June is PTSD Awareness month and an excellent time to learn more about recognizing and treating PTSD. As practitioners of TCM, we are in a unique position to be a part of an integrative treatment strategy to diminish the symptoms of PTSD and increase quality of life in that population.
When someone has PTSD, it’s hard for them to feel safe. It is a mental health problem sometimes develops after a life-threatening or traumatic event, like:
- Combat and other military experiences
- Sexual or physical assault
- Child sexual or physical abuse
- Learning about the violent or accidental death or injury of a loved one
- Serious accidents, like a car wreck
- Natural disasters, like fire, tornado, hurricane, flood, or earthquake
- Terrorist attacks
While not the same for everyone, symptoms of PTSD can include:
- Reliving the event
- Avoiding things that remind them of the event
- Having more negative thoughts and feelings than before
- Intrusive memories
- Re-occurring nightmares
- Disconnection
- Hopelessness about future
- Immediate outbursts of anger
- A sense of being on guard or on edge – Hypervigilance
- Developing a destructive addiction
- Suicidal thoughts
Treatment for PTSD works.
People do not have to live with the symptoms forever. Talk therapy of various kinds has been proven to help, as have some medications, and there is a growing body of evidence on the efficacy of acupuncture.
In honor of PTSD awareness month, we have a limited-time special offer for practitioners looking to help people living with PTSD. Check out the specials on the following two courses:
The goal in the management of acute or chronic traumatic stress with TCM, is to release the retained energy mass from the level where it is trapped (Wei-Blood-Jing), to bring the event into consciousness (Shen) and to re-structure the belief system (Cultivation of the Mind). In this course, you will expand your understanding of the psyche in TCM; consider the consequences of a traumatic event from both Chinese & Western perspectives; build a comprehensive understanding of the human defense mechanisms: Jing Jin and the “Body Armors, Luo Mai, and the Eight Extraordinary channels; feel comfortable with different acupuncture strategies; and, help your patients transform and release the retained energy.
5 Types of Depression by Dr. Yair Maimon, PhD, OMD, Ac
Understanding and learning how to aid in the healing of depression from the unique Chinese medical perspective of the Shen and its relationship to five types of depression. Dr. Yair Maimon discusses depression from Western medical perspective and relates the TCM understanding to the groups of symptoms from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5). Looking at emotions, thoughts, physical and behavioral manifestations through the five element model to transform suffering into growth. In this course, you will learn how to utilize five element acupuncture more effectively for emotional disorders, accurately diagnose the five types of depression, and develop your treatment strategies with an integrated Western/Eastern perspective on depression.
Spread the word.
This June, add more knowledge to your toolbox on how to treat PTSD and help relieve suffering in the world.
