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Psychological
Treatment and Prevention of
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
I have provided psychological
treatment to patients with acute and chronic, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
(PTSD) for the past 25 years in various settings. They have included motor
vehicle accident survivors, assault and rape victims, survivors of long-term
sexual and physical abuse, law enforcement officers involved in line of duty
shootings, survivors of major illnesses, survivors of catastrophic events
(e.g., hurricanes), and war veterans.
What all survivors with PTSD have in common is a loss of the sense of agency
and control. They feel helpless, disconnected, unstable, numb, anxious, and
fearful. They suffer from intrusive thoughts, feelings, and images,
flashbacks, paranoia, jumpiness, and over-reactivity to events. As a result,
they have difficulties with concentration and memory, and they often suffer
from phobias, panic attacks, and generalized anxiety.
PTSD is most often disabling. Effective psychological treatment must restore
stability and the survivor’s sense of safety, agency and control.
From my point of view, all legitimate and empirically effective
psychological treatment methods for PTSD have five components:
1. Restoring stability and safety in the patient’s or client’s
life.
2. Helping the patient or client safely review, reprocess and resolve
his memories of the traumatic events.
3. Helping the patient or client positively re-frame, re-structure, and
re-interpret his no longer useful, outdated and dysfunctional beliefs
and feelings about his traumatic and subsequently affected experiences.
4. Helping the patient restore a positive, hopeful, confident and
functional self-image.
5. Coping skills training and therapy.
Since 1989, I have been in the full-time private practice of Clinical
Psychology, and the President and Chief Executive Officer of my professional
corporation, the Behavior Therapy Center, P.C. I have averaged between 40
and 75 hours of work per week, providing direct patient care and consulting
services. In addition, I have been actively engaged in clinical research,
psychometric test development, and in preparing professional articles and
books for publication. I have authored seven books as of this date. Please
refer to my link:
http://www.hypnosisgroup.com/books/index.html
I am a licensed clinical psychologist, a life member of the American
Psychological Association (www.apa.org),
Board Certified in Behavioral Psychology with the American Board of
Professional Psychology (www.abpp.org),
and a Fellow and Approved Consultant with the American Society of Clinical
Hypnosis (www.asch.net). I am also a life
member of the National Rifle Association (www.nra.org)
and a NRA Certified Firearms Instructor.
If you are seeking treatment for symptoms of PTSD, please feel free to
contact me by phone at 215-938-SAVE (7283) or 215-947-STOP (7867), or email
me. Of course, if you are seeking effective training in how to safely choose
and use a handgun, please contact me.
GUNS SAVE LIVES!
Everyday, firearms are employed by innocents to save themselves from being
attacked, injured, maimed, raped, or killed. Often, no shots are fired! Just
producing a firearm and demonstrating the willingness to use the firearm
often changes a potential attacker’s mind.
More often than not, guns save lives!
Preventing PTSD
Psychological research has shown clearly and unambiguously that when people
exercise their control and agency in life threatening
situations, they are less likely to suffer the most debilitating aspects of
post-incident, posttraumatic stress, especially delayed and chronic PTSD.
* However due to the fact that our media is so often antigun, the positive
aspects of self-protection often go unreported. The scholar, John Lott,
wrote a data-based, honest book about this curious phenomenon of selective
news reporting, entitled, More Guns, Less Crime (U. of Chicago Press, 2000).
Nevertheless, the literature published by various firearms presses and gun
magazines, often does describe situations where civilians have successfully
defended and saved themselves or others with a firearm.
My personal experience has been that some students I have trained or trained
with have described situations where their knowledge and unimpeded access to
a usable firearm have deflated a situation that could have easily gotten out
of hand quickly, or worse, become lethal.
Firearms training and knowledge is a proactive as opposed to a reactive
response to your personal security and defensive needs. No serious trainee
or conscientious law abiding gun owner ever wants to take a life or use a
firearm inappropriately. On the contrary, such individuals consciously
choose NOT to become a statistic.
The fact is that a firearm used appropriately by a trained individual can
level the playing field when such an individual is confronted with the
threat of a physical confrontation neither sought nor expected that could
result in his or her imminent bodily harm or death.
Most citizens believe that the police are a buffer between criminals and
society. However, recent events in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina have
demonstrated unequivocally that we are all ultimately responsible for our
own protection.
The sober fact is that we are all alone out there!
Most law abiding citizens have a false sense of security and are unprepared
for true criminal aggression. The "trained" law abiding citizen has a better
than even chance of survival when faced with the brutality of a violent
criminal attack. This is made possible by having the self-protection and
self-defense skills provided through comprehensive firearms training.
It is important to highlight the fact that a firearm is just a tool that can
be used appropriately or inappropriately just like any other tool. Without
adequate preparation, any tool is valueless, or worse dangerous. As we
currently are experiencing today, even tools that no one previously thought
could be dangerous, have been used to wreck havoc on people and
institutions. Specifically take a look at the computer in malevolent hands!
A firearm does not have independent agency because it does not have
conscious thought. Therefore a gun cannot shoot anyone or "go off" unless
there is someone who misuses its capabilities. This also means that a gun
cannot become attached or loyal to its owner. Guns are inanimate objects and
as such they have no feelings. They cannot be good or evil.
Your own personal favorite handgun or rifle, used unsafely, or in the
hands of an unauthorized agent, will just as quickly maim or kill you as
will any other firearm.
Throughout recorded history, society has produced numerous effective and
deadly protective implements and lethal tools. Often times the people with
the weapons were the source of power and the people without them were their
victims. Firearms neither increased nor diminished human's ability to
destroy one another, but did allow average people to prepare for common or
individual defense. The invention of firearms did not alter human beings'
violent propensities.
No one and no entity has the right to legislate away from us our rights to
protect ourselves and our loved ones.
Exercise your inalienable and Constitutionally affirmed Right to Keep and
Bear Arms. RKBA! But, get effective training.
* Portions excerpted from the Essential Guide to Handfguns: Firearm
Instruction for Personal Defense and Protection by Stephen R. Rementer
and Bruce N. Eimer, Ph.D. Published by Looseleaf Law Publications, Inc.
Flushing, New York:
www.LooseleafLaw.com 1-800-647-5547.
THE FOUR UNIVERSAL LAWS OF FIREARM SAFETY
- Treat all firearms as if
they are loaded.
- Always point the muzzle of
any firearm you are handling in a safe direction. Never cover or “laser”
any person (including any part of yourself) with the muzzle of the gun you
are holding, unless you have to point that gun at someone because they are
deemed an imminent threat.
- Keep your finger off the
trigger until you have made the decision to fire the weapon.
- Know your target and what’s
behind it and around it.
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