The Oakland Tribune's violence reporting fellow, Scott Johnson, reports on the Healing Moments in Trauma Treatment conference, which took place in L.A. earlier this month.
Johnson blogs about Dan Hughes's talk on "Intersubjective Mindfulness," Hughes's approach to dealing with highly traumatized people in therapy. The therapeutic tools he uses allow him to connect more deeply with his patients, and elicit from them the emotional werewithal to make pretty significant breakthroughs.
The tools include modulating his voice in therapy to mimic, or match, the "experience" of the patient, which shows the patient that the therapist is open, curious and non-judgmentally accepting of his or her experience.
Read about the case study Johnson found particularly compelling, about a young boy from Africa who was traumatized after seeing his parents brutally murdered.
Scott Johnson's blog focuses on the effects of violence and trauma on the Oakland community. Go to www.oaklandeffect.com for updates on his reporting.
03/28/11
