Felipe Oliveira Counselling for Men: PTSD & Authentic Male Journey 1

PTSD & The Authentic Male Journey 1

PTSD: roots in Anxiety

In the last 20 years,Post-Traumatic-Stress Disorder (PTSD) has been discovered as one of the types of anxiety. It is mostly prevalent among War Veterans, due to obvious reasons, as they face horrible and traumatic events not having time to process them as they happen. They come back home physically, but the memories stays and come back without warning.

Sadly, PTSD also happens in people who do not go to war, and live a ‘normal life’. The traumatic event is not only related to blood, death and explosions. It is also about how the human being relates to, and is treated by others, especially during their childhood. In saying that, events like assault, accidents, natural disasters, and relationship issues regardless of age, also cause PTSD.

I will be writing twice about PTSD. In this blog I will analyse the treatment for war veterans, and on the next blog, I will examine the treatment for civilian men. However, let’s first name the symptoms of PTSD.

BeyondBlue’s Symptoms of PTSD

According to BeyondBlue the main symptoms of PTSD are:

1. Re-living the traumatic event – unwanted and recurring memories; intense emotional or physical reactions, such as sweating, heart palpitations or panic when reminded of the event.

2. Being overly alert or wound up – sleeping difficulties, irritability and lack of concentration, becoming easily startled and constantly on the lookout for signs of danger.

3. Avoiding reminders of the event – avoids activities, places, people, thoughts or feelings associated with the event because they bring back painful memories.

4. Feeling emotionally numb.

Mates4Mates & Psychological Wounded Soldiers

Mates4Mates is a great non-profit organisation with a mission to help the Australian soldiers to reintegrate back to the community safely. The main issue they deal with is PTSD, followed by anxiety, depression and, sadly, suicide . They offer a range of services from psychological to career coaching and mentoring. This includes wellbeing services like yoga, acupuncture and Equine Therapy.

The latter is very important as one has a chance to construct a relationship with an animal outside the normal life they are used to. It invites them to live in the moment, and forget the tragic events they lived. On the psychological services, the main technique used is relaxation, acceptance and commitment as a way to moving forward from PTSD.

I am Felipe Oliveira , holder of a Masters in Counselling with almost six years of experience in the Authentic Male Journey myself. Feel free to contact me by mobile, e-mail or social media for an informal chat or to book a session.

Equine Therapy & Authentic Male Journey

It is a quite impressive form of therapy, as it does not involve talking and is very important for the treatment of PTSD. In some cases, the trauma and memories are very strong and there is nothing better than to use an animal like a horse to encourage men to be related in an intuitive form with themselves, in order for the process of transformation to be initiated.

It is an experiential process that encourage clients to connect deeply with their own heart leading them to notice and see parts of themselves they were not able to before. It is an essential point and much used on the Authentic Male Journey.

Focus on Inner Transformation

The counselling framework of the Authentic Male Journey is experiential that involves talk, silence, intuition and perception. The focus is on transformation, not in changing, and is very similar to the concept of Equine Therapy, where men connect with themselves in a deeper level.

On the other blog I am writing about PTSD in civilian men, not soldiers.

Felipe Oliveira provides counselling for male ex-soldiers facing issues with PTSD. Click here to know more about his work . Or, please, continue reading about PTSD among soldier who suffered trauma at war.