Healing Combat Trauma

Meeting Needs of Returning War Veterans, Families and Communities - Conference

The Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology has an upcoming conference scheduled on Friday, June 13th, from 2:30 pm to 5:00 pm, entitled "Returning War Veterans: Meeting Health Needs of Veterans, Families and Communities."  The program, which is the 31st Erich Lindemann memorial lecture, will feature a panel discussion, including longtime veterans advocate and VA psychiatrist, Jonathan Shay, M.D., Ph.D., winner of a MacArthur grant and the author of several important books on understanding the psychology of combat veterans: both Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character, and Odysseus in America: Combat Trauma and the Trials of Homecoming.

CE Credits:	2.5 (for Psychologists, Social Workers, Nurses & LMHCs)
Tuition:	$20.00 (for CE Credits) Open to the Professional Community and the Public, No Admission Charge. Pre-registration requested. Call 617-327-6777 x 282 to reserve your seat.
	Speakers: Jaine L. Darwin, Psy.D., Supervising Analyst, Massachusetts Institute for Psychoanalysis; Clinical Instructor in Psychology, Dept. of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School; Co-Chair, SOFAR Project—Strategic Outreach to Families of All Reservists Richard T. Moore, M.A., State Senator and Chairman of the Health Care Financing Committee; General Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Jonathan Shay, M.D., Ph.D.., Staff Psychiatrist, Veterans Administration Outpatient Clinic, Boston; Author of Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character (1994); and Odysseus in America: Combat Trauma and the Trials of Homecoming (2000); MacArthur Foundation Fellowship Award (2007) Moderator David G. Satin, M.D., DLFAPA, Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School; Chairman, Erich Lindemann Memorial Lecture Committee

The program is sponsored by The Erich Lindemann Memorial Lecture Committee, and The Erich Lindemann Community Mental Health Education Center Initiative of the Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology in cooperation with The North Suffolk Mental Health Association Board of Directors.

For further information about the program, including registration, click here. To read our previous blog entries about Dr. Shay, click here, here and here.

Mind-Body Medicine Conference - Includes Therapies for PTSD

A conference is planned for October 25-29th in Minneapolis, MN on Mind-Body Medicine, geared towards practitioners -- training the trainers -- around the topic, "Integrating Mind-Body Medicine into Clinical Practice, Medical Education & Trauma Healing."  The conference is sponsored by James S. Gordon, M.D.'s Center for Mind-Body Medicine in Washington, D.C.  The Harvard-trained Gordon is a luminary in the field of mind-body medicine, having authored numerous books on the subject, been featured in Bill Moyer's PBS series, Healing and the Mind, and has been a frequent speaker at the Smithsonian, in their public lecture series.  He is a clinical professor at Georgetown University School of Medicine, and is the former chairman of the White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Policy.  The Center has done significant work with trauma in the Middle East, Kosovo, in Louisiana with victims of Hurricane Katrina, with 9/11 rescue workers, etc. 

The conference information is linked here. Dr. Gordon's bio is linked here.  The Center for Mind-Body Medicine is linked here.

"Hidden Wounds of War" Conference in LA

This weekend, the Soldiers Project holds its "Hidden Wounds of War" conference in LA.  See link for more details.  The theme of the conference is "hidden wounds of war: pathways to healing," and conference speakers will focus on everything from the impact of war on the servicemember and his or her family, to the challenges facing therapists who counsel them.  The speakers will include:

• Jonathan Shay, M.D., Ph.D., longtime veterans advocate and VA psychiatrist;
• Congressman Bob Filner (D-CA), chairman of the house Veterans Affairs comittee;
• Harriet Katz Zeiner, PhD - Lead Neuropsychologist, Polytrauma Rehabilitation Unit, VA Palo Alto;
• Jimmy Castellanos - OIF Veteran, student at Claremont McKenna College;
• Paula Domenici, PhD - Deployment Behavioral Psychologist, Center for Deployment Psychology, National Naval Medical Center, Bethesda. Co-Author - Courage After Fire: Coping Strategies for Troops Returnng from Iraq and Afghanistan and Their Families;
• Helena Young, PhD - Clinical PTSD Program Manager, VA Palo Alto; and
• William Saltzman, PhD - Professor, Educational Psychology, Administration & Counseling, California State University Long Beach; Assistant Director, Project Focus Program, UCLA

Editor's note: For a link to the Soldier's Project, click here.

