What Actually Works:
I went to a two-day workshop with Bessel van der Kolk, basically a leading specialist in anything trauma-related, and one of the interesting things he noted was as follows: World Trade Centre survivors, people who escaped the building during the 9/11 attacks, exhibited almost zero symptoms of PTSD after the attack.
When asked what they did to take care of themselves the number one treatment sought was...Acupuncture. Massage came next. Third was yoga! And fourth, and only 'scientifically' recognized form of treatment: EMDR (which still struggles for significance despite research supporting its effectiveness).
Bessel recommends that any type of treatment facility that does not incorporate yoga into the care plan is not doing anybody (perhaps also any body) any good.
Next time the intellectuals want to run all over you and label you sign yourself up for acupuncture, massages or yoga. It works better than what the 'specialists' recommend (which is CBT, or cognitive behavioural therapy, which is a joke in and of itself, and psychoanalysis, which I like and think is interesting but I'd rather do yoga).
If anyone recommends otherwise, tell them where to go. Just watch a clip of the plane flying into the second tower and then the towers collapsing, imagine yourself escaping barely and having to run for your life down the street after, and think: acupuncture, massage and yoga was good enough for those people. You're not so special that they aren't good enough for you.
Cheers.
Sounds like orientalism at its finest. What about good old fashioned prayer, hard work and exercise? How do those effectually differ from yoga? What a racist.
ReplyDeleteThis beginning sounds like Hipster speak Wil, shame on you! Double shame for sounding like an upper-middle class white Anglo-Saxon protestant at the same time. Actually, congrats on pulling that off. What kind of prayer do you mean? Do you mean the contemporary 'Dear God, give me pretty, shiny, expensive shit...please...' type or the 'Thanks' type?
ReplyDeletePrayer might work in some cases I think. It can change a person's relationship to themselves. If it is not doing that than I suspect it is not working. But hey man, you want to mask your nihilism as religion and throw a thin veil over existence to feel better, be my guest.
Exercise is always a great solution. Bessel says you have to know your body. Oddly, one highly recommended form of exercise for trauma victims is marathon running, that's a trauma all on its own!
Also, when are we going to coffee one another?
Dude, all this yoga, "mindfulness practices," wankery research that goes on is just clinicalizing spiritual practice and dismembering it from cultural context. I'm not saying don't do yoga, I'm saying do yoga honestly and from and towards understanding. I would laugh my self to sharting if I read a study about smudging as a treatment for intergenerational abuse trauma. So, (w)hol(l)y missing the point. Yes, it depends on how you pray. It depends on how you do yoga as well. Be honest, integral and loving. When you fail at that, fail again. Then die and get over it, or get over it then die.
ReplyDeleteCoffee any time. Come to my house. It is crazy. I will show you my Czech disco record collection.
Thanks for taking the time to discuss this, I feel strongly about it and love learning more on this topic.
ReplyDeleteacupuncture massage in London & full body massage
Hey! thanks for reading. I feel strongly about it also. Bessel just published a book called The Body Keeps the Score. I'm not done it yet but its well worth the read. The body has been ignored too much but that is all changing.
DeleteOne of my favourite authors is Peter Levine and his Somatic Experiencing. Here:
http://www.traumahealing.com
He is brilliant. And his books are easy enough to follow and understand, which I find surprising given the topic. Waking the Tiger and In An Unspoken Voice are invaluable reads.
There is another guy worth mentioning here: Robert Scaer. He is a great author as well. His book The Trauma Spectrum is amazing. In a workshop he related stories from medical school, through neurology, to working with car accident victims ('collision' for insurance purposes! haha) to finding Peter Levine.
http://www.traumasoma.com
They all compliment each other well.