Monthly Archives: June 2014
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Posted: June 30, 2014Categories: NewsRead more »
As a result of our PTSD Awareness Month outreach program, scores of people have shared in our effort to educate survivors about the benefits of guided imagery for posttraumatic stress.
Hundreds of trauma survivors checked in to see what kind of benefits guided imagery might have to offer them – service personnel, veterans and their families; kids suffering the traumatic loss of a parent; survivors of motor vehicle accidents; people recovering from tornadoes, hurricanes and earthquakes; people suffering the after-effects of domestic violence, childhood sexual abuse and all manner of accidents and injuries.
We hope they’ll benefit greatly, then do what others have, and spread the word themselves. If you are one of the many who tried guided imagery for your PTSD, please share your experience – either initially or after a period of cumulative use… or both! These are posts we’d love to read. Please leave your comments below. We greatly appreciate your feedback. -
Posted: June 30, 2014Categories: Update from Health JourneysRead more »
Well, it worked. Our full court press (digitally speaking) to get the word out about the value of guided imagery for traumatic stress seems to have taken on a life of its own. A lot of people began a new strategy last week, to help them cope with posttraumatic stress – not just manage PTSD but remediate it.
We couldn’t be tickled more pink.
Or perhaps, more properly said, we couldn’t be tickled pinker??
We couldn’t be more pinkly tickled?Whatever. I digress.
The point is, we got hundreds of trauma survivors checking in to see what kind of benefit guided imagery might have to offer them – service personnel and veterans and their families; kids suffering the traumatic loss of a parent; survivors of motor vehicle accidents; people recovering from tornadoes, hurricanes and earthquakes; people suffering the after-effects of domestic violence, childhood sexual abuse and all manner of accidents and injuries… you get the picture. -
Posted: June 28, 2014Categories: Hot ResearchRead more »
Researchers from Johns Hopkins University performed a meta-analysis to determine the effects of meditation practice in improving stress related outcomes (anxiety, depression, stress/distress, positive mood, mental health-related quality of life, attention, substance use, eating habits, sleep, pain, and weight) in various adult clinical populations.
They identified randomized clinical trials with active controls for placebo effects from MEDLINE, PsycINFO, EMBASE, PsycArticles, Scopus, CINAHL, AMED, the Cochrane Library, and hand searches.
Strength of evidence was graded using 4 domains (risk of bias, precision, directness, and consistency) and magnitude and direction of effect were determined by calculating the relative difference between groups in the change from baseline. -
Posted: June 25, 2014Categories: NewsRead more »
If you don’t have symptoms caused by post-traumatic stress, it’s safe to say you know someone who does. That’s what PTSD Awareness Month is all about and why it encourages us to do three things: learn, connect and share and emphasizes that we can make a difference.
When I was growing up, my uncle visited us regularly. I knew him as a gentle, fun-loving person, witty, intelligent and an accomplished executive. But a sudden, loud noise could evoke bizarre behavior, limbic rage that sent me and my siblings scattering.
People spoke in hushed tones about how he was ‘shell-shocked’ from World War II and though my aunt tried to get help for him, the prognosis was that there was nothing that could be done. Fortunately, this behavior did not occur often or disrupt our lives, but for other soldiers it took a grave toll. A family friend, who suffered what was then called battle-fatigue, from the Korean War, had a much worse prognosis and eventually lost his job, his family and committed suicide.
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Posted: June 23, 2014Categories: Update from Health JourneysRead more »
Hello, everyone.
National PTS Awareness Day is on June 27 – in fact, the whole month is dedicated to posttraumatic stress awareness.We want to take advantage of the occasion to draw attention to guided imagery as a powerful tool for coping wth PTSD and general PTSD help, by alleviating symptoms and making life way more livable for survivors of trauma.
Meditation for PTSD – our Healing Trauma, Panic Attacks, Healthful Sleep, Anger & Forgiveness, Stress Relief, Heartbreak, Depression and Grief has already helped a lot of people (no exaggeration - check out the reviews on Amazon and you’ll see that we’re not blowin’ smoke, people!)
We’d like to see this wonderful technique help a lot more.
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Posted: June 21, 2014Categories: Inspiring StoryRead more »
We got this email a while ago from a man coping with fibromyalgia, who got help for pain by using his own persistence and ingenuity. His latest addition to his FM toolkit was finding meditation for fibromyalgia, using mindfulness. Here are his own words:
As someone who has suffered from the chronic pain of fibromyalgia, I can definitively say that it can feel quite lonely. People can be judgmental and unsympathetic, as if we were making these symptoms up. I have been over-medicated with painkillers and anti-depressants in the past, and I have been told that it’s all in my head. I have fired my fair share of doctors, and now I have competent, understanding medical care.
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Posted: June 19, 2014Categories: Inspiring StoryRead more »
A woman writes on her blog how, unbeknownst to her, she’d been integrating her guided imagery practice into her whole way of being, and now no longer needed the external tools. (This is very typical of how an immersive technique like guided imagery can sneak up on you, very subtly or incrementally and surprise you with a sudden awareness of completely integrated progress. It also has a way of sinking in and getting solidified while you’re taking a break from it.) She describes her epiphany thusly:
I had a strange revelation while walking today. You see, for several years while I was stressed out and depressed, I took great comfort in my walks. I walked year round. My walks along the creek were one of the few things that truly calmed me and brought me some peace of mind. For years I have always listened to a tape by Belleruth Naperstak [sic] (yes - her real name). Belleruth is a therapist who believes in visualization and has created a series of tapes/cds on a variety of topics. The idea is that you visualize where you want to be and this convinces your subconscious to head in that direction. -
Posted: June 19, 2014Categories: Hot ResearchRead more »
UK Researchers from the University of Oxford, the Oxford Cognitive Health Clinical Research Facility, the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), the Mental Health Biomedical Research Centre at South London and Maudsley, the NHS Foundation Trust and King's College London investigated whether cognitive therapy for PTSD can be delivered effectively in a shortened, 7-day intensive version of a method that is normally administered weekly or bi-weekly over several months.
Patients with chronic PTSD (N=121) were randomlzed to 7-day intensive cognitive therapy for PTSD; 3 months of standard weekly cognitive therapy; 3 months of weekly emotion-focused supportive therapy, or a 14-week waiting list condition.The primary outcomes measured were change in PTSD symptoms and diagnosis as measured by independent assessor ratings and self-report.
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Posted: June 19, 2014Categories: Ask BelleruthRead more »
Dear Belleruth,
My husband died of a massive heart attack in Iraq at the end of December. We just received the autopsy results last week, after waiting that long....
I tried once to go to a grief support group, but was the only one that showed up (I live in the wilderness)….
I have 3 of your CD's... but have found that my mind wanders so much, that I hesitated to get the Ease Grief one, since I cannot seem to keep my mind on anything for longer than 3 minutes.
Any suggestions?
Dina H. -
Posted: June 18, 2014Categories: NewsRead more »
Pictured above is Cheryl’s son, Evan. This photo makes you want to buy a ticket to a ball game, kick back and celebrate summer.
When I was a kid, there was no more euphoric month than June. My siblings, friends, classmates and I were looking at what seemed like an endless summer stretching out before us. There was no fear of being bored, no nothing-to-do doldrums. We played ball in the field, built treehouses, ate our meals outside, ran lemonade stands on the side of a country road and slept in back yard tents.
When my kids were growing up, it seemed there had to be much more planning by parents, in order for them to enjoy summer in the same way and limits on TV and video games, in order to encourage them to be more active.
