Trauma & Attachment Therapy

EMDR for Veterans: Write a Letter

The EMDR International Association, (EMDRIA) is urging its members to write a letter supporting EMDR treatment for soldiers and veterans. The EMDR Humanitarian Assistance Program has been offering and doing volunteer-run, inexpensive Basic trainings to the military and the VA. EMDR has been accepted by the Department of Defense as one of two effective/allowed treatments.

What's the problem? There is hostility on some of the lower levels of bureaucracy towards EMDR. It's new. It's not what they've always done. And some think that anyone professing PTSD is a weenie slacker. Also, some of the people who have lucrative contracts teaching cognitive behavioral techniques to military and VA clinicians are threatened financially and ideologically by EMDR. HAP trainings are much cheaper then what they're doing for profit. And, according to them, EMDR is either woo-woo bullshit (despite all research) or just another form of exposure therapy.

What can you do? Write a letter to your national senators and congressperson. It's easy, because here's a link to a sample letter and the addresses and how you can do your own if you want to personalize the sample letter: http://www.emdria.org/associations/5581/files/Writing%20Letters%20To%20Congress%202009.pdf

And here's a link to an article germaine to the letter: “Providing EMDR Mental Health Services for the Military” . You can print it and send it with your letter, if you'd like.

This is a worthwhile endeavor. EMDR works with trauma and works with soldiers. I know. I've done sessions with Korean, Vietnam, and both Iraqi war vets.

KENSPORTAL.COM

Check out this great therapy resource. It has forms, great links, directories, and information about client populations. If you do therapy, you'll find something useful on it. I met Ken Eisenberger a few weeks ago at a workshop and he turned me onto his helpful, free website. Check it out at

http://www.hiddenhillcounseling.com/kensportal/

Trauma Lecture

I'll be giving a lecture about trauma, PTSD, Structural Dissociation, the Polyvagal theory and the use of EMDR to impact PTSD on Saturday morning, May 17 from 9:30 to 12. Frank Kokorowsk will copresent with a dynamite multi-modal trauma treatment that he's been using with homeless people. There are 2 CE's for everyone and it's sponsored by the WA State Coalition of Mental Health Professionals and Consumers our main advocacy group with the legislature.

Register at [email protected] (email your name and phone).

or go to wacoatlition.org for the website

May 17, 9:30 -12 Good Shepherd Center 4649 Sunnyside N, Seattle

Soldiers Project NW II

I went to an organizational meeting for the Soldiers Project NW(SP)last night. Forty-two people were there. Therapists from all over the Puget Sound region, one from Yakima, and even one from California. About 10 were veterans. Several had worked for the VA. The rest were people who heard about it and wanted to help. Several expressed despair or shame at the current level of services available for soldiers and veterans and excitement at the possibility of righting the situation.

Trisha Pearce and Lisa Weinberg convened the meeting. They've been working since October to connect with the LA-based project, a 501C3, which started the first chapter. They invited Michelle (whose last name I didn't get), a social worker from the Seattle VA to talk about the interface with VA. SP volunteers will work with people who either don't qualify for, or don't want to interact with VA and the military for mental health needs. We'll work with active duty, honorably and dishonorably discharged soldiers and their families and friends. We can refer appropriate people to the VA for services, if they want to be referred.

There are seven simple rules for SPNW volunteers:

1. You agree to provide one hour a week of mental health support or tx at no charge.
2. You agree not to accept donations, insurance payment or barter for services provided.
3. You agree to educate yourself on the effects of trauma, war and the treatment of combat PTSD and how to refer for veteran's benefits. If you work with families, children, or women you will educate yourself on their special needs.
4. You agree to screen referrals to determine whether they are appropriate your scope of training, and, if not, refer them back to the SPNW referral system.
5. You agree to conduct this pro bono work with the same high ethical and professioanl standards as in your general practice.
6. You agree to keep in touch with SPNW about your availability and practice info.
7. You agree to maintain appropriate malpractice insurance that covers your work with clients (including those seen at no cost through this project) in private practice.

These are the most simple and elegant membership rules I've ever seen. They all make sense, and they don't dictate how to do the therapy. The only other rules I heard were about the neccessity to be licensed or on the licensure track.

There are plans for support and training of we therapists. I requested information on Traumatic Brain Injury, about which I know little. I offered to do a basic traumatology workshop. The conveners gave us piles of paper full of information, including many information-filled websites for clinicians and active duty people, veterans, and their families. I think that EMDR HAP could get involved, since it's a non-profit, and will be contacting the main office soon, to find out.

