Recently I was invited to attend a lecture by LTC (Ret.) Dave Grossman titled “The Psychological Effect of Combat.” I knew of LTC Grossman because so many of my military clients raved about his books, On Killing and On Combat. I was intrigued to see him speak, but was also quite skeptical about his message and expected to disagree with him at every turn.
My professor set me up for success in the clinical world when I was tasked to read Unspeakable Truths and Happy Endings: Human Cruelty and the New Trauma Therapy by Rebecca Coffey.The purpose was to prepare us as students to sit in the pocket of the client’s story, no matter how tragic or graphic. It was a challenging task as the book was filled with gruesome stories, including one of a Veteran, introducing me to the impact of combat trauma. It was a wake-up call to the high honor and power of listening to someone’s story, especially those of military families.
4,073,124
The number of "unique individuals (who) served at least 1 day in the active component" from from October 1, 2001 through October 1, 2016, according to an article in the January 2017 issue of the Armed Forces Health Surveillance Branch's Medical Surveillance Monthly Report -- Selected demographic and service characteristics of the U.S. Armed Forces, active and reserve components, 2001, 2009, and 2016.
Welcome to this week’s edition of CDP News! We like to use this space to review recent happenings in and around the Center for Deployment Psychology, while also looking ahead to upcoming events. March has been quite a busy month so far and we’ve got several more event coming up soon.
The CDP's weekly research update contains the latest news, journal articles and useful links from around the web. Some of this week's topics include:
● Behavior Therapy Special Issue: Treating Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD): Innovations and Understanding Processes of Change
● Sleep-Disordered Breathing Impact on Efficacy of Prolonged Exposure Therapy for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder.