| Mary Regan, Ph.D. on Diving Into
the Wreck – Part 3
Diving
Into the Wreck – Part 3
How chaplains may deal with the risk of re-traumatization
as they listen to the stories of others
This week Mary Ragan, Ph.D., director
of the Psychotherapy and Spirituality Institute
in New York City, continues her discussion
of the traumas confronted by chaplains and
new options for self-healing. The essay’s
title, “Diving Into the Wreck,” is taken
from the poem of the same name by Adrienne
Rich, who writes “I came to see the damage
that was done / And the treasures that prevail.”
Trauma work always involves some risk of re-traumatization
for the person who listens to the story. None
of us comes to the trauma conversation as a
blank screen. We come with our histories and
our own experience of trauma which may be more
or less successfully integrated.
The first and most potent indicator of re-traumatization is signaled by the
response of the body. The heart pounds, the hands sweat, the face flushes,
breathing becomes shallower and thinking gets more difficult. At those moments
of regression, when the trauma that lies dormant in the helper is activated,
the only appropriate response is one of compassion and patience towards oneself.
The trauma worker may need to “take a break” from the intensity of the story,
may need to dissociate somewhat from the narrative, may need to recognize
that personal issues have now made being fully present to the traumatized
person impossible. This is neither a sin nor a crime, but simply a human
reaction in the face of what Judith Herman in Trauma and Recovery calls
“unspeakable atrocities.”
These discussions of trauma and its aftermath
with people so intimately involved with those
who suffer have been a remarkable human experience
and a privilege. Another poem by Adrienne Rich
called “Natural Resources,” found in The
Fact of A Doorframe. [Norton, 1984], captures
something of the experience:
My heart is moved by all I cannot save:
so much has been destroyed
I have to cast my lot with those
who age after age, perversely,
with no extraordinary power,
reconstitute the world.
Mary Ragan Ph.D., CSW is a senior staff therapist
at the Psychotherapy & Spirituality Institute
in New York City. She is an adjunct faculty member
at General Theological Seminary and Fordham University.
The subject of her doctoral dissertation was
the psychotherapy of traumatic grief.
Do you have thoughts about spiritual development you’d like to share with your
colleagues? Send an e-mail of any length to info@PlainViews.org.
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