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Healing Traumatic Memories in Complex PTSD

Received: 23 February 2018    Accepted:     Published: 15 June 2018
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Abstract

In clinical practice healing traumatic memories is fundamental for the entire treatment of complex PTSD. Clinicians are united in opinion that PTSD becomes treatment resistant when the patients process traumatic memories partially or fragmented. We emphasized that traumatic memories in complex PTSD are made up of information imprinted during traumatic event and activation of one aspect of them facilitates retrieval of one part, but inhibits the retrieval of others. While working on traumatic memories, the clinician is faced with the patient’s images often being reported as if the event is occurring again with olfactory and auditory intrusions, intense emotions, sensations, and maladaptive physical actions and behaviours. Vehement emotions – the intense arousal evoked in trauma – prevent adaptive information processing and impair efforts to formulate the traumatic event into explicit narrative. Therapy techniques presented in this paper are part of the Dynamic Therapy model [1] – trauma-centred and patient-oriented therapy designed for severe and complex stress-related disorders.

Published in Psychology and Behavioral Sciences (Volume 7, Issue 1)
DOI 10.11648/j.pbs.20180701.15
Page(s) 21-28
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Traumatic Memories, Complex PTSD, Re-Traumatisation, Inhibition, Retrieval

References
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Cite This Article
  • APA Style

    Vito Zepinic. (2018). Healing Traumatic Memories in Complex PTSD. Psychology and Behavioral Sciences, 7(1), 21-28. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.pbs.20180701.15

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    ACS Style

    Vito Zepinic. Healing Traumatic Memories in Complex PTSD. Psychol. Behav. Sci. 2018, 7(1), 21-28. doi: 10.11648/j.pbs.20180701.15

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    AMA Style

    Vito Zepinic. Healing Traumatic Memories in Complex PTSD. Psychol Behav Sci. 2018;7(1):21-28. doi: 10.11648/j.pbs.20180701.15

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  • @article{10.11648/j.pbs.20180701.15,
      author = {Vito Zepinic},
      title = {Healing Traumatic Memories in Complex PTSD},
      journal = {Psychology and Behavioral Sciences},
      volume = {7},
      number = {1},
      pages = {21-28},
      doi = {10.11648/j.pbs.20180701.15},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.pbs.20180701.15},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.pbs.20180701.15},
      abstract = {In clinical practice healing traumatic memories is fundamental for the entire treatment of complex PTSD. Clinicians are united in opinion that PTSD becomes treatment resistant when the patients process traumatic memories partially or fragmented. We emphasized that traumatic memories in complex PTSD are made up of information imprinted during traumatic event and activation of one aspect of them facilitates retrieval of one part, but inhibits the retrieval of others. While working on traumatic memories, the clinician is faced with the patient’s images often being reported as if the event is occurring again with olfactory and auditory intrusions, intense emotions, sensations, and maladaptive physical actions and behaviours. Vehement emotions – the intense arousal evoked in trauma – prevent adaptive information processing and impair efforts to formulate the traumatic event into explicit narrative. Therapy techniques presented in this paper are part of the Dynamic Therapy model [1] – trauma-centred and patient-oriented therapy designed for severe and complex stress-related disorders.},
     year = {2018}
    }
    

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    AB  - In clinical practice healing traumatic memories is fundamental for the entire treatment of complex PTSD. Clinicians are united in opinion that PTSD becomes treatment resistant when the patients process traumatic memories partially or fragmented. We emphasized that traumatic memories in complex PTSD are made up of information imprinted during traumatic event and activation of one aspect of them facilitates retrieval of one part, but inhibits the retrieval of others. While working on traumatic memories, the clinician is faced with the patient’s images often being reported as if the event is occurring again with olfactory and auditory intrusions, intense emotions, sensations, and maladaptive physical actions and behaviours. Vehement emotions – the intense arousal evoked in trauma – prevent adaptive information processing and impair efforts to formulate the traumatic event into explicit narrative. Therapy techniques presented in this paper are part of the Dynamic Therapy model [1] – trauma-centred and patient-oriented therapy designed for severe and complex stress-related disorders.
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  • PsychClinic P/L, London, UK

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