Copyright 1979-2012
Jesse W. Collins II
There is a story here. And it should be told to not just understand better ETM TRT SHOM, but to shed light in this
overview on a controversy - the curability or not of psychological trauma and PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder).
That conflict now dramatically encumbers most facets of health care and crisis management in virtually all cultures
within the part of the world which allows discussion of such matters. So if this is a serious subject to you and you
want to get to one of the cores of successful problem solving regarding the issue of psychological trauma, PTSD and
their managerial consequences, please bear with us through this particular introductory level expression.
By 1987, following eight years of TRT ETM development and application in both controlled and thoroughly
restricted by government and the most highly regarded health care credentialing standards, the Behaviorist trained
academe C. B. Scrignar, while at Tulane University in New Orleans, launched his own book regarding his
perceptions of psychological trauma and post traumatic stress disorder. Writing from the objective view of a
Behaviorally-trained (by Wolpe) and thus oriented scholar, Scrignar said (pg 161) that psychodynamic models didn’t
work because they, referring to the practitioner, trauma affected patient, and the psychodynamic model (usually
analysis as in free association, Person Centered Therapy, or the like - approaches that generally focused both
introspectively and interrogatorially on interior thinking and feeling dynamics of Being, the processing of its
existence, and its understanding) became overloaded or “overwhelmed” by the total of the destruction done to or
change imposed upon that interior by the trauma-causing event(s). That “interior” when, as you will see in the
treatment world of ETM TRT SHOM, addressed daedally (incrementally with precision) will be found to conform to
a sequela (following an ordered and sequitur path) of influences upon the existential elements of identity and the
changes brought about (to that element of identity) by the traumatic event(s). That “sequela” is actually the process
of molecular extinction of the synaptic substrate of that pretrauma identity; it is defined, described and addressed in
this (Etiotropic Series) literature in considerable detail, albeit not in this section.
The consequence to the discipline of psychology was substantial. The 1930s originated Behavioral Therapy (BT)
movement and its 1960s-to-today reformation called Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), which was produced out
of, and then got not just legs, but wings in and from academia (in this view, because Y and I, meaning “Young and
Inexperienced” students entering the professional work force like to tell people how to do things - like show olders
how to live life better, which advice-giving and telling is a core component of CBT), took on the mantra
“Psychodynamic models don’t work when applied to psychological trauma; so all we can do is teach people to adapt
new and corrective life behaviors that are no longer, subsequent to their edification, affected by the trauma.” Hence
the idea that one could only learn to cope with trauma’s behaviors, also called PTSD symptoms, became the
mainstay clinical approach for that movement (again, stemming from Behaviorism’s and its CBT renovations march
into and imposition upon the referenced - West Civ - cultures). Because that newer (CBT) approach didn’t work
either, the overarching mantra championed and while simultaneously increasing its speed of influence on the hearts
and minds of new psychotherapists, and then strengthened again through the didactic methods available from (other
didactic-based mediums such as) books and their commercial marketing merger with talk-show-oriented television -
another didactic- as opposed to psychodynamically-based contextual helping arena - as we worked our way
through the end of the twentieth and then headed into the twenty-first century, was that, conclusively, the CBTers
said, “There was no cure for PTSD.”
Nonsense; with one exception. They are right that there is no cure or possibility of complete resolution of
psychological trauma within that treatment and even now more often self-help based paradigms dependent upon
BT, CBT and other didactic-based constructs, which intellectual failures are so because they do not account for the
existential aspects of that required (and providing the mainstay within psychodynamic modalities) to address the
etiology of trauma. So to make this turn out right (for themselves and the rest of the world as they were/are trying to
define it), the BTer and CBTer need to say “WE don’t know how to cure psychological trauma and PTSD.” And
again, “WE are also not the total of the world of thought, expression and help, as our adaptive-life-instructing
modality otherwise sometimes requires that we think of ourselves.” That is, there is more to the helping world than
didactic based BT and CBT styled health care, unless, I guess, one only watches TV talk shows.
