Spirituality is part of everyone. The whole person, mental and physical. While spirituality is more individual than social, many doctors do not give the holistic care to the entire being of the patient. Doctor sometimes focus more on the body, recovery and failure based on life or death. Many times the pastoral and spiritual issues are not identified. The patient has multiple needs and even for the non religious, many have spiritual needs or at least spiritual acknowledgement during grief and loss during care.
Many patients would like a more pastoral approach in healthcare. Please also review AIHCP’s Pastoral Thanatology Certification
The article, “Does spirituality belong at the doctor’s office?” by Jen Rose Smith takes a closer look for the need of pastoral and spiritual care of patients. She states,
“In fact, many patients would like to discuss spiritual matters with their health care providers: One study found that 83% of patients want physicians to ask about their spiritual beliefs, especially when they’re facing life-threatening illness, serious medical conditions and bereavement. “A high percentage of people, if they’re in the hospital for a physical illness, would like to talk to their physician about spiritual matters and have a conversation,” said Dr. John Graham, president and CEO of the Institute for Spirituality and Health at the Texas Medical Center, a cosponsor of this month’s conference.”
Please also review AIHCP’s Pastoral Thanatology Certification and see if it meets your academic and professional goals. The program is online and independent study and open to qualified professionals seeking a four year certification in Pastoral Thanatology
St Teresa of Avilla laid out the a map for a closer union with God in her classic, “The Interior Castle”. She details the numerous levels of spiritual union with God that a soul undertakes. This is a long journey for many as they let go of the world and embrace Christ.
Please also review AIHCP’s Christian Counseling Program and see if it meets your academic and professional goals. The program is online and independent study and open to qualified professionals seeking a four year certification in Christian Counseling.
With war comes a type of traumatic loss than many experience. Whether soldier or civilian, the pain and loss is very traumatic. The losses can vary from loved ones to home to identity itself. They can long term consequences of depression, prolonged grief and PTSD. The losses are so severe that they can implant a death imprint on the very person.
Please also review AIHCP’s Grief Counseling Program and see if it meets your academic and professional goals. The program is online and independent study and open to qualified professionals seeking a four year certification in Grief Counseling.
Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome or PTSD is the inability of the human mind to process traumatic memory. It remains fragmented and left to haunt the person through various triggers and arousals that return to the person to the original trauma. Emotions remain raw and the individual is trapped in the past and it repeats itself.
The first step to recovery is to confront the trauma and begin the long and sometimes painful process of properly storing the memory and integrating it, good and bad, into one’s life narrative. The process to dismiss the past, face it and integrate it can be difficult. The trauma is very difficult to face but for those who take the initial steps to confront and learn new coping methods to deal with PTSD can reap the rewards of a return to one’s very own existence and life. Many are unable to reach this due to PTSD.
Trying to recover from PTSD can be delayed over distortions about the event. Licensed counselors through Cognitive Restructuring can help individuals find the truth to move forward. Please also review AIHCP’s Crisis Intervention Program
Treatment is key. Professional counselors can help individuals through a series of treatments. One type of treatment is Cognitive Restructuring. Cognitive Restructuring helps the individual integrate dissociated memories with associated ones in the long term memory. Part of the process is to remove unproductive ideas and ideals that limit the mind to restructure and keep arousal high. Functional thoughts can help remove higher arousal, while dysfunctional thoughts prevent the individual from healthy integration. It is not the activation to think about the trauma that causes the consequence of arousal but more the dysfunctional thinking that causes more arousal.
Automatic thoughts that enter into oneself about the event can be good or distorted. There are 13 types of distortions to thought that can make overcoming PTSD very difficult. These distortions need corrected so that the brain can properly integrate the traumatic event. This blog will review the 13 types of distortions.
Flaw Fixation. This distortion forces the individual to only focus on the bad. It is a camera lens that only sees one aspect of the full event. It is a narrowing of all the facts of the story. The individual only recalls the failures of the particular day, or only in the present sees bad in everything.
Dismissing the Positive. Very similar to the Flaw Fixation but this does not focus on flaws of the individual but any positivity in life itself. Only negative is viewed in day to day life and if the event was during a particular period of time, all the other good things of that time period are dismissed based on the one bad event.
Assuming. Individuals assume certain things about an event. In Mind Reading, they assume others think negative about them and how the individual acted or what the individual experienced. Also within arousal, Jumping to Conclusions is common. The individual assumes any trigger is an actual threat. Finally, Fortune Telling, predicts negative outcomes only with any future events. Everything is predicted in a negative light in lieu of the past traumatic event.
Catastrophizing. Individuals make any events based off the past trauma to be worst than they what they truly are.
All or None. In this, the individual rates himself only as good or bad. Furthermore, other people are seen only as good or bad. There is no gradation or grey area in this type of reframing
Shoulds. In this, the individual relives what he or she should have done or did not do. This does not take into account the objective reality of what occurred and places everything on the individual.
Making Feelings a Fact. Feelings are important to listen to but sometimes they can distort and make things appear different than reality.
Over Generalization. Individuals assume everything is bad or “ALL” people are out to get them. It comes from a lack of security but closes individuals to healing.
Abusive Labeling. The individual sees oneself as damaged. The person does not differentiate the evil and bad between the action committed and oneself.
Personalizing. The individual asserts to much blame for the traumatic event that the person is guilty of or not guilty at all
Blaming. The individual blames the event for destroying one’s life more than the event did. It is the opposite extreme of personalizing.
Unfavorable Comparisons. When one compares to how others would react instead of oneself. This can lead to anxiety and regret. Instead of focusing on the event and how one dealt with it.
Regrets. This is similar to “shoulds”. Instead one looks at all the circumstances and holds one guilty to the event instead of healing from it
These type of distortions can create a mixture of emotional reactions that prevent the person from seeing the trauma correctly. One either sees the event incorrectly, others, or oneself. This does not allow one properly process it with the truth of the matter and hence integrate it into one’s life. It is important to understand an event and process it. Distortions prevent this hence in counseling and reframing of the event, it is important to discuss these issues and identify a patient who may possess a distortion. Of course the only way to know if a distortion exists is for the individual to open up about the event and confront it.
Confronting and properly processing trauma is critical with PTSD. Please also review AIHCP’s Stress Management Consulting Program
If you would like to learn more about AIHCP’s Stress Management Consulting Program or AIHCP’s Crisis Intervention Program, then please review the programs and see if they meet your academic and professional goals. The programs are online and independent study and open to qualified professionals seeking a four year certification in these two disciplines. After completing the courses, one can then apply for a four year certification in Stress Management or Crisis Intervention.
Source: The Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Sourcebook: A Guide to Healing, Recovery and Growth by Glenn R. Schiraldi, PhD
While many focus on aggressive anger in Anger Management, many times passive forms of anger and abuse or forgotten. One such type of passive anger and abuse is referred to as silent treatment. When used as a way to punish and control, it can be very abusive and a form of misusing the emotion of anger.
The silent treatment is a form of passive anger and emotional abuse. Please also review AIHCP’s Anger Management Specialist Program
The article, “Is Silent Treatment a Form of Abuse? Here’s What to Know’ by Kelly Burch looks how the use of ignoring and purposefully not speaking to another person is a form of abuse. She states,
“When you think of abuse, your mind probably goes immediately to physical violence, yelling, or intimidation. But an abusive relationship can also be silent. Some people use silent treatment abuse to manipulate and control their loved ones. This is a form of emotional abuse. It’s normal to not want to talk to someone when you are angry or frustrated. In most cases, this happens occasionally and blows over. However, if a person regularly uses the silent treatment to influence or control your behavior, they are being emotionally abusive. “
Please also review AIHCP’s Anger Management Specialist Program and see if it meets your academic and professional goals. The program is online and independent study and open to qualified professionals seeking a four year certification in Anger Management
Grief is part of life. As long as love and loss exist, grief will exist. The process of grief is an important part of growing and adjusting. It is not something that is to be rushed, ignored, or not valued. While it is an unpleasant part of life, the grieving process helps one heal and learn to live and adjust to the loss. Grief does not go away but one learns to live with it and the body and the mind must go through the process of grieving to properly adjust.
