Glossary of special terms used in Treating trauma

Many people are following the work and progress of medica mondiale – be it through the media, as direct supporters, through medica mondiale` s publications, or as experts interested in the subject. We would like to enable them to gain an exact understanding of our concept. For this reason, you will find explanations of the special terminology from the fields of medicine, psychotherapy and psycho-social work below.

Burn-Out Syndrom
Burn-Out Syndrome is a constant state of exhaustion accompanied by psychological and physical complaints. It occurs when too much is required of a person, and he or she is not able to draw sufficient boundaries. Victims are mostly individuals in the helping professions. Burn-Out can be avoided if the person devotes enough energy to her or his private life so that there is a balance between the professional and the personal. Other means of prevention are developing strategies for dealing with conflict and not letting oneself become overburdened.

Counselling groups
make it possible for clients to exchange views on various themes in a group under professional leadership, thus enabling them to learn from one another and to contribute to each other` s well-being. Various aspects of a theme, a reaction, or an experience can be enriching for counsellors and clients alike.

Dissociation
(= being split-off, separated) can take on many forms in connection trauma. Memories can be split-off from consciousness and feelings separated from memories. Sensibilities can be numbed or perceptions, feelings, and sensibilities separated from the sense-of-self. Often this is accompanied by feelings of self-alienation and sometimes certain dimensions of one` s personality are split-off.

EMDR
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a method of psychotherapy developed by Dr. Francine Shapiro to help clients to come to terms with trauma. Typical characteristics of EMDR is the use of bilateral (both–sided) stimulation , (e.g. of eye movements, touch, or acoustic signals) during the recall process.

Flashbacks
(= memory flashes) are sensory impressions (images, thoughts, smells, and feelings) from past traumas which suddenly reappear in a completely different situation. They are experienced as intensively as if they were occurring in the present, thus, giving rise to attacks of great fear and panic.

Interdisziplinäre Arbeit
Here, people from various fields work in cooperation with one another. In medica mondiale projects, staff members from the areas of medicine, psychotherapy, social work and law work jointly, enabling them to exchange views directly. By combining observations from the viewpoints of experts from various professions, a more complete picture of the problem reveals itself, making goal-oriented support on several levels possible.

Interventions
are therapeutic actions/reactions of various kinds: a thought impulse, the suggestion to listen to one’s inner voice or to develop a visualisation, making a concrete attempt to do something etc.

PTSD Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
The symptoms of PTSD triggered by one or more traumatic experiences are among others: repeated and sudden memories of the traumatic event, nightmares, and panic attacks which are experienced as if there were immediate danger of the event reoccurring. Another indication is the avoidance of stimuli which might remind one of the original occurrence: e.g. smells, venues, noise, persons and activities, memory blanks, unresponsiveness, limited attention, and agitation, which might, e.g. , be expressed in the form of sleep disturbances, exaggerated attentiveness, disturbed concentration, attacks of rage and anger.

Retraumatisierung
means being traumatised once again through situations in which a sense of extreme helplessness and being emotionally threatened is experienced once again in a different environment, e.g. an insensitive hearing by occupational forces, through deportation or rejection of an appeal for asylum. In order to come to terms with psychological trauma, it is mandatory that the victim has a sheltered place to gain new experiences and a secure material basis for existence. Otherwise, the danger of being re-traumatised is great indeed.

Proxy Traumatisation (secondary traumatisation)
Members of the helping professions and relatives who have an intense and empathetic relationship to persons who have been traumatised are in danger of being traumatised by proxy, of secondary traumatisation. Because they are constantly confronted with the suffering of victims and their intense reactions, relatives and professional helpers can begin to feel helpless or powerless and start to lose their belief in the sense and the success of their actions. Their view of themselves and the world may change and become so badly shaken that they, themselves, develop symptoms of trauma.

Psycho-Trauma
(Trauma, Greek: “wound, injury”.) A psychological trauma is a wound to the psyche due to an experience which has endangered one’s life and threatened one’s identity. The experience is understood as a threat to one’s physical and psychological well-being and is a sharp confrontation with death. A traumatic experience leaves scars in the soul and on the body of a human being which can express themselves in a number of symptoms which deeply impair day-to-day life.

 

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© medica mondiale e.V. ·  11.10.2006