MASTERING TRAUMATIC STRESS
INTRODUCTION
Everyone feels pain and everyone has grief. For the smaller group of people exposed to traumatic situations, traditional counseling may not be appropriate. To address the needs of people exposed to traumatic stress, Evan Peterson has written a four hour educational program, Mastering Traumatic Stress.
Traumatic stress, for the sake of this program, is defined simply: the stress you experience in response to a frightening or horrifying event that falls outside your normal experience. Mastering Traumatic Stress will not include a "Critical Incident Stress Debriefing" or CISD, but instead is designed to go beyond debriefing and provide participants with skills to master physical and mental stress responses in healthy ways.
Participants in Mastering Traumatic Stress will not be asked to relive past experiences. Instead, they will be encouraged to keep their feet on the floor where they are and stay present in the moment. One of the keys to understanding and mastering stress is remaining in the present and taking the time necessary to learn, grow, and heal. If the stress of exposure to trauma abides, then the people experiencing stress should be provided with effective skills necessary to cope with it.
Mastering Traumatic Stress draws on the author's success working with first responders applying the techniques of Dialectical Behavioral Therapy.
OUTLINE
Hour One - The Event
Physical Stress Response: Cortisol, Epinephrine, and what comes next
Mental Stress Response: Focus, Time Distortion, Executive Function, Purpose
Discrete versus Endemic Exposure
Just Deal With It - and go write a report
Classic Stress Response
Common Ways We Deal With It
Hour Two - All Shook Up
Where do your physical and mental energy go?
Personas: role shifts and role distortions
Outsiders: best friends as strangers
Permission: compassion tough as nails
When toughing it out won't cut it
The Art of Dialectics: Turning Logic & Rationality on their head
Hour Three - Stay Just One Step Ahead
Separating Facts from Judgments
Separating Pain from Suffering
Knowing an Unhealthy Thought when you have one
Learning not to Cling
Non-attachment versus detachment
Practicing Radical Acceptance
Hour Four - Mastery
Trying & Arguing versus Letting Go
Releasing Attachments to Control
Releasing Attachments to Shame and Blame
Mindfulness: Seeing Things As They Truly Are
Habits of Mind: Facing Memories
Habits of Mind: Facing Future
This program is four hours long and appropriate for individuals exposed trauma as well as for first responders and others whose professions may expose them to traumatic events. Maximum class size is 20 to promote participation.
Please contact Evan Peterson at 815-861-8800 or at evan@evanmpeterson.com for more information.
© 2007 evanmpeterson, LLC
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