Aspen Institute Forum on PTSD and Iraq Veterans

Thanks to the miracle of the Internet, the full program from last fall's Aspen Institute's Health Forum on PTSD and Iraq War Veterans is available on the Web.  The program was entitled, "From the Front Lines: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and the Legacy of Iraq," and it featured panelists Charles Figley, Ph.D., combat veteran Georg-Andreas Pogany, Jennifer Vasterling, Ph.D., and Barbara Romberg, Ph.D..  Click here for the link to the video, or just watch it below.

"Silent Majority" of Vets Not Seeking Help...Yet

The Virginian-Pilot has an excellent article in today's paper, talking about a recent, regional conference of social workers and others who met to address concerns of troops coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan, and the services they will require.  Click here for a link to that story, entitled, "Conference at Fort Monroe Touts Medical Resources for Vets."  The regional conference was put on by a program called, "Virginia is for Heroes," and it seems to have covered a lot of ground. 

Navy commander and psychologist, Beverly Dexter, Ph.D., spoke, as did several others, including Harold Kudler, a VA physician and mental health services manager.  (See our profile of Beverly Dexter, Ph.D., linked here.  Dexter will also be speaking at the Washington State Psychological Association's annual seminar on April 11th and 12th in Seattle.  Click here for a link to that story.)  According to Kudler, referencing Vietnam veterans, the trend is for one-third of veterans with PTSD to seek help from the VA; the other two-thirds apparently seek help elsewhere (including those who don't seek help at all?).  Among current veterans, the trend seems to be, 37% of those eligible have sought treatment from the VA, for all health conditions, not just psychological help. 

Kudler and others wonder where the other 63% are going -- the so-called "Silent Majority," who may be suffering less visibly.  The implication, according to the article, referencing Kudler, is that "this “silent majority” of recent combat veterans may turn to other sources for help – churches, family doctors, community service boards – that need to be prepared to assist them."  Apparently Beverly Dexter, Ph.D., and others believe the abundance of community mental health providers and resources is sufficient as is -- but effort may need to be made to link those in need with the resources available.  Educational outreach by the VA to veterans and veterans' families, as we've reported on recently, seems to be part of the solution.  Good article about progress being made.

Editor's note: for a link to "Virginia is for Heroes," click here.

Upcoming PTSD Conference on Healing and Hope

The Washington State Psychological Association will be having its annual conference April 11th and 12th at Shilshole Bay Marina, in Seattle, Washington.  The title of the conference is "Healing and Hope," and it will largely focus on issues of concern to veterans and their families.  Topics at the conference include, on Friday, April 11th: "Focus on Military Families, Issues and Treatment," presented by Beverly Dexter, Ph.D., and "Treatment of Trauma, Combat Stress and PTSD," also presented by Beverly Dexter, Ph.D.  On Saturday, April 12th, the topics include: "Nightmares No More: Treatment of Trauma-Related Nightmares," by Beverly Dexter, Ph.D.; and a final session/panel discussion entitled, "Self-Care for the Warrior Moments in Our Lives: A Lifestyle Consideration."  This panel discussion will include E.B. Vance, Ph.D., Bill Proctor, Ph.D., Mark Soelling, Ph.D., and Kathy Wilmering, MSW, ARNP.  Who should attend: psychologists, professional clinical counselors, MFTs, social workers, psychiatrists, and other mental health professionals.  To learn more about the conference, or to register, click here.  To learn more about Beverly Dexter, Ph.D., click here. 

(Dr. Dexter will be a pre=conference speaker on the topic of PTSD and the military at the EMDR International Association conference in September in Phoenix, AZ later this year.  Information on that upcoming conference is linked here.)

