Healing Combat Trauma

Robyn D. Walser, Ph.D.

Robyn D. Walser, Ph.D, is a psychologist for the National Center for PTSD at the Veterans Palo Alto Health Care System, California. Dr. Walser received her degree in Clinical Psychology from the University of Nevada-Reno. During her graduate studies she developed expertise in, traumatic stress, substance abuse and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). She is currently developing innovative ways to translate science-into-practice and is responsible for the dissemination of state-of-the-art knowledge and treatment, related to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, to health care professionals and trainees across all VA facilities nationally. She is working on a number of web-based and educational PTSD products for both practitioners and veterans. In addition, she is responsible for several research projects investigating use of mindfulness and ACT in PTSD populations, plus PTSD in the geriatric population. 

Robyn D. Walser, Ph.D. is also the author of Acceptance & Commitment Therapy for the Treatment of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: A Practitioner's Guide to Using Mindfulness & Acceptance Strategies, along with her VA colleague, Darrah Westrup, Ph.D.. 

PTSD Trauma for Veterans and Their Families is Predictable - "The Generic Effects of Combat"

In an article from Australia, there's a great quote about combat trauma/PTSD, and its very ordinariness.

(The article's topic is how "mental health problems caused by war service afflict veterans' families and children too.)  One of the premises of the article is that, based on a study, "Sons and daughters of Vietnam veterans are three times more likely to commit suicide than those of similar age in the general population (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 2000, Suicide in Vietnam veterans' children: Supplementary report no.1).  According to the same report, "They are also more likely to die of accidental death, experience depression and abuse alcohol or other drugs."

That's the overall pretext for the article.  However, now comes the excellent quote, with a bit of preamble from the article itself, linked here:

According to Professor Hedley Peach, conducting research into veterans' sons and daughters is vital, not only to examine in detail the reasons behind their poor health but to set up support services that work for them.  He is also eager for doctors to consider war service when treating patients, as in many cases it could help diagnosis ....  Peach, a member of the scientific committee advising the Government on the feasibility study and professorial fellow at the University of Melbourne, says the Government should also consider studying grandchildren of Vietnam veterans to avoid more problems spiralling down through the generations.

''If the sons and daughters have got mental health problems and have young children themselves, what effect will that have on the grandchildren? We have to break the cycle.''

He suggests stressful familial environments could be behind the children's mental health problems, already highlighted by existing research. While many people with mental illness have a genetic predisposition to their condition, veterans were screened for mental illness before they went into the service, making stress a more likely factor in the children's ill health.

''In studies done by clinical psychologists running PTSD clinics for Vietnam veterans, children have reported a high level of dysfunction in families,'' he says. ''When we focused on Agent Orange so much in the past we missed the bigger picture. We are seeing the same sorts of problems in veterans of the Iraq and Gulf Wars, and fighters in World War II are now saying they suffered from the same problems. It is not due to any specific war, it is the generic effect of combat.''

Thanks to Kathie Costos for this reference...

Floyd "Shad" Meshad, MSW

After earning his Masters degree in Psychiatric Social Work from Florida State University in 1968, Shad went on active duty in 1969 as a Captain in the U.S. Army. In 1970, he served one tour as a Social Work/Psychology Officer for I and II Corps in the Republic of South Vietnam.

Upon his return to the states, Meshad continued his dedication to American veterans by starting the Vietnam Veterans Re-Socialization Unit at the Brentwood, CA VA Hospital in 1971. He spent eight years working with Vietnam veterans and their severe readjustment problems in the Los Angeles area. Shad was one of the pioneers in the study of the disorder known as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD.

In the past 27 years, Shad has received many service awards and recognitions for his work. He authored a book about his year in Vietnam, Captain for Dark Mornings, which, highly acclaimed, is in its second printing. Meshad has made appearances on many major television networks and cable news talk shows, including 60 Minutes, 20/20, Dateline, Nightline, and CNN News. Shad continues to consult, train, and counsel nationally and internationally.

