DEALING WITH THE PSYCHOLOGICAL AFTERMATH OF A TERRORIST ATTACK - Part 5

"NEVER OPEN A WOUND YOU CANNOT CLOSE"

Right at the beginning when we were planning how we could help out in ChCh I consulted a psychiatrist colleague in UK who had worked in disaster-affected areas before. He asked how long was I planning to be there for. When I told him it would be about one day a month for an individual, he told me not to do any therapy and told me the dictum of disaster psychiatry, "never open a wound you cannot close."

My friend explained that just like in battlefields you don't open deep wounds if you do not have the facilities for blood transfusion for example, you just patch up the wounded and send them to a hospital which does have those facilities. Similarly, when a person starts opening up about their trauma experience, it brings up a lot of very strong and often distressing emotions. The therapist has to keep engaged till the intensity of the emotions starts becoming manageable for the person. That is why it is not good practice for volunteers who are going to be there for a few days or a few weeks only, to begin to do trauma-focused therapy.