Last night, I went to a concert at the auditorium at the University of Connecticut. An orchestra from Germany was playing the music of Beethoven, but I came away with an appreciation of . . . . . . Jimi Hendrix? It might sound rather unlikely, but bear with me here. Because as it turns out, there’s a bridge over the gulf that separates the musical styles of Ludwig von Beethoven and Jimi Hendrix. You see, before the concert last night, I went to an eye-opening presentation led by Alain Frogley, Professor of Music History at the University of Connecticut….

How can this keep happening? That was my immediate thought upon hearing the tragic news of this latest school shooting that took place yesterday in my home state of Connecticut. The unthinkable has happened again, this time at an elementary school – 26 dead, 18 of them children, at the time of this writing. The details, I’m sure, will keep trickling out for weeks to come. But the heartbreak is here and now, and the wounds of such trauma run incredibly deep for the families whose lives have just changed irrevocably. And even though in our work as practitioners we’re…

PTSD can occur when someone experiences a single traumatic event. But what happens when a person is exposed to a traumatic environment over a long period of time? Healing from PTSD is challenging enough, but a person with a history of trauma who is re-traumatized is often likely to develop what’s called complex PTSD. Patricia Resick, PhD and her colleagues studied the potential for healing in women with an extensive history of trauma who were diagnosed with complex PTSD as a result of rape. She randomly assigned them into cognitive-processing therapy, prolonged exposure, or a wait-list control. Results showed that…

We know that trauma has a significant psychological impact, but it has long-term biological consequences as well. In the past we’ve talked about how trauma affects the body, such as increasing chances for irritable bowel syndrome. This is another case that exemplifies this effect, but this time, using telomeres. As we’ve mentioned before, telomeres are protective caps that stabilize the ends of chromosomes and help regulate cellular aging. As we get older, our telomeres get shorter until our cells eventually die. They’re sometimes used in research to determine “biological age” and can be a good marker of overall health. Led…

What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, right? Although most of us have probably heard this euphemism before, a recent study looked at traumatic life experiences to see how true this saying really was. Published in the Current Directions in Psychological Science, Mark D. Seery, PhD and his colleagues from the University of Buffalo, delved into the impact trauma has on individuals and whether or not it actually makes them psychologically stronger and more resilient. Traumatic events like major natural disasters, sexual abuse, or the death of a loved one obviously incur psychological damage, so where does that saying come…

Trauma can cause a slew of symptoms including panic, distress, sleeping disorders, and in some cases, flashbacks. But, can trauma be a factor in Irritable Bowl Syndrome (IBS)? Some might think that psychological trauma would only have psychological repercussions, but a recent study presented at the American College of Gastroenterology’s annual scientific meeting shows that the connection between the mind and the body may be stronger than previously thought. IBS is a chronic gastrointestinal disorder that is characterized by stomach pains, bloating, diarrhea, and other intestinal problems. And, although it has all the characteristics of a purely physical ailment, there…