In 1986, Shad started a stress management and consulting service. In the early 90's he began focusing on treating compassion fatigue. This condition is identical to secondary traumatic stress disorder (STSD) and is the equivalent of PTSD. It is the stress resulting from helping or wanting to help a traumatized person. Through his associations, Shad introduced Charles Figley, Ph.D., a long-time friend and colleague to Dr. Roger Callahan who developed Thought Field Therapy. Dr. Callahan approached Meshad with the opportunity to study the effect of TFT therapy on veterans who suffered from PTSD. Impressed by the amazing results of this study, Shad has become a certified TFT diagnostician and practitioner, offering seminars on Levels I and II TFT nationwide.

In 2000 Shad founded Quantum Performance Institute with the goal of utilizing the amazing power of energy psychology techniques in the area of negative emotional states and attaining one's optimum performance level.

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.

James S. Gordon, M.D., Founder and Director of The Center for Mind-Body Medicine

James S. Gordon, MD, a Harvard-educated psychiatrist,is a world-renowned expert in using mind-body medicine to heal depression,anxiety,and psychological trauma. He is the Founder and Director of The Center for Mind-Body Medicine, a Clinical Professor in the Departments of Psychiatry and Family Medicine at Georgetown Medical School, and recently served as Chairman of the White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Policy. He also served as the first Chair of the Program Advisory Council of the National Institutes of Health’s Office of Alternative Medicine and is a former member of the Cancer Advisory Panel on Complementary and Alternative Medicine of the NIH.

 

Dr. Gordon has devoted over 35 years to the exploration and practice of mind-body medicine. After gradating Harvard Medical School, he was for 10 years a research psychiatrist at the National Institute of Mental Health. There he developed the first national program for runaway and homeless youth, edited the first comprehensive studies of alternative and holistic medicine, directed the Special Study on Alternative Services for President Carter’s Commission on Mental Health, and created a nationwide preceptorship program for medical students.

 

Dr. Gordon has created ground-breaking programs of comprehensive mind-body healing for physicians, medical students, and other health professionals; for people with cancer, depression and other chronic illnesses; and for traumatized children and families in Bosnia, Kosovo, Israel and Gaza as well as in post-9/11 New York and post-Katrina southern Louisiana. Nearly 3,000 health and mental health professionals throughout these regions have been trained by Dr. Gordon to more effectively address the psychological trauma within their communities, including supervision and training of a local leadership group within each region which enables the CMBM model to be fully integrated into and sustainable within the local healthcare community.

 

Dr. Gordon’s most recent book is Unstuck: Your Guide to the Seven Stage Journey Out of Depression (Penguin Press). His also the author of Comprehensive Cancer Care: Integrating Alternative, Complementary and Conventional Therapies and Manifesto for a New Medicine: Your Guide to Healing Partnerships and the Wise Use of Alternative Therapies (both Perseus Books). In addition, Dr. Gordon has written or edited 9 other books, including the award-winning Health for the Whole Person, and more than 120 articles in professional journals and general magazines and newspapers, among them the American Journal of Psychiatry, Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine, Journal of Traumatic Stress, Psychiatry, The American Family Physician, The Atlantic Monthly, The Washington Post, and The New York Times. He also helped develop and write the educational materials to supplement the public television series “Healing and the Mind with Bill Moyers”.

 

Dr. Gordon’s work has been featured on Good Morning America, The Today Show, CNN, CBS Sunday Morning, FOX News and National Public Radio, as well as in The Washington Post, USA Today, Newsweek, People, American Medical News, Clinical Psychiatry News, Town and Country, Hippocrates,  Psychology Today, Vegetarian Times, Natural Health, Health, and Prevention.

