Military Service Members Can Find Resiliency in the Face of Trauma

By Dr. Jon Caldwell, D.O., Ph.D. Chief of Psychiatry at The Meadows Note: This post was originally published on TheGriffon108.com. The Meadows is proud to be a TRICARE Preferred Provider of behavioral health and addiction inpatient services in the West Region. Call us today at 800-244-4949. Trauma is part of… Read More

Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction for PTSD in Veterans

The US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has invested heavily in the dissemination of prolonged exposure therapy and cognitive processing therapy (1), yet 30-50% of veterans participating in these therapies fail to show clinically significant improvements. Evidence suggests that mindfulness-based stress reduction, an intervention that teaches individuals to focus on… Read More

Compulsive Sexual Behavior Among Military Veterans

Compulsive sexual behavior (CSB) is highly prevalent among men, often co-occurring with psychiatric disorders and traumatic experiences. Psychiatric disorders and trauma are common among military veterans (1). Researchers have noted that some veterans may use sexual behaviors to cope with trauma, and CSB has also been linked to traumatic brain… Read More

Treating Trauma with Somatic Equine Therapy

By: Judith Freilich, MD Recently, I had an opportunity to attend a Spirit Workshop at The Meadows. It was wonderful, and I want to tell you about it. As a 74-year-old woman physician and psychiatrist, I probably am not the workshop’s typical attendee. My lack of experience with horses… Read More

The Cycle of Trauma and Addiction

By: Claudia Black, Ph. D. Clinical Architect of the Claudia Black Young Adult Center at The Meadows Addiction encourages trauma and trauma can encourage addiction. This process becomes a vicious circle or negative feedback loop, with trauma contributing to addiction, which in turn fuels more trauma, which encourages still more addiction, and so on and so on. The Claudia Black Young Adult Center treats substance and process addictions, recognizing them to be primary disorders that reinforce each other and are often fueled by traumatic experiences. Here are some examples of how this process plays out: Read More

30 Things You Need to Know about Trauma and PTSD: PTSD Awareness Month

My therapist prescribed me to drink more alcohol. I had described symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), yet once again, the diagnosis was completely missed. Even worse, this uniformed therapist suggested that I drink wine “medicinally,” beginning in the morning, to help cope with what he said was… Read More

How We Shortchange Men in Trauma and Addiction

By: Dan Griffin, MA When I went to school to learn how to work with people with addictive disorders, I got a lot of great guidance: Brain science. Internal family systems. Motivational Interviewing. Models of change. Working with the criminal justice population. Working with women. Cultural influences on addiction and recovery. Read More

Somatic Experiencing: Resilience, Regulation, and Self

Note: This article was originally published in the Summer 2005 edition of Cutting Edge, the online newsletter of The Meadows. Somatic Experiencing: Resilience, Regulation, and SelfBy Peter A. Levine, Ph.D., Clinical Consultant for The Meadows and Mellody House My life’s work, encompassing nearly four decades, as a stress researcher and… Read More

A Reluctant Healing

By: Diane Detwiler-Zapp, MA, LPC Spirit: A Somatic Equine Experience is the one that always called to me when I would read through the list of excellent workshops offered by The Meadows. So when, at the last minute, the chance to attend this workshop came about, one would think I… Read More

Better Treatment Options for Military Service Members and Veterans

Research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 2015 showed that the most commonly used treatments for PTSD—cognitive processing therapy (CPT) and prolonged exposure therapy (PE) may not be as effective as those in the medical community had hoped. Read More