Blog #6 (Chapter 11&12)
These two chapters describe the differences in traumatic memories compared to just normal memories. Chapter 11 helped to understand that we remember specific events based on the emotional that we had at that time Van Der Kolk explains, “Whether we remember a particular event at all, and how accurate our memories of it are, largely depends on how personally meaningful it was and how emotional we felt about it at the time” (pg. 177). He used the day of 9/11 as an example. Many people, when asked, can tell you everything that they did on the day of 9/11. But, if you asked someone what they did 9/9, they probably couldn’t tell you as much. This was incredibly helpful even as I think about how I recall my days. The brain is just an incredible organ!!
Van Der Kolk’s explanations of amnesia, dissociation, and reenactment was incredibly helpful when understanding someone’s behavior and thought process after trauma. I appreciated the background Van Der Kolk gave as to the evolvement of being trauma informed. It makes sense why people without training in trauma saw the behavior of an individual and thought they were simply weak or lying about their experience. It’s hard to accept something that we don’t fully understand. God has blessed me tremendously in the sense that I haven’t gone through too many traumatic experiences in life, so I don’t have the ability to understand what most people who have experienced trauma are going through. It will be easy for me in the profession of social work to get frustrated with clients when they exhibit certain behaviors that are a response to trauma that I simply don’t understand. I want to continue to be sensitive to the people around me who’ve experienced trauma. I want to continue to grow in my desire to sit with people and try to understand what they are going through. I want to continue to grow in the way that I love and serve them as a counselor. I have been enjoying reading through this book because it’s been a good foundation for me to understand what clients may be going through.
Abby, you identified that it will be easy for you to get frustrated with clients when they exhibit certain behaviors that are a response to trauma. That is a good reflection of yourself. It takes an honest and brave person to admit that. Since you have identified this, what are you going to do to ensure that your emotions do not get the best of you while working with this population?
ReplyDeleteAbby, I also thought it was interesting to read about the ideas of memories and how trauma has the ability to change the accuracy of said memory - I think I pulled this same quote. I also think you hit the nail on the head when you stated, "It’s hard to accept something that we don’t fully understand". This can sometimes make our work frustrating, however it shouldn't change the way that we treat people. Thanks for sharing some personal ways of how you want to grow!
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