Finding a Qualified Attorney to Represent You

In the coming months and years, more OIF/OEF veterans will need attorneys' help in getting disability payments they're entitled to, and representing them in the occasional criminal matter.  It's important for veterans and their families to find experienced attorneys who are knowledgeable about veterans' issues, and ideally are also compassionately disposed towards veterans and their families, and the particular struggles they might undergo, including PTSD.  We can think of several cases from the past few years, where returning veterans with PTSD committed crimes and needed representation that could effectively convey their side to a judge or jury: Daniel Cotnoir, Eric Acevedo, and, had he lived, Travis Twiggs (for the carjacking and resisting arrest in the ensuing police chase).  Thrown back on their own or their families' limited resources, veterans who have been charged with a crime may end up a) looking through the phone book or b) getting a public defender appointed by the court to represent them.  While there's nothing wrong with these approaches, they're also pretty subject to chance. What we'd like to see, over time, is a network develop of attorneys across the country who have a special expertise and concern for representing veterans in healthcare and criminal matters (not many attorneys will do both, but some undoubtedly will.)

To find a qualified attorney, consult your local state or county bar assocation's lawyer referral line, or learn how to use Martindale-Hubbell, the directory of lawyers across the United States.  "AV" is the highest rating that lawyers receive in Martindale-Hubbell, conferred by their legal peers; so finding an "AV" rated lawyer to represent you would be a best-case scenario; although the lack of this rating does not imply substandard service or qualifcations. If you choose an attorney on your own (i.e., through the phone book), be sure to also check the lawyer's background with the local bar association to see whether he or she has ever been sanctioned or disbarred in the past (better safe than sorry!).  Use this tool, provided by the American Bar Association, to find the state or local bar association in your area.

Periodically we learn of a lawyer who seems to have a special expertise or affinity for representing veterans.  When we learn of such a lawyer, we'd like to include their information here, so it will be readily available to more potential clients.  Mentioning the name here does not imply an endorsement, but is an attempt to make resources available to interested parties.  We have no way of knowing about the quality of legal representation offered.

In disability matters, we've learned about the Law Offices of Robert Franklin Howell, in Monterey, CA, linked here.  Howell is both a longtime practicing attorney, and a combat veteran. To learn about his disability law practice, click here.  To contact him directly, click here.

In criminal matters, we've learned about attorney Jim Lane, whose Fort Worth, TX firm is linked here.  Lane, who has practiced law for approximately 40 years, was a captain in the U.S. Army as well as a military JAG officer.  His specialties including personal injury, criminal defense (felonies and misdemeanors), and court martials.  To contact him directly, click here.

Just a word of wisdom here, based on common sense: when you do go to consult an attorney, make the most of both of your time by having written down the facts of your case in advance, and, as much as possible, keep your initial contact short and sweet.  Be aware that the first point of contact in many lawyers' offices is a receptionist or a legal assistant, who is not empowered to handle your case.  Do not overwhelm that person with your needs and desires, nor the attorney, when you are able to speak with him or her. Keep it to the facts, take notes on what's discussed and what the game plan is, and bring someone along with you to your first meeting, if you feel that you are likely to be too emotionally involved in your own case to listen well or take good notes.  Learn how to be a good client, and you'll go farther with a good lawyer.  Clients do occasionally wear out their attorneys or get fired by them for being too difficult, which is very unfortunate, and will not help your getting closure.  Here is a good article about how to be a good client.  It's directed to family law, but the tips it suggest apply to other areas as well. Read it and consider what it says (linked here.)

Another Expert's Quotable Quote on PTSD

A great quotable quote from PTSD expert, Frank M. Ochberg, M.D., who once said: "PTSD is a medical condition.  The most important thing we can do to help our loved ones with PTSD is to be the most informed person on your block about PTSD."

Professor Hedley G. Peach (Australia)

BSc(Hons) (Wales), MBBCh (Wales) PhD(London), FFPH(UK)
University of Melbourne

(Retired) Professor, School of Public Health, Queensland University of Technology, Kelvin Grove, Queensland, AUSTRALIA.

Professor Hedley Peach is a Visiting Consultant at the Ballarat Base Hospital, and Professional Fellow at the University of Melbourne.

