trauma

Soul Exhaustion: Going Beyond the Brain in Our Understanding of Suicide Intensity and the Overcoming of It

Soul Exhaustion: Going Beyond the Brain in Our Understanding of Suicide Intensity and the Overcoming of It

There is an element of humanity that is struggling with and ultimately often excluded from conversations about mental health in general and suicide more specifically. That element is spirituality, which may or may not be directly related to religion. Spirituality is difficult to measure and cannot be prescribed and yet for the span of modern human beings it has been a staple in understanding grief, surviving trauma and counteracting the hopelessness that we know fuels despair and suicidal intensity. 

The Paradox of Traumatic Grief

The Paradox of Traumatic Grief

…The course of a complicated bereavement, like the process that often follows suicide, usually does not follow the straightforward path outlined by Elizabeth Kubler-Ross so many decades ago, but rather twists and turns and circles back on itself through mazes of denial, sadness, anger, shame, blame, and multiple physical reactions.  Several authors have described an “oscillating process” in complicated bereavement – a moving back and forth between loss-orientation and restoration orientation, between growth and depreciation…

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ANNOUNCEMENT: National Fallen Firefighters Foundation (NFFF) Commences Gap Analysis to Improve Suicide Prevention in Fire Service

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ANNOUNCEMENT: National Fallen Firefighters Foundation (NFFF) Commences Gap Analysis to Improve Suicide Prevention in Fire Service

The National Fallen Firefighters Foundation announced today that it will be partnering with Dr. Sally Spencer-Thomas...to explore gaps and strengths in firefighter suicide prevention. This comprehensive evaluation will help set the direction for a new national suicide prevention program.

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The Strength of the Trauma Survivor: What if Sisyphus Reached the Top

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The Strength of the Trauma Survivor: What if Sisyphus Reached the Top

Without fail, a person seeking treatment for PTSD will come into my office and say something along the lines of, “Well, other people have had it worse. I should be over it by now.” This is the convincing trap of posttraumatic stress...