PTSD CLASS October 27

Welcome to the review of our class on October 27. We hope this engages you in some pondering and questioning and new insights.

Reviews like this are most effective if you come back to it on and off over the next year. It takes effort and redundancy to learn new skills, especially when addressing trauma.

We covered quite a bit this week, though not all that we had planned. Your insights from the first class were great! Your comments sparked more thoughts for us.

Ray and I went for a drive after class and had a lively discussion about your ideas. As we said in class, we all are learners and teachers and you taught us again. Thanks.

We imagine some of you also had follow-up discussions with friends and family.


Ray and I practice our emotional and thinking management skills daily. Sometimes I think it is just “unfair” that with all the work and learning we do, we still have lapses in our emotional management. Smile. (HINT: That was a Cognitive Distortion. Do you know which one?)

This short video clip is of Ray talking in class about his parking ticket drama. We all get frustrated sometimes by minor irritations like parking tickets. We can even make them into major problems just by looping and perseverating on them.

Ray shared a technique for changing our perspective to reduce the stress and refocus on what is truly important. I used the technique five times this weekend as I battled with waterlines and navigated customer service phone-trees. ARGH

I edited down the video copy of the class to highlight the sections on dissociation and how our thoughts, images and meanings create our feelings.

This video has annotated notes. We suggest you review the video more than once, not just for this class. Look back on it in a few months to reinforce your learning.

And yes, I did not put it in speaker view, so you get to see all of you! Your comments, for the most part, are removed to protect your privacy. Next time I will remember to turn off gallery view when recording.

By the way, these videos from the class are not listed/searchable on YOUTUBE. You need to access them through this blog or the email link I sent.

You have inspired me to create my very first narrated presentation of THE NEXT CHAPTER. I shared a few pages in class last week but this is the full book in narrated video form.

I am sharing this book in video form with you for it covers much of what we are touching on in this class. I would suggest at least scanning it over the next two weeks.

The video is a narrated presentation of the illustrated book, much like sitting at the library listening to story time.

I have met hundreds of children and adults who, like me, have experienced trauma. Each of them taught me important lessons about courage and dignity and living with honor. Their influence is seen in who I am and in how I view the world.

I wrote and illustrated this book in honor of them and their stories – and each of you. I hope that I did justice in these pages to their and your wisdom.

Note: I have editedand recorded this video a number of times but technology and slides never fail to challenge me. Please let me know if you find any video problems or you have some suggestions. You are my first audience.Thank you in advance.

SEE YOU IN CLASS!