Keep Pain in the Past. Dr. Chris Cortman

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      Needless to say, if trauma were not treatable (and yes, very often curable), there would be no reason to write this book. But there is successful treatment, and it’s about time someone taught it to you. Now that you understand how trauma symptoms are at least in part functional and are built to sustain or preserve life, you possess a perspective that will facilitate treatment—a perspective on how to use the Fritz.

      Fritz Perls, as you remember from Chapter 1, was the German-born psychotherapist who founded the Gestalt school of therapy. Perls and Gestalt therapy were tremendously popular in the ’50s and ’60s, but Perls’ work at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur alienated traditional therapists who didn’t like how some people were embracing it as a lifestyle (i.e. mindfulness, meditation, etc.). Over time, some of Gestalt’s general concepts were absorbed into the Cognitive-Behavioral school, but many of Perls’ brilliant innovations were lost after his death in 1970.

      Perls emphasized closure.33 He believed, as do I, that the issues with which humans struggle have power over us—think the stress response—until we find a way to close the wound. Again, that means putting these issues in a place where you can accept the trauma, both that it happened and that it cannot be changed, fixed, or undone. All you can do is accept it and then, perhaps, find meaning in your suffering and possibly create a plan to make your life better because of your resilience.

      Recognize, though, that you have to go beyond a cognitive admission that the trauma occurred—that you were betrayed, abused, and so on—and that nothing can be done about it. For the splinter to be removed, you will need to face the pain from the trauma head-on, every aspect of it, and feel, express, and release the memories and the accompanying feelings before you can achieve acceptance, or make peace, shut off the stress response, remove the splinter, however you want to describe it. You must complete the horror of the trauma and the feelings you have been running from by expressing and releasing them. Dave’s story illustrates this process nicely.

      Years ago, the fire chief called me one day to discuss an emergency—twenty-six-year-old police trainee Dave had accidently been shot in the face with blanks during a training session. Sometime later, Dave’s wife found him in the bathroom behind closed doors with a loaded gun in his mouth. He was now considering suicide because he couldn’t deal with the recurrent nightmares of the shooting, night in and night out.

      But why was the shooting returning to Dave on a nightly basis? Because he had not allowed himself to process and complete the trauma. The repetition of the event was the mind’s way of alerting him that he was frightened and overwhelmed by the shooting and needed to express and release those feelings, once and for all.

      Dave needed only one session of guided imagery (much more about this later in the book) to complete his trauma. Interestingly, he dreamed of his trauma one more time the night of our session and then never again. He had put the horror of the incident away for good.

      Interestingly, in Dave’s case, the severity of his symptoms, especially his suicidal thoughts, worked in his favor, because he was forced to get treatment and deal with the horror shortly after the trauma. Typically, police officers and other first responders are discouraged from thinking or talking about their traumatic experiences on the job, and they experience a disproportionately high rate of PTSD as a result.34

      Putting on the Fritz

      So here is the Fritz, a new paradigm for successful treatment of trauma/PTSD. It’s a simple five-step process for treating PTSD. Fritz Perls, the German psychologist who inspired this process, would describe trauma and the associated symptoms as “unfinished business.” He would remind the suffering client that the symptoms persist because they have not yet been completed and put in a healthier place. This simple idea—that trauma will continue to dominate your mind, your body, and your life until you face it head on and release its hold over you—is the very foundation of this treatment.

      The steps are not necessarily as separate and distinct as they appear when written, but all are necessary to finish with your pain in the past and put away the symptoms. In real life, the steps will occur concurrently or blend into each other, and successful resolution of a trauma may occur in one session (as in Dave’s case) or even by doing homework between sessions.

      With that introduction, here are the five steps:

      Remember: Tell the tale in detail.

      Feel: No feel, no heal.

      Express: Let the water flow.

      Release: Release for peace.

      Reframe: Reclaim your present life.

      In my experiences, the steps of The Fritz work consistently, not occasionally, for trauma survivors who are brave enough to face their unfinished past pain. Later, I’ll devote five chapters to explaining each of the five steps in depth. For now, though, keep these steps in mind as you read the stories of people who overcame their trauma to live great lives—and stories of those who did not.

      The following story reveals the archenemy of the Fritz. While Batman has the Joker, and Luke Skywalker has Darth Vader, the Fritz has Mr. Avoidance.

      Face the Past and Mr. Avoidance

      The best way I can explain Mr. Avoidance is by telling the story of Orlando, a seventy-five-year-old man referred to me by his wife because of his fitful sleep pattern and terrible nightmares related to his time in military service. She had always been puzzled by Orlando’s nocturnal suffering. He had been in the Navy but never saw combat. What could have happened to her husband?

      Orlando was a proud man—he was a longstanding local legend in the twelve-step community, with over forty years of sobriety and a reputation for being a thorough but helpful sponsor. Despite his success in staying clean and sober and helping others to do the same, Orlando was miserable, and he was carrying a secret over fifty years old, dating back to his tenure in the Navy. He claimed that there was a story that he had never told anyone that had haunted him for years. Besides the sleep disturbance, he suffered from symptoms of depression and anxiety, in addition to a deep and pervasive shame of which evidently no one in the twelve-step community was aware. His prideful leadership was belied by the fact that he was still—fifty years down the road—a deeply wounded and conflicted man.

      Orlando began telling me his story in the second session. It was why he was in treatment in the first place, to share his story and escape the weight of shame that was diminishing his life.

      He told me that he was on a Navy ship when he was ordered below deck into the cramped private quarters of two of his superiors. He began to describe how the men ordered him as a young seaman to disrobe and prepare for what sounded like the beginning of an anal rape. Orlando paused for a moment and looked down at the floor, and when he finally looked up, he stood up and said, “I cannot do this. I’m sorry, I will not be back.”

      Orlando СКАЧАТЬ