Linda J. Schupp - Assessing and Treating Trauma and PTSD

Copyright 2015 by Linda J. Schupp, Ph.D

Published by

PESI Publishing & Media

PESI, Inc

3839 White Ave

Eau Claire, WI 54703

Cover: Amy Rubenzer

Layout: Bookmasters

Editing: Marietta Whittlesey

ISBN: 978-1-55957-009-1

All rights reserved.

Printed in the United States of America

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Schupp, Linda J. author.

Assessing and treating trauma and PTSD / Linda J. Schupp. 2nd edition.

p.; cm.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 978-1-55957-009-1 (alk. paper) ISBN 978-1-55957-010-7 (alk. paper)

I. Title.

[DNLM: 1. Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic. WM 172.5]

RC552.P67

616.8521dc23

2015000375

This book is lovingly dedicated to the memory of two significant people who profoundly influenced my life, Charles S. Adams and Linda Siler Adams, who adopted me as their very own child during the first few months of my life. They gave me all the love and nurturance an infant could ever want or need. It has been said that self-esteem is built when a child feels loved, not necessarily when a child is loved. The difference in being loved or feeling loved lies in the parents ability to express the love in the way the child can internalize it. My precious parents were specialists in doing all the things I needed to feel loved, valued, and approved. In doing so, they gave me the priceless gift of self-worth. Had I not felt significant or whole, I might not have been able to survive the tragedies that lay ahead of me. The stability, security and essential sense of self that they lovingly constructed in me became my sails in the storms of life. If they can peek through heavens portals, I hope they know how thankful I am that God allowed me to have such wonderful parents.

I am also indebted to Lisa Cardenas for her skill of translating illegible notes into a readable text and for her editing skills in incorporating all the new material of the 2nd edition into the manuscript. Id like to acknowledge the current staff of PESI Publishing & Media, consisting of Linda Jackson, Hillary Jenness and Heidi Strosahl for their support and encouragement. I also want to thank Michael Olson who originally expressed the need for this book and trusted me to write it.

I would be remiss if I didnt acknowledge my many clients and friends who allowed me to walk the trauma pathway with them. Their trust in me as a cosufferer enabled them to express the inexpressible, and brought some measure of healing, meaning, and wholeness to their lives and mine. In addition, I am ever grateful to the myriad of dedicated health care professionals who have so tirelessly given of themselves to the often unacknowledged task of healing the hurting. I applaud you for your competence, perseverance, and commitment.

Linda J. Schupp, Ph.D., B.C.E.T.S. is a nationally and internationally known speaker, who has trained tens of thousands of people in her seminars. She holds a Ph.D. in psychology, an M.A. in clinical psychology, a M.Ed. in guidance and counseling, and is a board certified expert in traumatic stress. Dr. Schupp has been counseling, lecturing, and speaking for over 45 years, and is gifted at incorporating her psychological background with an entertaining flair for the humorous and dramatic.

Her past affiliations include working with masters level psychology students at Regis University which, in 1996, honored her with the prestigious Excellence in Teaching Award. She has taught psychology to undergraduate school students at Metro State College in Denver, Colorado. Dr. Schupp has also served as adjunct faculty for The Union Institute and University Graduate College School of Professional Psychology where she worked with Ph.D. psychology students. In addition, she had the privilege of teaching psychology at St. James Bible College in Kiev, Ukraine.

Dr. Schupp maintains a private practice specializing in trauma, PTSD, depression and grief. She employs Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing Therapy (EMDR) as well as other trauma therapies. She has shared her trauma and grief seminars with many of the survivors and workforce personnel involved in the Oklahoma City bombing, providing counseling services to individuals affected by the Columbine High School shootings. In 2012, she taught a public seminar in Denver, Colorado and surrounding communities for all individuals who were affected by the Aurora Theater shootings.

Dr. Schupp has authored three previous books titled False Comforters: Words That Wound, and Helps That Heal, Grief: Normal, Complicated, and Traumatic, and the first edition of Assessing and Treating Trauma and PTSD. She has also produced a CD and training video titled, Is There Life After Loss? which is applicable for professional and lay counselors. In addition, PESI has produced numerous presentations by Dr. Schupp: A CDWorking with Survivors of Traumatic Stress, a CD and DVDTrauma, PTSD and Grief, and a CD and DVDThe Spectrum of Trauma. PESI also produced a webinar, CD, and DVD titled Trauma, PTSD and Grief. In 2012, Dr. Schupp produced a DVD for the American Association of Christian Counselors titled The Experience of a Victim. It was part of a series on crisis interventions. Dr. Schupp created videos on a variety of other topics and has made numerous radio and television appearances.

This second edition of Assessing and Treating Trauma and PTSD focuses on the many faces of trauma which present themselves in a multitude of disorderssome easily recognized and diagnosed, others hidden behind criteria that doesnt address the etiology of their trauma. Dr. Schupp updated all information based on the current DSM-5 as well as to add contributions of newer research and therapies.

Personally speaking, Linda has suffered the traumatic loss of her mother, father, two husbands and a son. These and other trauma-related experiences have given her a heart full of compassion and a mind filled with wisdom, which brings depth, knowledge, and understanding to the field of traumatology.

Is my description of the experience of trauma purely theoretical, perhaps written from the comfortable environment of my office chair, or have I experienced any of those symptoms while residing in the laboratory of life? The theoretical understanding has been a personal journey for me and I have been imprisoned by traumatic episodes for portions of my life.

At one point in time, I had buried five out of my six immediate family members, having only my precious daughter Jackie remaining in this life. Heaven was much richer for the addition of my loved ones, but earth was poverty-stricken for me. As many wise theorists have noted in the past, it isnt just the deaths of loved ones that create great pain, it is also the horrific circumstances surrounding the deaths.

Trauma, by nature, overwhelms our capacity to endure and leaves us feeling helpless and powerless. I fully identified with such responses, and often wondered what I could do to stop the procession of untimely deaths. I was a stranger to loved ones dying peaceful deaths from old age; all my family members were snatched from me in shocking, unexpected ways. My mother was hit by an out-of-control car circling down a spiral ramp of a parking deck, and the impact hurled her through a storefront window. She lingered unconscious for five days, then died. Later in life, my father died from a medical mistake in a nursing home. He pitifully begged the attending personnel to stop the procedure, but his cries went unheard. His heart stopped instead.