Tag Archives: trauma recovery

Pink elephants and trauma recovery

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Don’t think of a pink elephant.

It’s a classic example of how thought suppression works: counterproductively. You will think of a pink elephant. Wegner and colleagues have shown that it is very difficult to suppress a thought. If you try, it’s very likely that you will think about it more than if you don’t.

This problematic nature of mental control doesn’t apply to fancy experimental settings only. It is thought to play an important role in posttraumatic stress symptoms. Survivors who try harder to avoid thoughts about (or images of) a terrifying moment such as a car crash, are more prone to develop posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Avoidance of trauma-related thoughts makes it more difficult to challenge unhelpful beliefs related to the trauma (see the cognitive model by Ehlers & Clark).

Recently, researchers have started to look at the role of thought suppression in children. The first studies show strong relations with posttraumatic stress symptoms  (see also the meta-analysis by Trickey et al that I recently discussed). Understanding which cognitive processes take place in the development of PTSD in children is essential for our design of helpful interventions. Continue reading →

Ouch… and… let’s try again

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Twitter is a fantastic tool to build a prospering (trauma) research community. At least, that’s what I tried to make you believe :-).

The main arguments? It’s an ideal platform for sharing new publications, brainstorming on how to solve difficulties in your research, and finding support.

Two beautiful examples of active communities are #phdchat and #hcsmanz (although the latter is not focused on research per se, it does discuss it).

I received many positive reactions on the post (and on it’s succesor How to start with Twitter when you are a trauma researcher), including a number of people who joined Twitter (yes!). Continue reading →

The first trauma research Tweet chat

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Are you a researcher interested in traumatic stress and recovery? Come join the first trauma research Tweet chat!

It takes place at the end of February, depending on your preferences (cast your vote here!).

This post gives you all the details on how to participate. Continue reading →

8 Tips for Developing Preventive Interventions for Children Exposed to Acute Medical Events

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This is a guest post by Dr. Meghan Marsac. Meghan is a behavioral researcher and the Director of Training at the Center for Injury Research & Prevention at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Meghan has recently led the development of Coping Coach, a web-based video game for children experiencing acute traumatic stress, and The Cellie Coping Kit, a toolkit for children with chronic diseases and their families.    

As a field, we have made significant progress in developing models and identifying key risk factors associated with the development of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in children who experience  acute medical traumatic events (see these key publications). Additionally, we have given much attention to the evaluation of preventive interventions. For example, our team has recently evaluated After The Injury, a web-based intervention for parents of injured children.

However, a standard process for the development of preventive interventions is less clear, and therefore this post provides you with some starting points. Below is a list of tips to consider and questions to ask when beginning to develop a new preventive intervention:

1. Identify the problem and purpose of the intervention

  • What is the problem that needs addressed? 
  • What specific behaviors are the focus of the intervention? Continue reading →

How to start with Twitter when you conduct trauma research

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Last week I argued that academics studying psychological trauma should join Twitter because it helps & builds the research community.

This week I explain how to start with Twitter and I invite you for a live Tweet chat.

A few examples of interesting tweets in the past few days:

Setting up 

Setting up your Twitter account is easy. Go to www.twitter.com and within 3 minutes you’re up and running Continue reading →