Complex Trauma and Human Trafficking

I spoke at the Florida Association of Women Lawyers’ daylong seminar on human trafficking. I had prepared thoroughly for the talk, and I was honored to present on this all-too-common crime. Women and children, primarily, are trafficked every day into the United States from all over, for both labor and for sex. Actually, statistics indicate that 70 percent of trafficked women and children are forced into the sex trade—in prostitution, brothels, and sex slavery. People are trafficked into every town, every city, every state, every country, mostly from developing countries into developed countries, but not always. One 12-year-old girl from right here in Sarasota, FL, was taken to Mexico and forced into drugs and prostitution, until she was rescued three years later.

A question I heard over and over again at the seminar was, “How come I didn’t know about this?” The reason is because human trafficking is an underground business. The victims are hidden in plain sight, so to speak. They are told not to reveal their identity, not to speak of their living conditions or any other information that might give away their status as victims or the status of their perpetrators. All identifying information is taken from them, and the perpetrators tell them that either they or their families will be greatly harmed if they ever disclose their conditions.

Human trafficking is truly horrifying.

What was also really interesting, I found, was how every facet of the trafficked individual’s being is affected as a result of human trafficking. The new diagnosis of Complex Trauma refers to the affects of interpersonal traumas, multiple traumas over a prolonged period of time. It refers to people in concentration camps, living in a war zone, in forced prostitution, human trafficking and ethnic cleansing, among other heinous conditions. The individual suffers emotionally, behaviorally, physiologically and perceptually, so it may be seen how it is a wrap-around condition.

Luckily, not all victims of human trafficking are scarred for life. Many do in fact go on to lead productive, even stellar, lives. Somaly Mam is one of them. She is a Cambodian woman who was sold into prostitution when she was 12-years old by a supposed “grandfather.” She was kept in deplorable conditions, beaten and raped daily, tortured and punished constantly. When she finally did escape, she decided to work to save others who were taken by kidnappers and human traffickers. She founded the Somaly Mam Foundation (www.somaly.org), which has homes/shelters all over the world for women who have escaped such torturous experiences.

For those women who do not fare as well, however, there is Rapid Resolution Therapy to create clarity and understanding. People like Somaly Mam can talk about their experiences as information about their past, without the emotional attachment. That is the end result of RRT, and by disappearing those disturbing emotions they end up with clarity and strength.

Susan Wolfson.LCSW

Susan Wolfson, LCSW, is Certified Practitioner of Rapid Resolution Therapy. Please visit Susan’s website for further information at http://www.susanwolfson.com.

The Many Wonders of the Brain: A Book Review of Sorts

By Susan Wolfson, LCSW

Certified Practitioner, Rapid Resolution Therapy

Someone contacted me recently asking for help with a family member who had been suffering extreme depression during the past six months. She explained that this woman had seen a number of therapists, had been hospitalized after trying to commit suicide, and was presently living with round-the-clock supervision, since she was unable to adequately take care of daily tasks. The woman who contacted me lives in another state, and she heard my work from another person (a "six degrees of separation" type of thing!). She said she was willing to try anything, but she was skeptical that Rapid Resolution Therapy would help. This is common for most people, so I didn't think much of it. But what struck me most was how "in the dark" people are about mental health.

Having recently finished Norman Doidges's The Brain that Changes Itself, I see that there is no longer any question of the brain's adaptation to experience, both rewarding and challenging. Study upon study, as demonstrated in the chapters of the book, show very clearly how the brain rewires and adapts to the experiences the individual encounters. From retraining the brain to acquiring movement after a stroke to reorganizing the brain so that blind people learn to see and autistic children can learn to speak and interact*, the book is, without a doubt, required reading for anyone interested in the mind. I particularly liked the part about how imagining lifting weights strengthens the muscles of the arms almost as much as actually lifting the weights!

RRT works precisely because of its ability to reorganize the mind. As repeated over and over again in neuroplasticity lingo, "neurons that fire together, wire together." By looking at things in a different way, we automatically draw our minds toward that and, in doing so, automatically rewire our brains. An alcoholic thinks about the joys of alcohol all the time, so his/her brain is wired in that way. Reorganizing the mind to no longer focus on alcohol, for instance, we are rewiring the brain. A corollary to the above statement is that "neurons that fire apart wire apart." So when we get the client's brain to no longer find alcohol appealing, we are changing the map of the brain and changing how the neurons interact with each other.

