Counselling - Who needs it?!!
Cindy Penny
Outline
COUNSELLING … who needs it?!!
Trauma Services Injury Conference
August 2005
Cindy Penny
Social Worker
Auckland City Hospital
Counselling - what is it?
The formation of a special professional relationship of trust and openness in order to assist a person …
deal with painful emotional issues
increase their understanding of themselves & their relationships with others;
develop more satisfying and resourceful ways of living and/or bring about a change in their behaviour.
“Being a “compassionate witness” to someone’s experience of a traumatic event.”
Kaethe Weingarten, 2005
Trauma
Trauma is a sensorial blow to the human brain that evokes a physical and emotional reaction for the sake of human adaptation to threat, fear, hopelessness, helplessness and terror. Trauma is an acute or chronic aberration to safe daily routine and function.
(Trey Malicoat, 2001)
Consequences of Common Shock / Trauma
Bodily sensations
Fight or flight
Freeze response
Sensitization –
reactivity,
hypervigilance
Numbness & anger
Memory effects
Sadness, shame & helplessness,
Aggression
Turning inward
Silence
Shattered assumptions
Inhibition of self-disclosure
Who else may be impacted
...and may need counselling?
Impediments to counselling –
what gets in the way?
M.D.T. assessment
“he’s fine - not upset at all”
Role expectations
“I’m a health professional – I should be able to cope”
Gender stereotypes
“I’m a man – I’m okay!”
Limited follow-up resources
“no-one there when I needed it”
$$$
No knowledge of counselling and it’s uses
Invisibility – who else is affected?
Personal Experiences
“I never saw myself as the type who would need counselling. I could not believe it when I walked into my garden and just began to cry. Then I knew that I really needed help.”
Mark aged 32
“We used to watch TV and think people were such “wusses” if they needed help from Victim Support or counsellors after an accident or something. Now I can understand why … this experience has made me a lot more sympathetic to other people’s tragedies. I believe if I hadn’t come to you week after week I would have just gone to bed and stayed there.”
Kathie aged 48
References
Malicoat, Trey. (2001), Notes from “The Shattering Effects of Trauma”. Partially adapted from the work of Dr Marlene Young, National Organisation of Victim Assistance, USA.
Torpie, K. (2005). Losing face: A memoir of lost identity and self-discovery. New Zealand: Harper Collins Publishers Limited.
Weingarten, K. (2003). Common Shock: witnessing violence every day. New York: Penguin Group, Inc.
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Ministry of Health
