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Dogs welcoming soldiers home
May. 14th, 2012 08:47 pmI provide free healing sessions for returning soldiers and their families through the Returning Veterans Project (RVP). RVP occasionally offers trainings, and this latest one was about using EMDR to help soldiers with PTSD.
The presenter was very knowledgeable about EMDR (Eye-Movement Desensitization & Reprocessing, except it turns out you can use bilateral sound instead of lights, which is very cool), but the audience definitely knew more than she did about treating trauma overall. She was very much in her head, and obviously had a split between Us (providers) and Them (patients). Apparently she doesn't usually have veterans in the audience?
When she said soldiers "return from war to humanity," I had to speak up, and said that a big part of what I do with survivors of extreme trauma is remind them that unfortunately it is fully human to both endure and inflict violence. She mumbled something about meaning kindness and didn't get it at all, but several audience members came up to me later and said they appreciated what I said.
She engaged our emotions at the beginning of her talk with a story about her brother's trauma and how it affected him. Then it was intellectual all the way for four hours until the end, when she showed us this video of dogs welcoming soldiers home.
That darn video grabbed my gut and made me cry at the talk, and again now. I've been trying to figure out why. All that unrestrained delight. Being welcomed. The back story of how much the dogs must have missed their people without understanding why they were gone. How much the soldiers must have missed their dogs, even with full understanding.
Cats are different. Cats have to sulk for a while first. At least the ones I've had.
The presenter was very knowledgeable about EMDR (Eye-Movement Desensitization & Reprocessing, except it turns out you can use bilateral sound instead of lights, which is very cool), but the audience definitely knew more than she did about treating trauma overall. She was very much in her head, and obviously had a split between Us (providers) and Them (patients). Apparently she doesn't usually have veterans in the audience?
When she said soldiers "return from war to humanity," I had to speak up, and said that a big part of what I do with survivors of extreme trauma is remind them that unfortunately it is fully human to both endure and inflict violence. She mumbled something about meaning kindness and didn't get it at all, but several audience members came up to me later and said they appreciated what I said.
She engaged our emotions at the beginning of her talk with a story about her brother's trauma and how it affected him. Then it was intellectual all the way for four hours until the end, when she showed us this video of dogs welcoming soldiers home.
That darn video grabbed my gut and made me cry at the talk, and again now. I've been trying to figure out why. All that unrestrained delight. Being welcomed. The back story of how much the dogs must have missed their people without understanding why they were gone. How much the soldiers must have missed their dogs, even with full understanding.
Cats are different. Cats have to sulk for a while first. At least the ones I've had.
