Shelley’s Corner: A Series on Emotional Trauma, Addiction, and Healing

Dr. Shelley Uram is a Harvard trained, triple board-certified psychiatrist and a Distinguished Fellow of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry. As a Meadows’ Senior Fellow, Dr. Uram conducts patient lectures and provides ongoing training and consultation to the treatment staff at The Meadows.

Welcome back to Shelley’s Corner!

I was meeting with our Director of Trauma Services, Deirdre Stewart, last week. I consider myself so privileged to consult to such a fine program, and I wanted to share with you why I like our trauma program so much…

First, let me tell you why this is so important to me. I have a great passion for helping people who have had a lot of relational trauma while growing up. I sustained significant amounts of trauma during my formative years and was so fortunate to reap the benefit of high-quality trauma treatment. Given that background, I’m always on the “lookout” for the best trauma interventions that become available.

There are several treatment programs in the country that offer various high-quality trauma interventions. What I’m so pleased with in our Meadows program is that it has gone a step further by INTEGRATING these interventions, including Pia Mellody’s Model, EMDR, Somatic Experiencing, Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, Neurofeedback, Heart Rate Coherence Training, Trauma-Informed Yoga, etc. Our trauma staff members are now analyzing which COMBINATION and SEQUENCE of these interventions is best for each patient.

For example, the trauma staff may decide that patient “X” needs help with first regulating his nervous system, before other goals. So the staff may begin with Somatic Experiencing sessions, followed by EMDR, and may recommend to the patient that he attend the Trauma-Informed Yoga groups as regularly as possible.

Another patient may start out with frequent Neurofeedback sessions, in addition to Heart Rate Coherence training, etc.

One of the reasons I am so excited about this flexibility and integration of trauma services is that we can continue to evolve in the effectiveness of our treatment. As newer research becomes available, we can revise what we are doing in order to match the new research findings. For instance, Neurofeedback is just beginning to become recognized for its amazing potential role in treating developmental trauma; The Meadows is already poised to increase its part in our treatment planning for patients.

Stay tuned; more to come!
Shelley

© Shelley Uram 2014