Excerpted from the March 2008 NESTTD Newsletter
We face many challenges in our work with clients experiencing trauma and dissociation. One that I find most powerful is the challenge of entering a client’s world where trauma was part of their every day life. It remains so real for them they cannot distinguish the trauma of past experience with the present. Distrust, fear, unpredictability, and dissociation continue to be an integral part of their current experience. Our clients’ experiences are filled with turmoil, fragmentation, and anguish.
While we hold their experience, we must also hold our own. Ours is an experience that must provide a contrast to our clients’ experience. We provide them a sense of belief, a sense of safety, a sense of trust, a sense that they are not alone. We offer a belief that good things can happen, that we can have hope in the face of despair. Alternative perspectives invite our clients to bring themselves into a new present without carrying the trauma of the past with them. New meanings emerge as they re-author themselves.
The challenge of simultaneously holding two or more contrasting experiences of the world is a common thread that runs across all those who are working with trauma. Whether it is a professional representing a wide range of skills, training and discipline or the humanitarian aid worker or volunteer, all of us witness the impact of traumatic events even as we are a resource, a support, and an agent of change.
Current world events speak to the challenges that face all people who work with trauma. From natural disasters, poverty, abuse, domestic violence, racism, exploitation, child labor to war and human trafficking, to name a few, we see how complex the problem is.
But in the midst of all of this, our hope and determination is that trauma cannot and will not win. Various groups are coming together to understand the fragmenting effects of trauma. This past November, ISSTD held its Annual Meeting in Philadelphia during which component groups came together to share their achievements. These groups came from the United States, Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Australia. A woman from Japan clearly stands out in my mind. She talked about her excitement of starting the first component society. She spoke with so much enthusiasm and inspiration about opening up conversations about trauma and dissociation in Japan where historically the culture has silenced this discourse. It was also inspiring to see all attending component groups share this excitement. Another woman from Israel shared her struggle in working with the complexities of living in a violence-ridden region. Hearing her story along with the encouragement she received from the group evoked a sense of hope and determination.
When we come together, we too can offer this same inspiration to one another. As members of NESTTD, we hold the hope that good things can happen. We are reminded that there is hope in the face of despair, and that there is another world in the midst of the challenges we face in our work with trauma and dissociation. =
Yours truly,
NESTTD President