Author: Patrick Dougherty

4 Tips for Coping with Collective Trauma

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(Originally published Dec 11, 2016)

4 Tips for Coping with Collective Trauma

Collective trauma, like personal trauma, can easily disconnect us from the places of connection that make our life meaningful and diminish our hope about the future. So when you find yourself experiencing a collective trauma, like many of us are after the elections here in the US, it is important to remember there are four actions we can take to help mitigate the impact of the trauma.

1. A daily meaningful connection with another is the primary treatment. And by meaningful connection I don’t mean sharing our

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Please don’t try and act normal in the midst of insanity!

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(Originally published Feb. 25, 2017)

Please don’t try and act normal in the midst of insanity!

Denying how we are feeling to all the acts of aggression, the bullying, the attacks on human rights, the dismantling of reality will cost us dearly. There is too much to process these days so we must be fluid. When you hear, see, or read something that activates you say out loud, “That scares the hell out of me” (it does to many of us), or “I’m so fucking angry” (so many of us are) or “I am just heart broken” (how can we … Read More

Joining Together to Heal our Trauma

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(Originally published August 16, 2016)

Sociologist Kai Erikson’s definition of collective trauma is a blow or tearing,  “to the basic tissues of social life that damages the bonds attaching people together and impairs the prevailing sense of community.” Those are strong words and yet apt for our world, and specifically, our American culture, today. These last few years the world as we have known it has been slowing changing, the social fabric most of us have known has been slowing tearing apart, and few of us feel as safe as we did not long ago and most of us can … Read More

How to help clients process their fears about world events.

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(Originally published June 15, 2016)

When you look at the news, there’s pain and violence on every broadcast. But is this something we should help our clients process?

Patrick Dougherty would say yes. And he has some clear, helpful guidelines for how to bring up difficult and divisive political and social issues in therapy.

It’s one way we can help clients become more regulated and healthy as they interact and engage in their sphere of influence.

Patrick Dougherty, MA, LP, is a licensed psychologist, teacher, and author. He’s worked with collective trauma since shortly after serving with the Marines in … Read More

The Healing of the Collective Trauma of War

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A ritual of healing the trauma of war – Sunday of Memorial Day weekend – First Universalist Church, Minneapolis, MN.

Hi All, Here is the link some of you asked for to the service I led at my Unitarian Universalist Church last Sunday on “Healing the Collective Trauma of War.” It will be of particular interest, I think, to those of you who are therapists or healers as this is a variation of the emerging science on working with individual trauma, and it is adapted to work with a large group on collective trauma.

http://firstuniversalistchurch.org/…/veterans-memory-civi…/…

Here is a brief overview … Read More