Today as well as adults, more children and teenagers than ever before are being diagnosed with PTSD. It is usually a result of experiencing some sort of trauma, or unpleasant incident, something a person may or may not recall. The unconscious part of our mind has the ability to protect us by suppressing incidents that are too disturbing, however, it doesn't remove them. (The technical term is disassociative amnesia). All our learnings, beliefs, behaviours, habits and fears are insinctive and unconscious. The unconscious mind records and stores all our experiences, this part of our mind completely dominates our behaviour and habits in spite of our conscious will to change or control things, it's the powerhouse, not the conscious thinking mind.
When we think of trauma we usually associate it with things such as car crashes, rape or war zones, and rightly so. It can also be caused by the loss of a loved one or any experience the mind considers life-threatening. We should also understand that where children are concerned, situations like being bullied, overhearing parents constantly arguing, or separating can be just as traumatic to a child as a war zone can be to an adult.
Here is an example of how trauma can affect a person: A man walks down a narrow street and his attention is suddenly deeply and narrowly focussed on someone attacking him, being threatened with a knife he believes he may die, shocked and hypnotised by the situation he is robbed and left very shaken but physically unharmed. A few weeks later he tries to walk down a similar narrow street, but before he knows it, he finds himself reaching the same level of panic as when he was attacked, even though this time he is quite safe with friends and in no real danger. A soldier who has terrifying experiences in a war zone can very quickly be transported back to the horror experiencing the emotional and physical responses of the original event just by hearing a loud noise such as the backfiring of a car or a bursting balloon, even though he is in no real danger. You can see how the post-traumatic stress response is not a result of thinking, but of deep unconscious emotional conditioning. The narrowed focused attention during the experience delivered the suggestion that narrow streets or certain loud noises are dangerous, and until these experiences are processed at the unconscious level, narrow streets or sudden loud noises will continue to produce the autonomous and immediate response. Sufferers may also occasionally experience nightmares, which can be just as debilitating as the original event.
Because the mind instantly goes into a state of hypnosis when unpleasant events occur, hypnosis is the obvious and most effective way to lift the problem, not by reliving it but by using certain techniques to de-sensitise the original event, this changes the emotional response. When our emotional response changes, the natural consequence is a change in our thoughts and actions.
Emotions are a fundamental human characteristic, essential for immediate physical survival (Flight or Fight). Clinical tests have shown emotions are much more powerful than thoughts and happen instantly far more quickly than thoughts or actions, this basic neuroscience questions the efficacy of some therapies helping with this kind of problem, and the chances of making significant progress through CBT or counselling are poor, to say the least.
One of the many clients I have worked with was a coach driver, who through no fault of his own twenty years before had killed someone in a road accident, and although he wasn't physically injured himself, he experienced feelings of depression and guilt every single day. Until the trauma was lifted he hadn't been able to free himself from the depression, remove the guilt, travel on, or drive a coach. As expected, he can now think about and, if he chooses, talk about what happened, but he doesn't need to, because he is now free. I have heard stories from clients who in the past sought help but ended up feeling worse because of the treatment and language their therapist used.
As therapists, we owe it to trauma survivors to make their recovery as comfortable as possible, by using protective language that really helps, and not talking about the original event which would more than likely traumatise them. The first and most difficult step to recovery is accepting help, taking a leap of faith, and trusting someone.
I have more than twenty years of experience helping people who have suffered from PTSD and would recommend to anyone suffering the effects, to seek out a qualified hypnotherapist who specialises in these trauma techniques. Three or four sessions are usually enough to set you on the right path.
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