Comments on: Tools to Build Resiliency and Aid in Healing from Complex Trauma https://cptsdfoundation.org/2019/05/14/tools-to-build-resiliency-and-aid-in-healing-from-complex-trauma/ The Foundation for Post-Traumatic Healing and Complex Trauma Research Sun, 08 Nov 2020 16:26:03 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 By: Shirley Davis https://cptsdfoundation.org/2019/05/14/tools-to-build-resiliency-and-aid-in-healing-from-complex-trauma/#comment-2462 Sun, 08 Nov 2020 16:26:03 +0000 https://cptsdfoundation.org/?p=1811#comment-2462 In reply to bill betzler.

Thank you for your very insightful and informative comment. I agree with it all. Shirley

]]> By: bill betzler https://cptsdfoundation.org/2019/05/14/tools-to-build-resiliency-and-aid-in-healing-from-complex-trauma/#comment-2461 Sun, 08 Nov 2020 16:20:21 +0000 https://cptsdfoundation.org/?p=1811#comment-2461 Found your article helpful & informative. I’m 73 & a survivor of ACES. It’s taken a lifetime to understand trauma & finally thrive. Have been working w/ homeless people for past 14 years as employee & now volunteer advocate. I have empathy for them. They are my people. I’ve done over 7000 interviews in that time. I have ability to establish instant rapport w/ every client. These are my people. It always starts w/ listening w/ love. It proceeds to building & maintaining a relationship of mutual trust & respect. Then its mutually determining some baby steps to begin moving up & out of poverty permanently. Some thoughts:
1) If you survive ACES, you have resilience. Those who don’t die or go insane. 2) Resiliency is not about “adapting well”. It’s about being good enough. 3) But for resiliency; you can not survive ACES. What else is there? 4) Long term homelessness (one year continuous or 4X in 3 years) has been defined by HUD & HHS as a traumatic condition & that all services provided must be trauma-informed. Homelessness is ongoing complex trauma. 5) long term homeless have significantly higher levels of Traumatic Brain Injury (5X), Mental Illness (4X) & Chemical Abuse (3X) than the general public. 6) These are incredibly resilient people, BUT they don’t know they have significant resiliency resources so every time they experience a life accident they are knocked flat. 7) Accepting those 2 Facts sounds so empathy vacant; especially coming from economically & emotionally secure experts. 8) Same for “change is part of life”, “take good care of yourself” & “look for opportunities for self-discovery”. C’mon people are dying out here. Show some respect. 8) All the research I’ve read so far is from the outside in & top down. No mention of what the world looks like from the inside out & bottom up. 9) I believe there ought to be a formal levels of resiliency distinction. At the top, we have resiliency-light; the corporate manipulation type whose sole purpose is higher productivity. Then there’s adult traumatic events like rape, personal catastrophes, war, natural disasters. At the bottom is the trauma of ACES, prisoners, African Americans( who comprise the majority of homeless), POW’s, victims of torture—. Day-by-day, moment-by-moment; we’re just trying to survive holding on to our unreasonable hope. 10)
I believe that homelessness is first a medical problem & not a moral problem. 11) Last thing I’d add is that we must teach empowerment to homeless people. We have so many homeless people because we have so many billionaires. Capitalism is about winners & losers. Every political, economic, academic, educational & social cultural institution is about power over. Power over relationships are inherently abusive. None of our status quo hierarchies, non-profits, corporations are going to teach empowerment to their citizens, employees, students, adherents or customers. Our system is all about checks & balances. Where these don’t exist there is intolerable abuse. We have to teach the homeless & voiceless & invisible to be effective & efficient self advocates for whatever goals they choose. If that isn’t part of teaching resiliency; all the money in the world won’t change things.

]]> By: Shirley Davis https://cptsdfoundation.org/2019/05/14/tools-to-build-resiliency-and-aid-in-healing-from-complex-trauma/#comment-757 Sun, 22 Dec 2019 14:27:12 +0000 https://cptsdfoundation.org/?p=1811#comment-757 In reply to CLS.

It is not intended to be “despair fuel”, in fact, it need not be. Life isn’t easy and life isn’t fair is a fact that none of us can escape but that also means others also have problems that can be and often are overcome. Life is an adventure and we are all living out our adventures in different fashions. Part of accepting ourselves is to accept the fact that life isn’t easy and life isn’t fair. To built resiliency, we must live in reality so that we can heal from what might have occurred in our pasts. It isn’t despairing that I’m trying to communicate here, it is hope. I’m grateful for your comment, it made me think about what I had said and how I said it. I couldn’t write without help from the people who read my work and comment on it. Shirley

]]> By: CLS https://cptsdfoundation.org/2019/05/14/tools-to-build-resiliency-and-aid-in-healing-from-complex-trauma/#comment-755 Sun, 22 Dec 2019 08:22:53 +0000 https://cptsdfoundation.org/?p=1811#comment-755 “Accept Two Irrefutable Facts, Life isn’t Easy, and Life isn’t Fair.”
This is despair fuel.

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