Blog posts with the tag "Staff Voices"

Staff Voices: Improving Therapy Outcomes via Psychophysiological Education - (Part II)

In this segment, I continue on from part 1’s focus on “evolved perspective” and “integrating experiences” to discussing how helping individuals understand deployment’s impact on the nervous system seems to be helpful in facilitating positive clinical outcomes. Lastly, I discuss an anecdotal observation and subsequent treatment addendum that has proved helpful in increasing patient “buy in” and adherence to sleep protocols while reducing complaints about sleep.

Staff Voices: Can PTSD Be Treated with Yoga?

I recently came across a Huffington Post article written by David Wood describing the practice of yoga and its benefits for service members in the military struggling with symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).  When asked to describe effective treatments for PTSD, I often speak about Prolonged Exposure Therapy (PE), Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT), and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR).  So, it's no surprise that this concept of treating PTSD with yoga caught my attention.

Staff Voices: New Experiences, New Perspective - Improving Therapy Outcomes - (Part I)

As a psychologist working in a Military Treatment Facility, I have had the privilege of providing care for some of America’s finest military men and women; those who have deployed to the Middle East in support of our most recent conflicts abroad. I have provided individual psychotherapy addressing deployment-related issues and concerns for the past five years and have also run a weekly post-deployment group for a little over four and a half years.

Staff Voices: Professional Quality of Life (ProQOL) Measure

Taking a Closer Look at One’s Helping Hands

As mental health providers how often do we ask ourselves, “How am I doing?”  I imagine not often enough.  However, compassion fatigue or burnout can be experienced even by the most dedicated and insightful clinicians.  Our occupational responsibility is to offer a helping hand, but it's also our ethical responsibility to look at our hands for a quick assessment of their health. Are they cracked? Are they dry? Are there any scrapes or cuts? What needs to be done to better take care of them.

Staff Voices: Military Families and Holiday Separations

As 2012 is drawing to a close I find myself caught up in the usual holiday hustle-and-bustle. When I pull out my holiday cards, I am reminded that last year they read “Happy Holidays from San Diego & somewhere in the Western Pacific” – and I am thankful that this year my active-duty Navy husband is home to share in the festivities. We all know that separations are a part of military life, but holiday deployments can make this time of year particularly stressful for military families.

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