SNOW DATE CHANGE! Dissociation, Neuroplasticity and the Healing of Combat Stress

 

Dissociation, Neuroplasticity

and the Healing of Combat Stress

With Robert Scaer, MD

RESCHEDULED FOR SNOW!

Now Saturday, March 16, 2013

9 am – 12:30 pm

$40; Members $30

at The Caritas Spiritist Center

5723 Arapahoe Ave., Boulder, CO 80303

To register, call 303-449.3066

Or go to www.CaritasSpiritistCenter.org

The late syndromes of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, especially
dissociation, are clearly the defining symptomatic and physiological
manifestations of trauma. Posttraumatic somatosensory implicit memories
are stored in somatic procedural memory as a state, or capsule, emerging
into the Present Moment with internal or external cues, or triggers.
This model provides a compelling explanation for the spectrum of
posttraumatic symptoms, and a template for the essential ingredients in
healing trauma.

The diagnosis of PTSD had its roots in the disabling emotional symptoms
seen in returning veterans of the war in Viet Nam. Since the Civil War,
soldiers have returned from war with a variety of perplexing symptoms
attributed to inherent weakness, secondary gain and malingering. Now we
are once again dealing with an epidemic of behavioral problems in our
Iraq vets that go beyond the definitions imposed by PTSD, including
substance abuse, risk-taking, violence, suicide and social isolation.
Dissociation is the defining state for combat stress.

Neuroplasticity plays a crucial role in the shaping of the brain in
trauma and dissociation, and in the process of healing. We will review
the history of this concept and its role in psychotherapy and healing.

Robert Scaer, M.D. is Board Certified in Neurology, and has been in
practice for 36 years, twenty of those as Medical Director of
Rehabilitation Services at the Mapleton Center in Boulder, CO. His
primary areas of interest and expertise have been in the fields of
traumatic brain injury and chronic pain, and more recently in the study
of traumatic stress and its role in physical and emotional symptoms and
in diseases. He has lectured extensively and has published three books
on these topics: The Body Bears the Burden: Trauma, Dissociation and
Disease, The Trauma Spectrum: Hidden Wounds and Human Resiliency, and
Eight Keys to Brain/Body Balance, released in October 2012.

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