Tag: War Trauma

The Dark Side of Western Individual-Focused Psychotherapy

By ,

How it Severs Our Connections to our Families, Ancestors, and Community—and How to Fix It

By Patrick Dougherty, M.A., L. P.
Nov. 1, 2025

Reflections on racism, war and patriarchal violence toward women

Ever since I became a therapist nearly 50 years ago, I’ve loved what I do. I love the feeling of continuously honing my craft, challenging myself, and finding new ways to help my clients. And over the years, I’ve watched, filled with awe and inspiration, as our field has made exciting breakthroughs in trauma treatment. But for a long time, when I was the one sitting on … Read More

Patrick Dougherty awaits a helicopter at the end of his tour.

How To Heal Personal and Collective War Trauma

By ,

Image: Patrick Dougherty awaits a helicopter at the end of his tour in Vietnam.

I couldn’t talk about my war trauma until 1976, which was five years after I left Vietnam. This was four years before post-traumatic stress disorder was even formally recognized as a medical diagnosis. In 1979, I went to the Veterans Affairs for help. They told me I didn’t have enough war experience to warrant any support from them; that all my trauma actually came from my traumatic childhood, and had nothing to do with Vietnam. This is what they told just about every veteran back then.… Read More

The Healing of the Collective Trauma of War

By ,

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