Tag: trauma

Children’s art as visual narrative

This article about visual narrative highlights the effectiveness of non-verbal expressive arts like drawing, painting, and constructing as therapeutic and restorative experiences. Trauma survivors, including children, may find it challenging to articulate their experiences verbally, as trauma can impact the brain’s language centers. The article contrasts previous approaches that encouraged forgetting traumatic events with the current understanding of the importance of acknowledging, validating, and providing mental health intervention for survivors, allowing them to tell their stories through creative acts. The article references the project “Forced to Flee: Visual Stories of Refugee Youth from Burma,” which compiles a book of art expressions by young refugees (a page for the kickstarter campaign for the project was available as of 12/20/23 at this link). The project showcases how visual narratives, conveyed through art, can tell powerful stories, open hearts, and build bridges of understanding. By honoring the visual narratives of youth, the project not only raises awareness about human rights issues but also offers a glimpse into possibilities for reparation and redemption for young survivors.

Jeraldine’s Story: There is Hope

This is one of several stories on the Patient & Family Storytelling website. The story begins with Jeraldine’s traumatic early childhood experiences and continues to describe her alcoholism and its impact on her life. Following treatment for cancer and liver disease, she reconnects with her culture. The story could prompt discussion of intergenerational trauma and its health impacts as well as the importance of providing culturally appropriate healthcare services that address trauma and holistic care.

Sick Woman Theory

Sick Woman Theory by Johanna Hedva is an exploration of the intersection of illness, disability, and feminism. Hedva challenges traditional notions of productivity and success, advocating for a reevaluation of societal attitudes toward bodies that deviate from the norm. The theory delves into the experiences of sick and disabled individuals, highlighting the systemic issues they face, and calling for a more inclusive and compassionate understanding of chronic illness. Hedva’s work prompts a reconsideration of the value placed on health and challenges the ableist structures ingrained in society.

Specifically, Hedva provides a story of when they were unable to participate, in the streets, during the Black Lives Matter protests. Due to their many illnesses, including PTSD, anxiety, fibromyalgia, and endometriosis. Hedva describes chronic illness, writing, “I have chronic illness. For those who don’t know what chronic illness means: the word “chronic” comes from the Greek “chronos,” χρόνος, which means “time” (think of “chronology”). In certain contexts, it can mean “a lifetime.” So, a chronic illness is an illness that lasts a lifetime. In other words, it does not get better. There is no cure.” They explain the implications of chronic illness in times of resistance.

This source could be used in a course discussing disability and chronic illness, especially when focusing on intersectionality. It raises questions about who is allowed to participate in society, and how they are allowed to participate. Hedva affirms the experience of disabled bodies, advocating for resistance through rest. Courses interested in illness and politics, illness and relationships, and how disabled bodies can mobilize without moving would benefit from this reading.

The Body Keeps the Score

“The Body Keeps the Score” is a book written by Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, a psychiatrist and trauma expert. The book explores the impact of trauma on the body and the ways in which the body stores and remembers traumatic experiences. Dr. van der Kolk emphasizes the interconnectedness of the mind and body in the experience of trauma, challenging traditional views that focus solely on psychological aspects. The book delves into various therapeutic approaches and modalities that can help individuals recover from trauma, including neurofeedback, yoga, and EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing). It also discusses the author’s own experiences working with trauma survivors and presents case studies, specifically with children that illustrate the challenges and successes in treating trauma. This book could be used to explore from both a scientific and narrative perspective how trauma presents itself and actually layers the body. It could aid in discussions based around how one heals from trauma and how to give trauma informed care.

Let’s Talk About Trauma – A Wound That Never Fully Heals

In this Tedx Talk, High school senior Matilde Antunes shares both the psychology and biology between trauma. Matilde shares her own personal narrative of growing up in a broken home. At five years old her parents divided and forced her siblings to pick sides as well as years of hatred and fights between the parents. Such experiences led her to develop depression as well as trauma that prevailed and stayed with her throughout her life. Matilde refers to this experience and trauma in general as a “wound that never fully heals.” She then discusses the importance of breaking the stigma surrounding trauma and mental health generally through the power of vulnerability and connectivity. This video could be utilized within a classroom setting to explore the psychology behind childhood trauma as well as a way to expand on the causes of trauma.

Visual and narrative comprehension of trauma

“This article argues that though art is assumed to be useful as an intuitive means of representation, its usefulness in offering insight into trauma depends on accompanying narratives. Four artists’ works considered herein illuminate how the synergistic interplay between art and expository input from personal narratives can augment comprehension of trauma”. This article includes artwork from Luzene Hill, David Wojnarowicz, Tania Love Abramson. Luzene Hill’s work, Retracing the Trace, depicts their experience with rape and the silencing of women within our society. The art installment shows her body lying on the ground with blood red knots scattered around her body. This article could be used in a class discussion based on how trauma can be made tangible and expressed through mediums such as art.

While teaching a fitness class, she had a massive heart attack

This is a news story recounting the experience of Ratona Harr, a 44 year old woman who had a heart attack in the midst of teaching a fitness class. It follows her from when symptoms first began, to when she called 911, to the hospital, to recovery. Including quotes from both Harr and her doctors as well as pictures of Harr and the tattoos she got after the incident, the article gives a personal account of what it is like to suffer a severe heart attack and then cope with recurring conditions over the next three years. It also describes the mental health struggles she faced after the fact, including her fears about going back to teaching. This would be a useful short reading material for med students to discuss the different ways that heart attacks present in men and women, as it describes a much more gradual onset of pain than we typically associate with the archetypal male heart attack. It could also be a helpful case study to integrate into a unit about what realistic long term recovery options may look like for a patient so they can sensitively inform them. While these lessons could be taught in other ways, this resource would be helpful because it gives the perspective of bystanders, healthcare providers, and the patient before, during, and after an emergency.

Another GSW

“Another GSW” by Odeya Kagan is a short personal narrative detailing a young doctor’s encounter with a patient who had extensive injuries from a single bullet wound, and how the experience made her consider the ramifications of gun violence in America. As Kagan looks forward to her medical career, she prioritizes never becoming numb despite the frequency and normalization of gun shot wounds (GSWs). This story could prompt discussion of gun violence as a public health issue and the ways in which gun violence is ingrained into American culture. It could also be used to address the topics of physician burnout or the mental taxation of working in trauma and emergency departments. Hospital residents in particular may be able to relate to the sentiments of the author.