Traumatic Emotions Deserves Care Dan C. Crenshaw Traumatic emotional reactions were not basically understood until recent times. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder was diagnosed in 1980 after psychologists did research after Vietnam. People need to experience calm in the midst of different levels of PTSD storms. Debriefing is one way to help people with traumatic reactions.I have done debriefings for people and groups that have gone through overwhelming experiences. This story happened many years ago. The essence is true, but some details have been changed as debriefings are confidential. A youth group went white water rafting in Tennessee. A freak accident occurred. It was a level one basic rafting adventure. A stunning tragic accident left the group in a daze. They could not believe what happened, and their feelings were a tangled maze. One of the teenage girls was thrown off the raft as a result of a bump in the shallow water she became lodged under a rock. Before their could get to her she had tragically drowned. A couple of days later, I lead a debriefing for the group and related people. They were church members, and the group was to be celebrating the ending of a mission trip. I faced the group of about 30 people and began to get ready to start the debriefing process.A lady came up to me in a well meaning manner and said she had a beautiful inspirational prayer that the teenager who was killed had written. Her purpose was to assuage the feelings of the people whose were wounded and deeply emotionally bitten. I respected her gesture and said that it would be better to read the prayer at the end of the meeting. It was premature to share the prayer at the beginning. A debriefing is to give people space at their own pace to begin expressing their feelings of shock and grieving. This process has the possibility of beginning the process of healing from traumatic feelings. They needed to express words and feeling from the experience at their own discretion The process of debriefing is a method to give people a change to share on whatever level they desire. It is a process where they are given a safe place to express their vulnerability and cry. In such bewilderment of the experience people are afraid to deal with their real feelings. They began naturally to strive to give spiritual answers to the tragic event. I gave them space to do what they needed to do to to start. Then I gave them a chance to begin to share in words the tragic event. Then they would have an opportunity to share their anguishing lament. They shared the story in words. Then they began to share emotions of shock, confusion, helplessness, frustration and questions. They got beyond struggling with spiritual answers and trying to prematurely give spiritually comfort. They began to grieve. As they felt safer, they began to share deeper. The meeting lasted around 90 minutes. At the end I ask the lady to share the prayer. Then in an honest helpful healing manner she shared the prayer with tears as her real feelings appeared. It was a painful but richly meaningful way of ending the session. There was a unity of support as the people were able to express their pain at their own discretion. Then I spent 15 minutes mentoring them how to cope. The event was tragic and they needed support and caring. At the beginning the prayer and mentoring would have been premature and emotionally inhibiting At the end, the prayer helped them release more feelings in the healing process. They were then open to mentoring. They courageously became more emotionally and spiritually mature. They had PTSD reactions. People in war have much more severe feelings. They deserve respect to be able to cope and their own discretion to gradually relieve their sense of emotional desperation.
Posted on: Tue, 08 Oct 2013 14:46:18 +0000
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