very good about yourself. You wound up feeling badly. You stay anchored in your own awareness and your own self-compassion as you evoke this memory. And you light up all the neural networks constellating this memory by remembering where you were and who you were with, remembering what you said, and what they said. Again, I would do this more slowly in session. We re simply learning the steps here. Remembering what you did. And remembering what they did. And remembering how all of that made you feel at the time, or even now, as you remember the event. Notice how you feel or felt, and see if you can locate where you feel or felt that in your body, the visceral sense of the experience. Notice any negative thoughts you may have about yourself now because of what you experienced then. Let the evoking of this negative experience be as vivid as you can, lighting up the memory so it can be rewired. Then you create the positive resource that you will use to juxtapose with this negative memory to do the rewiring by beginning to imagine a different outcome to this scenario, a different more satisfactory resolution of the event, remembering whatever you can imagine is real to the brain, even if this new ending never could have happened in real life. So, you begin to imagine something different you might have said. You can imagine something different the other person might have said, even if that never could have happened in real life. You let the brain do its own imagining and its own rewiring. You imagine something different you might have done. You imagine the other person doing something differently, even if that never could have happened in real life. You let your imagination create a more satisfactory ending of the entire event. You could even imagine someone who wasn t there at the time coming in and doing something helpful. As this new scenario unfolds, let it come to a new, more wished-for outcome in light of all the neural networks of this new memory. Let yourself feel how you feel with this new ending and where you feel those

5 Practical Strategies to Foster Post-Traumatic Growth Video 6 Linda Graham, MFT - Transcript - pg. 5 feelings in your body. Let yourself notice any new, more positive thoughts you have about yourself given this new outcome. Let the experiences of this resolution be vivid in its details and vital in your imagination. Strengthen your experience of the thoughts and feelings of this new ending. Then, gently touch back to the original, negative experience, and touch it lightly. Then let it go and return to resting in the experience of the new ending. Then touch into the negative experience again, just briefly, and notice any shifts. Then return to the resource of the new positive ending. Then touch into the negative again. Let it go. And rest in the feelings and thoughts of the new positive ending. Then you take a moment to pause and reflect on your experience of the entire exercise, noticing any shifts. Again, this technique of reconditioning does not change what happened, but it does change the client s relationship to what happened. And it doesn t rewrite history, but it does rewire the client s brain. When a client can pause and notice a shift, usually they notice that the negative experience feels less charged. This is what happens in trauma therapy. Reconditioning does not change what happened, but it does change the client s relationship to what happened and it doesn t rewrite history, but it does rewire the client s brain. They might be encouraged to try this technique again on another memory or another part of a memory. And again, eventually the brain learns how to generalize this technique. This client doesn t have to do all 4,957 interactions that ever went awry in their life. Their sense of self in relationship to this memory changes. Their sense of self in terms of competence to recover from trauma is changed. They no longer have to identify themselves as a victim of trauma or even as a survivor of trauma. They can identify themselves as a whole human being who has learned to grow from the ups and downs of their life.