Upcoming PTSD Conference on Care of Rural Veterans and Their Families

Geisinger Health Systems of Danville, PA, is planning a national conference for May 13, 2008 on "Combat Stress Injuries (PTSD): Care of Rural Veterans and Their Families" Click here for more information about that conference.  The conference is designed for health and allied health providers, social workers, mental health counselors, veteran advocates, educators, researchers and policy makers. There are no prerequisites.  The registration fee is extraordinarily in-expensive ($85), and the list of speakers and their bios follows: 

Faculty
Guest Faculty

Charles Figley BS, MS, Ph.D.

Dr. Figley directs the award-winning Florida State University FSU Traumatology Institute and Psychosocial Stress Research and Development Program. The Institute was recognized in 2000 as the best program of its kind by the University Continuing Education Association. He is a Fulbright Fellow and Professor, College of Social Work at FSU. He is also a psychologist and family therapist. Professor Figley received both graduate degrees from the Pennsylvania State University and his undergraduate degree from the University of Hawaii, all in the interdisciplinary field of human development. He has been editor of a number of journals (e.g., the Founding editor of the Journal of Traumatic Stress) and book series (e.g., the Innovations in Psychology Book Series with Taylor & Francis. His current editorships include Editor (founder), Traumatology, the International Journal, 1995-present and Editor (founder), Routledge ( formerly Brunner/Mazel ) Psychosocial Stress Book Series, 1983-present. He has written more than 200 scholarly works including 19 books mostly on stress.  (Editor's Note: Figley is the editor of Mapping Trauma and Its Wake: Autobiographic Essays by Pioneer Trauma Scholars.)

Michael Hwang MD

Associate Chief of Staff, Mental Health VA Medical Center Wilkes Barre, PA and Associate Professor of Psychiatry Robert Wood Johnson Medical School University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey

Evelyn Llewellyn Psy.D.

Co-Founder Executive Director Director of Family and Youth Programs Life Matters New York, NY

Michael Lonski Ph.D.

Chief of Mental Health Clinical Services 244th Medical Services New York State Division of Military and Naval Affairs Captain, New York State Guard New York, NY

Keith Martin

WBRE Veteran TV Anchor Retired National Guard Brigadier General Former Pennsylvania Director of Homeland Security Wilkes Barre, PA

William Nash MD

William P. Nash, M.D., is an active duty Captain in the U.S. Navy Medical Corps, with nearly thirty years of active military service. He is a graduate of the University of Illinois, College of Medicine, in Chicago, and of psychiatry residency training at Naval Medical Center, San Diego. In addition to leading two Navy SPRINT crisis response teams, he has directed two Navy psychiatry residency training programs, and has served as the Director of Clinical Services of the hospital ship USNS MERCY. CAPT Nash has been stationed with the Marine Corps since 2000, including deploying to Iraq in 2004 with the 1st Marine Division as a psychiatrist embedded with ground combat forces. He was awarded a bronze star medal for his service in Iraq in support of combat operations there. Since October, 2005, CAPT Nash has been stationed at Headquarters, Marine Corps, in Quantico, Virginia, where he directs and coordinates combat/operational stress control policies and programs for the United States Marine Corps. He is an Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego, and has co-edited a book on combat stress injuries released in late 2006.

Edward Rendell BA, JD

He is an Army Veteran and Pennsylvanias 45th Governor who began a second term of office on January 16, 2007, following a landslide re-election victory. As Governor, he serves as chief executive of the nations 6th-most-populous state and oversees a $27.5 billion budget. He is building on his efforts to make government more responsible to the public, and more responsive to the publics needs. He has cut wasteful spending and improved efficiency to save more than $1 billion and is pursuing a legislative agenda that includes commonsense political reforms to put progress ahead of partisanship.

Steven Silver Ph.D.

PA Army National Guard Former Director, PTSD Treatment Program VA Medical Center, Coatesville, PA

Jessica Wright BA, MA

Major General Jessica L. Wright is the Adjutant General of Pennsylvania. In this State cabinet-level position, General Wright, headquartered at Fort Indiantown Gap, is responsible for command, control, and supervision of all Air and Army National Guard units allocated to the State of Pennsylvania. She is also responsible for six (6) state-owned veterans' homes, Scotland School for Veterans' Children, and programs for Pennsylvanias 1.3 million veterans. --- The objectives of the conference are that -- at the completion of this course, the participant should be able to: define the necessary components of a comprehensive assessment of combat stress injuries and the importance of each in a multimodal approach to patient care; discuss degrees of success attained by treatment in terms of effect on function and quality of life; cite key evidence, including peer-reviewed medical literature that can help the practitioner get the veteran the right care at the right; identify and manage association events related to combat stress injuries. To register for the conference, please click this link.

