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		Gift From Within PTSD Resources for Survivors and Caregivers

	Addiction: Military and Substance Abuse Trauma Addiction: Safety and Stabilization for the Addicted Survivor of Trauma Don't Make it Worse! Use of Alcohol or Drugs After Trauma Secret Diet Disasters of Trauma Survivors Adoption: Trauma and the Post-Institutionalized Child - Adoption and Trauma Related issues Auto Accidents: Surviving the Crash: Stress Reactions of Motor Vehicle Accident Victims The Emotional Toll of Motor Vehicle Accidents on Truck Drivers Chaplains, Police, EMT: Supporting Our Soldiers-PTSD Info For Chaplains Reintegration & Readjustment Program For Iraqi Veterans: for officers returning from the war in Iraq. Cop Talk: Beating the Holiday Blues The Echoes of Violence in The Police Family POLICE SUICIDE: Understanding Grief & Loss Confidentiality in Counseling: What Police Officers Need To Know Police Officers: Traumatic Spending: A Reaction to Critical Incident Stress Paramedics and Burnout: Coping and Prevention Suggestions Childhood & Adult Sexual Victimization: On Being Invisible In The Mental Health System The Nature of the Child Traumatic Stress and Children Stress Responses in Sexual Trauma Victims and in Others Experiencing Overwhelming Events CHILDHOOD AND ADULT SEXUAL VICTIMIZATION: Living in the Aftermath of Transgression and Quest for Restoration of the Self Compassion Fatigue: Nurses and Compassion Fatigue Preventing Compassion Fatigue: Power Point Presentation Professional Quality of Life Manual (ProQOL) Understanding and Preventing Compassion Fatigue - A Handout - For Professionals Supporting Our Soldiers - PTSD Info For Chaplains The Art and Science of Caring for Others without Forgetting Self-Care Compassion Fatigue: An Introduction The MASTERS Process: Transforming Your Career and Life Compassion Fatigue: A Crucible Of Transformation When Helping Hurts Vicarious Trauma in Attorneys Bosnia's Death Highway: My Personal Story of Trauma Work, Compassion Fatigue and Hope. Culture, Race and Ethnicity: Domestic Violence and the Gay Community: A Right to Peace and Safety I Was Raped: A Survivor explores an accusation that has divided the Spelman and Morehouse family Treating People of Varied Cultures: Honoring the Individual in Context Surviving and Thriving: Understanding Asian Americans' Experiences of Relationship Trauma Latinas in Pursuit of Healing: Cultural Implications for Counseling Sexually Abused Latinas I Will Survive: The African-American Guide to Healing from Sexual Assault and Abuse (excerpt) Trauma in American Indian Communities Challenges and Obstacles in Treating Mentally Ill African American Patients Domestic Violence & Sexual Assault: Military Sexual Trauma Legal Tools for Survivors of Sexual Assault Art Exhibit: A Woman's Journey from Domestic Violence Victim to Survivor Acquaintance Rape: A Matter of Consent I Will Survive: The African-American Guide to Healing from Sexual Assault and Abuse (excerpt) Rape Trauma Syndrome: The Journey to Healing Belongs to Everyone Peaceful Heart: A Woman's Journey of Healing After Rape Dealing with Domestic Abuse: Lessons from Kathy The Ties That Bind Captive to Captor- Stockholm Syndrome Understanding the Victims of Spousal Abuse Grief: Will Trauma Grief Counseling Help? Exorcising Ghosts: The Counting Method and Traumatic Death Imagery Help for the Holidays: Ideas for the Bereaved Understanding Different Grieving Patterns in Your Family Sudden Loss - Impact of a grief-crisis intervention immediately after a sudden violent death on the survivor's ability to cope. Recovery From Unnatural Death Psychotherapy of Bereavement After Homicide: Be Offensive Journalists, Survivors and the Media: The Emotional Impact of Reporting War at Home A Primer on Covering Victims PTSD 101 for Journalists Three Acts of Trauma News Survivors and the Media Male Sexual Abuse & Domestic Violence: Domestic Violence Against Men: Bryan's Story Suffering in Silence: The Problem of Male Sexual Abuse Wounded Boys/Heroic Men: A Man's Guide to Recovering from Child Abuse Partners & Families: PTSD and Family Members: The Hidden Face of PTSD Partners with PTSD PTSD Treatment & Recovery: Understanding Complex Trauma, Complex Reactions, and Treatment Approaches Major Depressive Disorder: A Condition That Frequently Co-Occurs with PTSD Exposure To A Traumatic Event Does Not Automatically Put A Person On A Path To Develop PTSD: The Importance of Protective Factors To Promote Resiliency Applying the Brakes - Traumatic Memories Finding a Good Lawyer for Your Traumatized Client Posttraumatic Therapy The Counting Method for Ameliorating Traumatic Memories Stress Responses in Sexual Trauma Victims and in Others Experiencing Overwhelming Events Helpful Strategies for Self, Children, Supporters, and What Trauma Therapists Really Do The Counting Method as Exposure Therapy: Revisions and Case Examples Trauma & Recovery: an REBT Perspective Listening to the Lessons of Survivors. Sharing their Truths and their Lessons PTSD & Health: Life After Breast Cancer: Surviving & Thriving How to Improve Strength and Mobility without Really Exercising Exercise and Aging Fibromyalgia: What It Is And How To Manage It How Exercise Helps Symptoms Of PTSD Menopause Is A Natural Part Of A Woman's Lifecycle PTSD & Workplace Issues: Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and the Workplace What Employers and Coworkers Need to Know Recovery & Self Help: Healing the Invisible Wound Trauma Survivors Share Tips for Therapists Dealing with Trauma Open Letter to Trauma Survivors How to Choose a Trauma Therapist: Therapy for Post-Traumatic Stress (PTSD) and Dissociative Conditions Helping A Person Who Is Suicidal S.V.'s Story: My Survival From Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Survivors, How To Write Your Personal History Finding The Right Therapist For You Anniversary Reactions: A Survivor's Guide on How to Cope Healing from Shame Associated with Traumatic Events Ninth Grader Interviews Frank Ochberg on PTSD How to Cope with PTSD and the Holiday Season Resiliency: Cultivating Resiliency in Youth Cultivating Resiliency The Resilient Child School Disasters: Helping Traumatized Children at School Inner City Children of Trauma: Urban Violence Traumatic Stress Response Syndrome (U-VTS) and Therapists' Responses School Disaster: Planning and Initial Interventions Bound By A Trauma Called Columbine Spirituality & Trauma: Posttraumatic Stress, Mental Health Professionals, and the Clergy: A Need for Collaboration, Training, and Research How to Provide Spiritually Sensitive Trauma Care "Trauma and Spirituality" Survivor Guilt: Guilt Following Traumatic Events Trauma Responses in the Aftermath of Disasters: Utilizing First Person Story with Trauma Survivors in Bosnia and Sri Lanka: Metaphors create a symbolic congruence that is 'inclusive' and universal across cultures GFW Founder, Frank Ochberg spent a week in Sri Lanka Helping Hurricane Opens Trauma Wounds 9-11 ANNIVERSARY REACTIONS: An interview with Frank Ochberg, M.D. Victims of Disasters: Helping People Recover From Acute Distress to Healing and Integration Terrorism: September 11, 2001. "Trauma, Grief, and Recovery" Veterans & Their Families: Finding Hope after Head Injury and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Military and Substance Abuse Military Sexual Trauma Suicide and the Military Military PTSD Family Resources Will Trauma Grief Counseling Help? Preventing Compassion Fatigue: What Veteran Spouse/Partner Caregivers Need to Know Keeping Your Relationship Healthy When Your Veteran Spouse/Partner Is Injured Issues and Answers on the Home Front Veterans and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: A Conversation with Dr Frank Ochberg Post Traumatic Stress and the Military There's Nothing Wrong With Me!