What neither Scrignar nor the BT and CBT constructs ever addressed, no matter that he and they were confronted
with the issue through our training of and converting his staff-academe trainees and other followers (our model was
born almost a decade earlier only a few miles down the block on Interstate-10 in Houston, Texas, and then employed
throughout that state and also in Scrignar’s-Tulane’s backyard of Louisiana), was the application of a structure to
the address of all that “overwhelmedness” that the Behaviorists tended to encounter and not know what to do with
(and importantly, until the Behaviorists’ reformation really got going - that occurred last week - their additional
motto taken from the lexicon of science, was “If we can’t see it, it didn’t happen.”).
Trauma Resolution Therapy (TRT) was that structure. And, it subdued, as in conquered, the referenced trauma-
caused, but actually BT and CBT modalities-caused overwhelmedness experienced by all participants. Hence, in
response to the actual and anticipation of the ensuing controversy (that I assumed had to come), as anything coming
out of the BT or CBT learning process doesn’t like to be shown that there is something else in the world to
understand regarding how the human consciousness functions, particularly if doing so differently than what the
advice-giving based CBTer has used to build his or her own foundations of human reality, I entitled our first
(written and published in booklet forms as educational materials for patients and therapists between 1985-1988)
available published work Trauma Resolution Therapy (TRT): a STRUCTURED psychodynamic approach to the
treatment of PTS (meaning Post-traumatic stress).
Parenthetically, and as explained in other writings, I left the “D” for disorder off that title on purpose; it evoked
Behaviorism contextual perspectives of the problem that interfered with not just the application of the remedy
(ours) in practice, but in the teaching of it in the academic setting. That is, the book was primarily intended to serve
as a text for the students of our course taught at the University of Houston (1986-1990).
The next page explains a little of what that structure is and what it does. This section is then completed with a
definition and explanation of the concept of how a Structured Psychodynamic approach, again, in this instance
referring specifically to TRT, lends itself to the strategic address of psychological trauma and what the DSM and
everybody else calls PTSD as it presents in and affects the decision making processes of systems. They can and do
include relationships, multiple relationships such as those presenting in and as families, organizations engaged in
crisis management activities as occurs in military, medical, some social management (shelters for battered spouses)
and criminal justice operations.
want to get to one of the cores of successful problem solving regarding the issue of psychological trauma, PTSD and
their managerial consequences, please bear with us through this particular introductory level expression.
By 1987, following eight years of TRT ETM development and application in both controlled and thoroughly
restricted by government and the most highly regarded health care credentialing standards, the Behaviorist trained
academe C. B. Scrignar, while at Tulane University in New Orleans, launched his own book regarding his
perceptions of psychological trauma and post traumatic stress disorder. Writing from the objective view of a
Behaviorally-trained (by Wolpe) and thus oriented scholar, Scrignar said (pg 161) that psychodynamic models didn’t
work because they, referring to the practitioner, trauma affected patient, and the psychodynamic model (usually
analysis as in free association, Person Centered Therapy, or the like - approaches that generally focused both
introspectively and interrogatorially on interior thinking and feeling dynamics of Being, the processing of its
existence, and its understanding) became overloaded or “overwhelmed” by the total of the destruction done to or
change imposed upon that interior by the trauma-causing event(s). That “interior” when, as you will see in the
treatment world of ETM TRT SHOM, addressed daedally (incrementally with precision) will be found to conform to
a sequela (following an ordered and sequitur path) of influences upon the existential elements of identity and the
changes brought about (to that element of identity) by the traumatic event(s). That “sequela” is actually the process
of molecular extinction of the synaptic substrate of that pretrauma identity; it is defined, described and addressed in
this (Etiotropic Series) literature in considerable detail, albeit not in this section.
The consequence to the discipline of psychology was substantial. The 1930s originated Behavioral Therapy (BT)
movement and its 1960s-to-today reformation called Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), which was produced out
of, and then got not just legs, but wings in and from academia (in this view, because Y and I, meaning “Young and
Inexperienced” students entering the professional work force like to tell people how to do things - like show olders
how to live life better, which advice-giving and telling is a core component of CBT), took on the mantra
“Psychodynamic models don’t work when applied to psychological trauma; so all we can do is teach people to adapt
new and corrective life behaviors that are no longer, subsequent to their edification, affected by the trauma.” Hence
the idea that one could only learn to cope with trauma’s behaviors, also called PTSD symptoms, became the
mainstay clinical approach for that movement (again, stemming from Behaviorism’s and its CBT renovations march
into and imposition upon the referenced - West Civ - cultures). Because that newer (CBT) approach didn’t work
either, the overarching mantra championed and while simultaneously increasing its speed of influence on the hearts
and minds of new psychotherapists, and then strengthened again through the didactic methods available from (other
didactic-based mediums such as) books and their commercial marketing merger with talk-show-oriented television -
another didactic- as opposed to psychodynamically-based contextual helping arena - as we worked our way
through the end of the twentieth and then headed into the twenty-first century, was that, conclusively, the CBTers
said, “There was no cure for PTSD.”