Upcoming Medical Conference on PTSD for Military Healthcare Providers

The fourth annual "Amygdala, Stress and PTSD Conference" will be held Tuesday, April 29, 2008, from 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., in the Sanford Auditorium at the Uniformed Services University, in Bethesda, Maryland.  The conference, which is co-sponsored by the Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress, and the Graduate Program in Neuroscience at the Uniformed Services University, is part of a series of conferences that "have brought together scientists and clinicians working towards solving the biologcal basis of post traumatic stress disorder. The conferences have focused on the neurobiology of the amygdala and stress and ptsd and have included speakers at the forefront of their fields," according to conference material.  To learn more about who's speaking at the conference, and their topics, click here.  To register for the conference, click here.

Editor's Note: the amygdala is a portion of the brain defined this way: "The amygdala is located in the middle of the brain, this almond shaped complex of related nuclei is a critical processor area for the senses. Connected to the hippocampus, it plays a role in emotionally laden memories. It contains a huge number of opiate receptor sites implicated in rage, fear and sexual feelings. It is part of the limbic system." (Source: "The Glossary of Brain Terminology.")

This year's conference topics and speakers will include:

• "Mechanism of Lasting Change in Anxiety Produced by Severe Stress in Animals" -- Robert Adamec - Memorial University - Canada;
• "Role of NMDA Receptors in Fear Extinction: Implications for PTSD Therapy" -- Michael Davis - Emory University, GA;
• "Neurotrophic Actions of Stress and Antidepressant Treatment" -- Ron Duman, Yale University;
• 'Amygdala, Stress and the Pathophysiology of Psychiatric Disorders -- Anthony Grace -- University of Pittsburgh, PA
• "Different Effects of Early Exposure and Cognitive Therapies on Fear and Avoidance" -- Arieh Shalev - Hadassah University - Israel
• "The Ontogeny of Fear and the Amygdala" -- Regina Sullivan - University of Oklahoma, OK

Further information may be obtained by contacting the Conference directly:

The Amygdala Conference
4301 Jones Bridge Rd
Bethesda, MD 20814
Info@AmygdalaConference.org

Blogged Reports from Brown Conference

For those of you who like me are crying salty tears about missing what sounds like it was a stupendous conference at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island over the weekend, here are a couple of first-person reports from the same blogger about what the conference was like to attend. It really sounds fantastic.  I still wish I'd been able to go.  (Sigh.)  (The conference was on first person narratives coming back from the war in Afghanistan and Iraq, featuring many of the authors who wrote them, as well as interested others.)

First person report about the events of the first day; first person report about the events of the second day.  (Referencing those blog posts here does not imply an endorsement of the rest of the blog's contents -- I'm particularly interested in, as I hope you would be, the impressions from going to that conference itself.)

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If you've never seen "The War Tapes," by Deborah Scranton, one of the featured speakers at the conference, now might be a good time to try to find it on DVD.  Scranton is a filmmaker who put video cameras in the hands of various New Hampshire National Guard members, as the war in Iraq was beginning, and asked them to record what they saw, with the permission of their superiors.  What came back was some interesting footage, which she put together into a documentary that covers how three "regular guys" go to Iraq and get changed by the experience.  I saw the film at one of its first screenings on Cape Cod last year, met one of the featured participants, Sgt. Steve Pink, and really was impressed.  Apparently Scranton was a live wire at the conference, and one of it's most interesting participants.  (Here's a link to Scranton's blog, which includes a link to buying the DVD.) (The movie has since gone on to win a number of awards, including "Best Documentary," Tribeca Film Festival, and "Best International Documentary," BritDoc Festival.)

