simple & effective

TRAUMA ART NARRATIVE THERAPY

DOES THIS HAPPEN TO YOU?

Do you avoid talking about the abuse incident?

Is it too painful to put into words?

Is it hard to get away from the memories and flashbacks?

Have you tried talking about the experience but it didn’t help? 

YOU’RE NOT ALONE

Most people find it hard to talk about trauma and its impact. In fact, avoidance is one of the symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.  Avoiding reminders is one of the ways people try to cope with trauma and abuse. 

Ironically, avoiding it can deepen other PTSD symptoms. Maybe  you haven’t told anyone because you feel that somehow you were at fault, and many trauma survivors believe this. Many people who experienced abuse feel that they should have been able to do something to stop it - and since they didn’t tell anyone or didn’t tell early enough, they believe they’re at least partly to blame. This belief could easily lead to a cycle of shame, self-blame, and avoidance. It also creates and reinforces a sense of isolation and of being different from other people. 

AVOIDANCE PREVENTS PEOPLE FROM GETTING RELIEF

Many abuse survivors have tried various things to avoid trauma reminders and memories. They’ve tried avoidance through work, relationships, activities, sex, alcohol, or recreational drugs. Or they do it by numbing themselves. Many disconnect from their bodies. They keep themselves distracted until they’re too tired to have a moment of rest - because when they’re at rest, the mind returns to painful events. And so they return to avoidance with even more determination. This creates a vicious pattern. 

MAYBE YOU’VE ALREADY TOLD SOMEONE

Maybe you told one or two trusted people. Though it felt good to hear them say that it wasn’t your fault, it wasn’t enough. It didn’t go deep enough.

It still feels as if at any given time the memories, thoughts, and flashbacks will return and you’ll do things to avoid them again, only for the cycle to continue.

This is because PTSD isn’t just in the brain. It’s also locked in the body. As a responsible trauma therapist, it’s important that I help survivors understand this, and to give them tools to work on the symptoms they feel in the body as well as guiding them through TANT. I’ll talk more about this later.

HOW COULD SIMPLE LINE DRAWINGS HELP? 

Trauma Art Narrative Therapy (TANT) was created to help people work on the trauma with this one truth in mind: the painful event is over. Though you may know this mentally, the aspects of the abuse event often intrude into the present. This is also a PTSD symptom, and it makes survivors feel as if they’re constantly reliving the incidents.  As hard as people try to outrun it, intrusive thoughts, flashbacks, anxiety, and other distressing symptoms stay with them. And often the more they try to escape, the more the symptoms intrude. 

The abuse story can be very hard to put into words. It can seem unspeakable. It can feel surreal. It may feel unbelievable that it happened to you. Countless times I’ve heard clients tell me they don’t want to talk about it because “it feels like torture to go back there”.

But the unspoken has the power of holding people chained. 

The pain of talking about the traumatic events has prevented many people from processing and recovering from what happened.  

HOW TRAUMA ART NARRATIVE THERAPY CAN HELP YOU

First, TANT engages the non-speaking part of the brain first through the use of sketching.  The goal is to put the seemingly unspeakable on paper to break its hold on you. By drawing simple figures with pencil, pen, or markers, your therapist will guide you into the parts of TANT. When all parts of the trauma story are visible on paper, you’ll be guided to process the trauma further by engaging the speaking parts of your brain. 

Second, for many who experienced abuse, much or all of it was hidden. Survivors have been made to feel threatened. Many have been manipulated to believe that the experience is unique to them, or that they are somehow at fault for what happened. Survivors could feel shamed and alone; powerless and misunderstood.

But as your therapist helps you through the trauma narrative, you’ll know you not only have a guide and a witness, but more importantly, a companion. You won’t have to work on these painful events by yourself. I will be there to remind you that it’s over and will give you tools that encourage you to keep moving forward. To remind you that you’re capable of facing it so you can be not just a survivor but eventually a thriver. 

HOW YOU WILL BE PREPARED FOR TANT SESSIONS

There is a right way and a wrong way to begin working on the trauma experiences. The wrong way can be retraumatizing to people. The wrong way involves getting into the experience without giving you resources so you can cope with the symptoms in an effective way. One that not only helps your mind but also calms your body. 

Before doing the TANT exercises we will take several sessions to help you learn and incorporate self-soothing and coping skills into your daily routine. These skills work on calming the symptoms that affect the brain and body.

Once you’re able to manage the intrusive thoughts, flashbacks, and other triggers that happen when you’re outside of sessions, I will lead you to a series of drawings that assist you through non-verbal processing, and then  verbal processing of the traumatic incidents.  

WHY IS PRACTICING SKILLS SO IMPORTANT?

TANT and other forms of trauma counseling require a counselor’s skills, experience, and compassionate guidance, but also your commitment. Research has shown that people who regularly practice the skills they learned during sessions see results much faster than those who do not.

These exercises will be as effective only if you’re committed to regularly practicing them. A good parallel to this is physical therapy in which patients learn exercises during sessions. If they practice the exercises regularly at home they’ll experience results faster and in a more sustained way.

Or think of it this way, if you want to get better at playing a musical instrument, you’d practice daily and pretty soon you’d see the results. Since most people can’t afford counseling on a daily basis, their counselors give tools to help survivors regain control over their minds and bodies so they can use these skills regularly. If they do, when triggers happen they know how to take care of themselves. They are in control, not the trauma symptoms. Practicing has the effect of making you feel empowered instead of helpless in the face of PTSD triggers. And isn’t this one of the things you want? 

Along with going to sessions regularly, practicing skills regularly is a commitment to yourself and your healing.

And you deserve healing. You are worthy of it.  

WHO TANT IS FOR:

This treatment is used with survivors of any type of trauma as long as it is in the past, and the survivor will focus on a traumatic event that is not currently happening. 

TANT IS NOT RECOMMENDED FOR:

People who are currently experiencing delusions or hallucinations, or actively suicidal or self-harming. It should not be used for anyone actively going through a traumatic experience or abusive relationship, and for those who have no trauma-based symptoms or behaviors related to traumatic stress exposure. 

TRAINED BY TANT CREATOR

In 2008 I was trained directly by Dr. Lyndra Bills, the creator of TANT technique. Through 10+ years of using TANT, I’ve seen how effective it is.

In my experience, it has been effective with adults, youth, and children as young as five years old.

TANT has worked for survivors of child sexual abuse, neglect, intimate partner violence, and other types of trauma.

RESEARCH STUDIES

Among other studies, TANT has been researched with teens that experienced the Katrina disaster in collaboration with the Mississippi Children’s Home Services. The results suggest that TANT significantly reduced trauma symptoms scores for people who experienced more severe trauma or more incidents of trauma. TANT decreased by 50% the number of study participants who had PTSD symptoms.

The creator and practitioners of TANT continue to engage in studies, and there is a research affiliation with Long Island University, and more TANT research planned.  See: https://www.learntraumaart.com/research/

Formal study on TANT at Long Island University: Compared TF-CBT with TANT with children/adolescents in residential care. TANT reduced anger and depression vs. TF-CBT in the children participating in the study. See: https://www.learntraumaart.com/research/

References:

https://www.ptsd.va.gov/understand/what/avoidance.asp

https://www.psychiatry.org/patients-families/ptsd/what-is-ptsd