Nonsense; with one exception. They are right that there is no cure or possibility of complete resolution of
psychological trauma within that treatment and even now more often self-help based paradigms dependent upon
BT, CBT and other didactic-based constructs, which intellectual failures are so because they do not account for the
existential aspects of that required (and providing the mainstay within psychodynamic modalities) to address the
etiology of trauma. So to make this turn out right (for themselves and the rest of the world as they were/are trying to
define it), the BTer and CBTer need to say “WE don’t know how to cure psychological trauma and PTSD.” And
again, “WE are also not the total of the world of thought, expression and help, as our adaptive-life-instructing
modality otherwise sometimes requires that we think of ourselves.” That is, there is more to the helping world than
didactic based BT and CBT styled health care, unless, I guess, one only watches TV talk shows.
What neither Scrignar nor the BT and CBT constructs ever addressed, no matter that he and they were confronted
with the issue through our training of and converting his staff-academe trainees and other followers (our model was
born almost a decade earlier only a few miles down the block on Interstate-10 in Houston, Texas, and then employed
throughout that state and also in Scrignar’s-Tulane’s backyard of Louisiana), was the application of a structure to
the address of all that “overwhelmedness” that the Behaviorists tended to encounter and not know what to do with
(and importantly, until the Behaviorists’ reformation really got going - that occurred last week - their additional
motto taken from the lexicon of science, was “If we can’t see it, it didn’t happen.”).
Trauma Resolution Therapy (TRT) was that structure. And, it subdued, as in conquered, the referenced trauma-
caused, but actually BT and CBT modalities-caused overwhelmedness experienced by all participants. Hence, in
response to the actual and anticipation of the ensuing controversy (that I assumed had to come), as anything coming
out of the BT or CBT learning process doesn’t like to be shown that there is something else in the world to
understand regarding how the human consciousness functions, particularly if doing so differently than what the
advice-giving based CBTer has used to build his or her own foundations of human reality, I entitled our first
(written and published in booklet forms as educational materials for patients and therapists between 1985-1988)
available published work Trauma Resolution Therapy (TRT): a STRUCTURED psychodynamic approach to the
treatment of PTS (meaning Post-traumatic stress).
Parenthetically, and as explained in other writings, I left the “D” for disorder off that title on purpose; it evoked
Behaviorism contextual perspectives of the problem that interfered with not just the application of the remedy
(ours) in practice, but in the teaching of it in the academic setting. That is, the book was primarily intended to serve
as a text for the students of our course taught at the University of Houston (1986-1990).
The next page explains a little of what that structure is and what it does. This section is then completed with a
definition and explanation of the concept of how a Structured Psychodynamic approach, again, in this instance
referring specifically to TRT, lends itself to the strategic address of psychological trauma and what the DSM and
everybody else calls PTSD as it presents in and affects the decision making processes of systems. They can and do
include relationships, multiple relationships such as those presenting in and as families, organizations engaged in
crisis management activities as occurs in military, medical, some social management (shelters for battered spouses)
and criminal justice operations.
Introduction
pg1 of 3
At ETM TRT SHOM’s Core is its meaning to and of
“Structured and Strategic Psychodynamic”
TRT ETM and SHOM combine to provide a Structured and Strategic Psychodynamic approach to the treatment
and management of psychological trauma and PTS for both single and multiple sources of trauma affecting
individuals and systems. This first page in the section introduces, chronicles and distinguishes the more than thirty
year history of this approach. Page two overviews the “structural” component as applied to individuals. The third
page summarizes the “strategic” element as it is applied to systems.
and management of psychological trauma and PTS for both single and multiple sources of trauma affecting
individuals and systems. This first page in the section introduces, chronicles and distinguishes the more than thirty
year history of this approach. Page two overviews the “structural” component as applied to individuals. The third
page summarizes the “strategic” element as it is applied to systems.