Front Line, First Person - Iraq War Stories

In the category called, things that make me wish I were in New England this weekend, this has to be at the top of the list.  Check out the topic, the length of the program (two days!!!) and, last but not least, the all-star cast who'll be participating.

The Watson Institute for International Studies, a part of ivy league Brown University in Rhode Island, is sponsoring a two day upcoming seminar on "Front LIne, First Person: Iraq War Stories" from those who served.  Click here for the link.  Cosponsored by Brown University's Nonfiction Writing Program and The Rhode Island Council for the Humanities.  The conference will be held at the the Watson Institute for International Studies, Brown University, located at 111 Thayer Street, Providence, RI 02912.  A live web stream of this event will be available, and archived video will be available shortly after the event.  (A later blog entry of ours references some blogger first person reports about the conference itself.  Click here for that link.)

Here's what the conference brochure has to say:

Over the past four years, the conflict in Iraq and the “war on terror” have divided public opinion in the United States. They have also created a less obvious divide – between the general public and the individuals, families, and communities touched directly by the experience of war. In this climate, voices representing the direct experience of war are often stifled or misheard or hijacked by those who seek to polarize the debate over the war.

Front Line, First Person: Iraq War Stories is a two-day conference that aims to create bridges for conversation across these new fault-lines and to understand better the capacities of different forms of storytelling to reach across boundaries and build connections at the human level.

Featured speakers include Colby Buzzell, the blogger and best-selling author of "My War: Killing Time in Iraq"; Matthew Burden (aka Blackfive), a leading military blogger and author of "The Blog of War: Frontline Dispatches from Soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan"; former US Senator Lincoln Chafee ’75; Deborah Scranton ’84, the award-winning director of the documentary “The War Tapes”; and Newsweek Senior International Photo Editor Jamie Wellford ’84.

Friday, October 19

2:00pm	The Ground Truth from Iraq to the Beltway and Back
	Colby Buzzell (blogger, author) “My War: Killing Time in Iraq” Iraq vet Senator Lincoln Chaffee (Independent, Rhode Island) Matthew Burden, aka, Blackfive (veteran, blogger, author) "The Blog of War: Frontline Dispatches from Soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan;" Erick Rodriguez, Iraq vet & current Brown student Moderated by: Deborah Scranton (filmmaker)

4:15pm	What Stories Do and Don’t Get Told and Why
	Podcast with SFC Nunn, author “Northern Disclosure” & soldier currently serving in Iraq, Iraq veteran Deborah Scranton (filmmaker) “The War Tapes” Col. David Lapan, USMC, Deputy Director, HQMC Public Affairs, Iraq vet Matthew O'Neill (filmmaker) HBO's "Alive Day Memories: Home From Iraq,” "Baghdad ER." Jason Christopher Hartley (blogger, author) "Just Another Soldier" Moderated by: Keith Brown

Saturday, October 20

9:00am

Reporters and Rapport

Charles Monroe-Kane (producer, NPR) To The Best of Our Knowledge Tara McKelvey (journalist, author) “Monstering: Inside America’s Policy of Secret Interrogations and Torture in the Terror War” Brian Palmer (embedded photographer, journalist, filmmaker) Trish Wood (journalist, author)”What Was Asked of Us: An Oral History of the Iraq War by the Soldiers Who Fought It” Moderated by: James Der Derian

11:30am

Amplifying Voices and Activism part I

Prof. Matthew Gutmann, Brown University "Breaking Ranks: An Oral History Project on Iraq War Veteran Dissent" Erin Solaro, author "Women in the Line of Fire: What You Should Know About Women in the Military" Paul Rieckhoff (soldier, author, activist) Founder, Iraq & Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) & author "Chasing Ghosts", Iraq Vet Col. (Ret.) Greg Gardner, served with the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq as Chief of Staff for the Senior Advisor, Ministry of National Security and Defense, Iraq vet, military analyst for FOX News. Moderated by: Catherine Lutz

2:30pm	Amplifying Voices and Activism part II
	Prof. James William Gibson (California State University, Long Beach) "The Perfect War: Technowar in Vietnam “ Mitty Mirrer (filmmaker) Andrew Woods, Lecturer at Harvard Law School & founder “Soldier's Stories” project