If you want to join, volunteer in some other capacity or want more information, contact Trisha Pearce at  [email protected] .

The Soldiers Project, Washington

Nicole Brodeur featured "The Soldiers Project"  in her Friday Seattle Times column.  This some of what she said:

" Trisha Pearce, who lives in Stanwood, is starting a Northwest chapter of The Soldiers Project, a network of licensed mental-health counselors who offer free psychological treatment to active-duty soldiers, National Guard members, reserves, veterans and their families.

The nonprofit Soldiers Project was founded in 2004 by Los Angeles psychiatrist Judith Broder, who was moved to act after seeing a performance of monologues written by an active-duty Marine and featuring Iraq veterans.

Some 35 percent of Iraq War veterans seek counseling in the year they return. This year, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs will spend $3 billion providing mental-health care to about 1 million veterans.

That helps, Pearce said, but the VA's culture of bureaucracy alienates some veterans.

Others don't want to get in any deeper with the military. Or they don't want mental-health issues to be on their records. Or they were dishonorably discharged and aren't eligible for benefits.

Then there's the National Guard: "They're not coming back to a military base," Pearce said. "They're in Baghdad one day, and then they get off the plane and they're home in Bellevue and their wives want them to clean the gutters.

"They are not going to come back and be who they were."

Before she can help them, Pearce must first build a network of psychotherapists willing to volunteer at least one hour a week to soldiers in need.

Once that's done, clients could call or e-mail and, within 24 hours, receive a response from a clinician who will gauge their needs, then search the database of therapists.

On April 28, she will hold an informational session for therapists from 7 to 9 p.m. at University Lutheran Church in Seattle. (RSVP to [email protected]).

The project has given Pearce a new purpose and forced her to abandon the antiwar sentiment she embraced in the 1960s. "We should all be saying, 'We're here for you,' and support veterans by making it simple for them to get psychiatric care," Pearce said. "It should be our responsibility, like paying taxes, to go out of our way and do something."

The Soldiers Project started in Los Angeles and has offshoots in Chicago and New York, and of course, Seattle. Check out the LA website at  http://www.thesoldiersproject.org/ for more information, or better yet, if you'd like to start your own chapter in your town.

Katrina Aid Today seeks Seattle Therapists for referral base

Margaret Metzgar at Katrina Aid Today, says that she has a grant to pay for therapy for some of the 1800 Katrina survivors who now reside in the Seattle area. She needs people who can help with anger management (or clearing!) as well as the PTSD and adjustment difficulties. If you'd like to run an anger group, she'd be delighted. The Salvation Army/Seattle Social Services does the case management. She's looking for a few good therapists. It sems like a great fit for EMDR practitioners. Margaret Metzgar at Katrina Aid Today, call 206-447-9949 to volunteer.

EMDR Humanitarian Assistance Program

I'm on the board of the Humanitarian Assistance Program of EMDR. We are a non-profit organization whose goal is to "expand access to effective mental health treatment for traumatized and underserved communities through direct service and training of local caregivers, anywhere in the world."

HAP's current projects include training therapists in Lebanon, the West Bank,India, Indonesia, and the Philippines. Domestically, it has a big project on the Gulf Coast (post-Katrina), and many projects training staff of community mental health centers, rape crisis centers, child treatment agencies, VA's, military counseling staff, and where ever a non-profit group, serving underserved populations asks them to go (given specific criteria, of course). It is often described as "Doctors Without Borders" for mental health. All trainers and facilitators are volunteers. Trainees are encouraged to become facilitators, and then trainers, so as to create a training infrastructure in each area. (This has happened in Israel, and is well on its way in both the West Bank, and India.)

HAP sends volunteer therapists to some disaster scenes. Many HAP volunteers assisted New Yorkers, post-911, and people in the Gulf Coast, post-hurricanes. In my town, Seattle, we've worked with people in the aftermath of a shooting incident, and with some Katrina transplants. HAP in the midst of formalizing our Trauma Recovery Network (TRN) to be able to connect volunteers to people who need them. Volunteers give 5 free stabilization and EMDR sessions to clients, and are not allowed to see the people, for fee, at anytime. If you are a certified EMDR-therapist, you can volunteer for the TRN here. If you'd like to know more about HAP or make a donation, click here. It's a great organization, well-managed, with most of the money going to direct service. For having a tiny staff, it does alot. HAP's goal for next year is to train 1200 people, who would not otherwise have its traumatology or EMDR trainings. I'm proud to be part of it.