Grieving is a natural part of life. Please also review AIHCP’s Grief Counseling Certification and see if it meets your goals
The article, “Feeling Pressure to Grow from Grief” from “What’s Your Grief” takes a closer look at the importance of the grieving process. The article states,
“What can be missed is recognizing grief as a handbrake for the motion of life. It is an important and natural evolutionary force telling you to let yourself be, to sit, to grieve, to mourn. This leap to meaning can be an attempt to bypass the reality of loss.”
Please also review AIHCP’s Grief Counseling Certification and see if it meets your academic and professional goals. The program is online and independent study and open to qualified professionals seeking a four year certification in Grief Counseling.
Like any death, sudden deaths cause extreme distress for people. Unexpected loss is always painful and can lead to complications. The same sudden loss of a beloved pet can be a horrible experience. If one’s dog is hit, or cat is killed, or horse breaks a leg, can be unexpected and painful moments in anyone’s life. Such sudden death should not be downplayed but respected and heard.
Losing a pet suddenly can cause complicated grief. Please also review AIHCP’s Pet Loss Grief Support Program
The article, “When death comes suddenly to a pet” by Katie Burns looks at the sudden death of a pet. She states,
“In other cases, a pet owner might have been managing a pet’s underlying condition, and the pet dies suddenly from a fatal progression of that condition. In Florida, other notable causes of sudden unexpected death—but not unexplained death—are drowning in pools and even death by alligator attack.”
There are so many ways our beloved animals can die. If sudden, it can cause intense trauma and these feelings should not be kept in. Please also review AIHCP’s Pet Loss Grief Support Program and see if it meets your academic and professional goals. The program is online and independent study and open to qualified professionals seeking a certification in Pet Loss Grief Support.
War is the ultimate failure in dialogue. Violence is never justified against another yet throughout history war has been used as a vehicle of violence against countless billions. War in many cultures is seen as a punishment from above and a sign of sin. The Horseman of War is one of the four riders of the Apocalypse spreading hate, violence and death in many of these cultures. In others, war is attributed to the god of war.
Loss and grief from war is always extremely traumatic. It leaves death imprint and deep trauma to those who experience intense loss. Many suffer from PTSD. Please pray for Ukraine
Ultimately war comes from human beings because of greed, envy and hate. It is an absence of reason and a cruel extension of diplomacy by force. With it comes death, loss and suffering at a grand scale. This is especially true for wars that disregard civilian life and human decency. Ironically, war can be justified if for defense and it can also be carried out within a a code of conduct, but rarely does that matter, when even the “just” can fall to blood lust in battle. War has no victors but only those who mourn the loss of life, property and future.
In Ukraine, war has again come to Europe. Loss is everywhere at a traumatic level. The loss is incomprehensible for the victims of the war. The people and soldiers who experience the death and destruction are victims of war’s evil spell. Many experience losses of children, spouses, parents, or pets. Beyond the loss of family, many have lost their entire life savings, as well as future. There is no house to return to due to the bombs, but only ash. Within Ukraine there is also a loss of identity, where the nation itself fights for its very existence.
This type of death mark and traumatic loss will haunt the people of Ukraine for the rest of their lives, well beyond the calendar end of the war. The scars, the trauma, the loss, and the horrendous destruction cannot be forgiven much less forgotten. These poor souls who survive the physical pain will forever be haunted by the emotional and mental pain of this war.