The book is readable, interesting and highly entertaining. Whatever opinions I may have of it don't nearly do justice to the actual studies that are cited or to the conclusions that are drawn. My only disappointment is that nowhere does the author refer to Jon Connelly or to Rapid Resolution Therapy. I'll have to email him about that...

*I worked with a young man with Aspergers, which is thought of as a high-functioning autism. He was brilliant (on his way to a prestigious law school) but lacked even the most basic of social skills. I saw him twice. His mother called two weeks later to thank me for the wonderful change she saw in her son. Whereas he rarely spoke to anyone, he was now flirting with a waitress at a restaurant; whereas he hated talking on the phone with his critical and impatient grandmother, he was recently chatting with her about his life and inquiring about his aunts and uncles and cousins. His mind and brain were now working in a useful way!

Susan Wolfson, LCSW, is a Certified Practitioner in Rapid Resolution Therapy who maintains a successful practice in Bradenton, Florida. You can reach her through her website at http://www.susanwolfson.com or follow her blog at http://clarities.blogspot.com/.

Rapid Resolution Therapy Client Spotlight:

Active Duty, Reserves, Former and Retired Military Members
By Sharon Melvan-Richie, Ph.D.
Certified Practitioner, Rapid Resolution Therapy

"The return of our men and women in uniform serving in Iraq and Afghanistan will rival the scale of World War II demobilizations in some communities." This is the opening statement of the informative booklet Engaging Veterans and Families to Enhance Service Delivery. Electronic copies of this booklet and other free publications about veterans, trauma informed care, self care for providers, homelessness and organizational development are available here.

The National Center for PTSD estimates that about 30 percent of troops who served in Vietnam experienced PTSD and an additional 20 to 25 percent have had PTSD at some point in their lives. A recent Rand Corporation Study sets this number at 22 percent for those who served in Iraq and Afghanistan and notes that only one-third of veterans in need of mental health care actually receive it. However, given a new VA regulation (July 2010) that allows any veteran who has served in a war zone to receive compensation for PTSD without having to prove that he/she was exposed to a triggering event, we can expect more veterans to step forward. Some veterans only want the proper diagnosis and financial compensation from the VA system. Others want a better understanding of PTSD; help for themselves, their family members and friends; and/or personal relief from nightmares, numbness, anxiety, guilt, avoidance and frozen grief.

Rapid Resolution Therapy Certified Practitioner Susan Wolfson, LCSW, recently met such a group of veterans (a local chapter of Florida Veterans for Common Sense) when they asked her to speak at their meeting. She shares her experience below:

The talk was good. There were about 40 people there, most of whom were vets, but not all. Some were interested people from the community who heard about the talk through the grapevine. They asked a lot of good questions (mostly in trying to understand how we do what we do and how it works), but they also asked a few specifics like how to reach vets who won't accept any help or intervention. Afterwards I joined them at a local restaurant. One of the vets on the group's board [of directors] asked me to call him to see how he might be able to use my services for the vets in the community. Another guy asked me to expand on a pamphlet I had made for the talk, to explain more about what I do (how, in three hours, I can eliminate emotional pain from traumatic events). . . I didn't talk so much about Rapid Resolution Therapy as I did about the psychology and neurobiology of trauma, but I guess they were more interested in the therapy. It would be great if we all had something specific for vets that we could distribute in our local communities.

Susan's pamphlet is a great start to producing an informative brochure about PTSD and TBI (see attached) that also can serve as a marketing tool for you in your local area. Thank you Susan for sharing your first draft of this brochure and making it available to our CP community!! In upcoming RRT newsletters (and on our website) we will be identifying other military/veteran venues where you can offer to provide talks and references and resources to help enhance your military competency skills.

*Article courtesy of Dr. Sharon Richie-Melvan, Ph.D., Certified Rapid Resolution Therapist. Dr. Sharon also co-authored the book, "Angel Walk: Nurses at War in Iraq and Afghanistan," with Dr. Diane Vines, Ph.D, Certified Rapid Resolution Therapist. Within the book, Dr. Sharon recommends Rapid Resolution Therapy as a PTSD treatment approach (p. 97). To purchase your copy today, please click here.