		View a clip from our video on Compassion Fatigue called When Helping Hurts: Sustaining Trauma Workers. video clip: Clip One | Clip Two "When Helping Hurts" by Frank M Ochberg, MD   Note: The themes and the title of this article first appeared in the video, "When Helping Hurts: Sustaining Trauma Workers" Many of us are helping survivors of the September attack. Some are first-responders: police, firefighters, paramedics. But that's not all. We are Red Cross workers who call bereaved next of kin to distribute donations and gifts. We are counselors who listen carefully to stories of shock, loss and recovery. We are victim advocates who work with women whose decade-old sexual assaults have nothing to do with the World Trade Center, but whose wounds are reopened in this climate of fear. We are journalists who do our jobs of reporting news, exposed to story after story, image after image of grief. We hurt, too. Usually we are rewarded by having the opportunity to help. We do our job and we do it well and we feel gratified -even blessed. But for many of us, there are new emotional difficulties, and these difficulties can and should be addressed. In certain cases, we develop vicarious PTSD. We have not been directly exposed to the trauma scene, but we hear the story told with such intensity, or we hear similar stories so often, or we have the gift and curse of extreme empathy and we suffer. We feel the feelings of our clients. We experience their fears. We dream their dreams. Eventually, we lose a certain spark of optimism, humor and hope. We tire. We aren't sick, but we aren't ourselves. Susan Herman, Executive Director of the National Center for Victims of Crime, describes this to me as she receives calls from advocates across the country. My wife, Lynn, anticipates similar situations among co-workers at Red Cross Headquarters in Virginia. Joe Hight, Managing Editor of the Daily Oklahoman, tells me he knows this phenomenon well from past and current events that rocked his community and his staff. Sensitivity has two distinct meanings. One is emotional awareness and accurate perception. To be sensitive is to be able to experience fully and correctly. But the second meaning of sensitivity is vulnerability to pain. Often these two forms of sensitivity exist side by side in us. We are good outreach workers, therapists, advocates, reporters, because we are sensitive. And, because we are sensitive, we pay a price -sooner or later. When the price is vicarious or secondary traumatic stress disorder (STSD) the pattern is primarily fear, unwanted memory, and preoccupation with another's pain. When the price is Compassion Fatigue, a similar set of symptoms, the pattern is tiredness, emotional depletion, from too much caring and too little self-caring. Sometimes the price is Survivor Guilt. Many first responders know this feeling well. We who are in the second wave of helpers may be more vulnerable to identifying with the next-of-kin. Those are the ones we interview. "My spouse is alive; her's is dead. How can I allow myself enjoyment?" Technically, we do not have survivor guilt, but we blame ourselves for not having lost a loved one. The price of Burnout is paid after weeks or months on the job, with relentless responsibility and few emotional rewards. We are past anxiety, guilt and pain. Past sensitivity. We drink, we shout, we resent. We lack humor, tact and grace. Cynicism is our defense against ourselves. STSD, Compassion Fatigue, Survivor Guilt, Burnout - How do we prevent it? How do we intervene? How do we cope? Above all, be aware. The signs are not that subtle, but we healers and crisis interveners are notorious for seeing problems in others and not in ourselves. Have contacts and conversations with peers who are willing to tell us when to take a break. Take a break. Practice what you preach: good meals, sufficient rest, exercise, and alteration of routine. Good humor is a gift. But it may not be easy to find a way to smile on this job. Get away from the job and lighten up, if that is the only way. The homilies about stress reduction may not work when symptoms are entrenched, when the job tension is inescapable. Many Americans are stressed to their limits, whether or not they are affected by the September attacks and the shadow of terrorism. Professional help may be an answer, even for a traumatic stress professional. My last client was a young physician who was on the verge of burnout. She was overworked, undervalued, with insomnia, rage, guilt and fear: rage at the chaos on her hospital ward, guilt about hating her job, and fear that she would lose her career. She didn't need medication. She did need a colleague to certify her "normal," to dignify her feeling, and to help her find her lost sense of humor. Two sessions! Clearly, there is no single prescription for the hurting that comes with helping others. So many people, so many professions are affected and afflicted: clergy, nurses, teachers, truckers - to name some who were not named before. Everyone who moves toward the scene to help, everyone who comforts someone who was there, everyone who listens closely, with sensitivity, is a potential casualty. But every one of us is also a source of comfort, information and inspiration. More than anything else, we have each other. We are a growing family of trauma workers. In this new age, almost everyone is a trauma worker. Helping hurts, but helping sustains the helper. Let's not forget that truth. Let's look out for one another. We're all in this Together. * * * * * * Note: The themes and the title of this article first appeared in the video, "When Helping Hurts: Sustaining Trauma Workers," produced and directed by Joyce Boaz, Executive Director of Gift From Within (www.giftfromwithin.org). My colleagues who appear on the video and who developed the original content are Carl Bell, Atle Dyregrov Charles Figley, Sheila Platt, Angelea Panos, Mary Beth Williams, and John Wilson. ©Frank Ochberg, MD and Gift From Within helping.pdf [24KB] Tweet   Dr. Frank Ochberg, GFW's Founder testified in Cleveland for the prosecution in the Castro case. Here is a video clip and a short article. I am very proud of the work he has done in this case. I am hoping that this case will bring forth a nationwide conversation about the women and men in this country who have been abused behind closed doors. Respectfully, Joyce Boaz, Director. http://www.wkyc.com/news/article/308869/3/Psychiatrist-explains-where-the-survivors-go-from-here Was this helpful to you? If so, please consider supporting our work. Preventing Compassion Fatigue: Power Point Presentation by Dr. Angie Panos

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