Professor Hedley Peach qualified as a doctor in Wales where he became interested in the social causes of illness. This interest led him to train in community medicine at the renowned St. Thomas's Hospital in London where he worked for seven years as a lecturer/senior lecturer. In 1985 he migrated to Australia where he was Foundation Professor of Tropical Health at James Cook University for three years and, subsequently, Professor of Community Medicine at Melbourne University for fourteen years. He retired earlier this year but continues as an honorary Professorial Fellow of Melbourne University. He has been interested in the nexus between religion, spirituality and health for a number of years. In 2002, he wrote the first article on this topic to appear in the Medical Journal of Australia to stimulate debate on how the medical profession should respond to research and recommendations from the USA. He has authored book chapters and papers on spirituality and women's health, the religions of rural Australians, and other topics. He has given many radio and newspaper interviews on spirituality and health. He is the author of several books, including The Epidemiology of Common Diseases and Disablement in the Community, as well as the leading author of more than 100 articles in scientific journals. He is a member of the National Heart Foundation's expert group on psychosocial causes of heart disease.

Elspeth Cameron Ritchie, M.D.

Elspeth Cameron Ritchie, a colonel in the United States Army, holds a master's degree in public health and a medical degree. She trained at Harvard University, George Washington University, Walter Reed Army Medical Center, and the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, where she is an associate professor of psychiatry. Her assignments and other missions have taken her to Iraq, Israel, Korea, Somalia, and Vietnam. She brings a unique public health approach to the management of disaster and combat mental health issues and is internationally renowned as an expert on the subject. She also has published numerous articles on forensic, disaster, and military operational psychiatry. She is the recipient of the William Porter and Bruno Lima awards. Ritchie is currently the psychiatry consultant to the US Army Surgeon General. She is also the author of "Interventions Following Mass Violence and Disasters: Strategies for Mental Health Practice."

Kathie Costos, Chaplain

Kathie Costos, also known as "Nam Guardian Angel," is a certified, ordained Chaplain and member of the International Fellowship of Chaplains ("IFOC").  The daughter of a Korean War veteran, and the wife of a Vietnam veteran, she has been active in veterans issues since the 1970s.  For the last 25+ years, she has focused on Vietnam veterans with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

As a chaplain with a devout Greek orthodox background, Kathie nevertheless believes that "no matter what church people belong to, they belong to the family of God as God's children."  Years of volunteering with Vietnam veterans and their families has taught her to take care of the spiritual needs of people and not just the already "faithful."

Kathie is the author of a well-regarded book, called For the Love of Jack, His War/My Battle -- about how her family coped with the legacy of PTSD that her husband returned with from the Vietnam War.  She self-published the book immediately after 9/11, out of concern that the word needed to get out about what PTSD was, before many more people began to suffer from it.  The book is available for downloading on her website, and Kathie has also produced many educational videos about PTSD that are also available on her website.  A list of those videos include the following, but because Kathie is always expanding the list of videos she's made about this topic so close to her heart, it also makes sense to "favorite" her on YouTube, where a list of all her videos is linked, here.  A list of those videos current as of this writing include the following (each is hyperlinked to YouTube or Google video, so you can watch them directly):

• Wounded Minds: PTSD and Veterans (Google)
• Coming Out of the Dark: PTSD and Veterans
• When War Comes Home, Part One
• When War Comes Home, Part Two
• Hero After War
• Death Because They Served - PTSD Suicides (Google)
• Wounded and Waiting, Part One
• Wounded and Waiting, Part Two
• Women At War
• The Voice, Women At War
• Nam Nights Of PTSD Still
• PTSD After Trauma
• PTSD Not God's Judgment
• Homeless Veterans Day

A link to Kathie's website about PTSD is here.  For a direct link to the book she wrote about her husband and family surviving PTSD, click here. For a link to her ever-expanding list of videos about PTSD and veterans, click here.

A favorite quote of Kathie's: "The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive veterans of early wars were treated and appreciated by our nation." -- George Washington.