Lesser-Known Therapy Helping Locals Suffering from PTSD

Lesser-Known Therapy Helping Locals Suffering from PTSD

Posted: Aug 9, 2009 11:54 PM EDT

Updated: Aug 10, 2009 12:38 AM EDT


By Aman Chabra, Local News 8 Reporter

IDAHO FALLS - Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is a thing of the past for a select group of people in Idaho Falls.

Their success in overcoming trauma comes thanks to a counseling technique called Imagery Rescripting and Reprocessing Therapist (IRRT).

Bob Stahn of Well Spring Counseling says the therapy has cured ALL of the approximately 50 patients he has treated for PTSD in the past two years. He says the perfect success rate surprises him

"Generally, there's not a technique that seems to work one hundred percent, not that high," said Stahn.

Stahn first learned about the therapy in 2007 from Dr. Mervin Smucker, who originally developed the technique while working for the Medical College of Wisconsin.

The therapy involves the patient re-imagining the traumatic experience step by step under the supervision of the mental health counselor. However, upon arriving at the climax of the traumatic experience, the patient then changes the outcome in their mind.

"It disconnects the trauma emotions from the details of the event," said Stahn.
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Lesser-Known Therapy Helping Locals Suffering from PTSD

Not sure about this at all. There are some programs that have been found to work on a temporary basis leaving the person to believe they are "cured" only to find they have not been "cured" when something else happens in their life bringing it all back.

Take a combat veteran with PTSD after he watched friends die. Changing the outcome in their mind would do what? Exactly what happens later on when they come face to face with the grave? What happens when they see a memorial with the names of their friends on it? What happens when they are walking down the street and bump into a family member or another veteran? Would it be a shock to find out they had themselves deluded in thinking it ended differently than it really did? Or would they be able to cope with it and still feel they have been healed?

There have been studies where a veteran can change the outcome of a nightmare providing some relief much like a child is told when monsters come in their dreams, they make the nightmares go away if they kill the monster in their dreams, but dreams and reality are two different things.