The severe trauma of death imprint is one symptom which will cause a high level of PTSD within the general population. The sound of the bombs and missiles, the rolling of tanks, and the sound of gunfire will haunt civilians and soldiers alike. With no safe haven, these victims will suffer to come to grips with the unprocessed trauma that was witnessed in their own cities. The death imprints of dead in the streets, bodies unburied, and the smell of the dead, will haunt adults and children alike. The pure genocide of a town will imprint itself on the minds of so many. Not only will the loss of loved ones and home be relived, but also the moment itself.
Furthermore, in any mass destruction, there will be a multitude of individuals who suffer from survivor guilt. They will feel guilty they lived and a loved one did not, or they will regret what they did or did not. This will haunt them as they relive the moments of the war. For these civilians, the trauma may be far worst than for a soldier because war should never come to one’s home.
Total destruction of war leaves one asking why? The grief and loss of war is severe. Please also review AIHCP’s Grief Counseling Certification
The mere thought of this also terrifies those from afar. Mentally, most of Western Europe is witnessing the grief of refugees, while others witness the carnage on television. This is creating a fear within the general population of earth of a potential great war, where what is occurring will happen throughout the world. The anxiety and fear of a greater war ending in a nuclear holocaust between the West and Russia is awakening anxiety, anger, fear and grief.
This war is only to real not only for those who are suffering from it and fighting in it, but also those witnessing it from afar. Seeing small children die, or civilian homes destroyed from missiles afar all awake a fear to everyone else. Anyone with empathy can feel the pain but also the fear of sharing that experience. Many are experiencing an anticipatory grief with fears of losing loved ones in a major conflict. A once never conceived idea of massive loss and pain is now potentially materializing for many people throughout the world.
This war will no doubt scar a generation. Many will need counseling to deal with trauma, PTSD, and depression. The type of loss and inhumane bombing taking place in Ukraine is not something one simply forgets. It is not a type of loss that can be rationalized. It is unnecessary and shocking. It is an evil with no purpose perpetrating by an evil man. This is the hardest type of loss for individuals to process. The question of why and how? Individuals will never fully understand why their lives have been torn away never to be the same. Their lives are the things of nightmares.
Many from afar suffer anticipatory grief and the fear of nuclear holocaust.
These are the types of losses that war produces. War creates such horrible and unimaginable loss of loved ones and homes and crimes against humanity that the human brain cannot fathom it. The trauma is fragmented and never able to be processed in a healthy way. Instead, the loss haunts and creates this horrible imprint upon those who experience it.
Grief Counselors and licensed counselors and other therapists will need to help individuals process the pain of loss well after the conclusion of this war. This will be no easy task as many will remain depressed and numb to the cruel atrocities this war has created. In addition to treating PTSD and depression, individuals will need treated for a variety of anxiety disorders and substance abuse issues that will result from attempting to escape the pain. Crisis Counselors will have to help individuals find some hope, despite the horrible despair and suicidal ideas that may enter their minds. How does one rebuild from this war? The hopelessness will be very real in these souls and it will take well trained mental health care professionals to help these individuals find hope.
It will also take the rest of the world to give hope through time, prayers and financial donations to help rebuild lives. Buildings can be rebuilt, but for others, loss of limbs, or loss of family cannot. Some will never find the peace despite this aid but will have to learn to cope with the loss of a loved one, son, daughter, sibling, parent or dear friend, even a devout pet.
Please pray for Ukraine and peace in this world.
Please also review AIHCP’s Grief Counseling Certification and see if it meets your academic and professional goals. The program is online and independent study and open to qualified professionals seeking a four year certification in Grief Counseling.
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is trauma that is not processed. It is due to trauma that is so severe that it leaves an imprint that the brain at the moment is not able to process into long term memory. As a result, it is unfragmented and haunts the person as if it never ends and continues to occur.
Certification is often a misused word. License, degree and certification are different type of professional and academic awards. It is important to understand how certification helps one’s professional career.
Please review AIHCP’s Certification Programs and see if they meet your professional goals and needs. The programs are online and independent study and open to qualified professionals seeking four year certification in various professional fields in healthcare.
