Thread by @drlouisehansen

Why the obsession with Thornton’s mental status? Higgins' alleged serial rapist checked into a mental health hospital, Reynolds took medical leave, Porter opted for a psychological assessment. If I was anally raped I’d want therapy. I’d also want you to respect my choices. 1/14

I’d also want the media to report facts: Reading a book does not equal professional therapy. Thornton did not have recovered memory therapy. Recovered memory therapy is controversial, it has been debunked, its developer used it to conceal his own sexual misconduct. 2/14

Where was the media on that? Instead they describe an unrelated book as ‘controversial’: ‘The Body Keeps the Score’. Truthfully, this is actually one of the best books I’ve read on trauma. Bessel van der Kolk helped pioneer some of the trauma therapies we have today. 3/14

It’s unrelated because the book is about the neurophysiology of trauma: top down (i.e. psychological: e.g. Mindfulness, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) and bottom up (i.e. body: e.g. Yoga, Martial Arts) processing to understand trauma; Not repressed memory therapy. 4/14

It might come as shock to some indoctrinated by Western culture, but psychology, as ‘the science of human behaviour’, is a relatively new school, and therefore young science, compared to say India’s cultures or Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures. 5/14

Bessel van der Kolk progressed psychology, to understand and to measure how an ancient practice, like Yoga or ceremonial dance, is incredibly useful to enhance one’s stability, clarity, the ability to regulate their emotions, and establish a sense of connection. 6/14

Some would even say that bottom up processing is primary. For example, if you had diarrhoea right now, you won’t be reading this thread. You’d be running to the toilet. It is only when the body is tended to appropriately that we can use our mind to its fullest potential. 7/14

Psychology has been many things. Some: philosophy, behaviourism, cognitive revolution, pharmaceutical revolution, etc. Bessel van der Kolk rightly criticised psychology for being too top heavy. It favoured cognition and until recently almost entirely ignored emotion! 8/14

So I value scientists like Bessel van der Kolk as million of trauma survivors do. He was only controversial to the extent he challenged dominant paradigms in his time, such as the cognitive revolution, Big-Pharma, and the Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. 9/14

When I teach mental health I often use his approach. It is trauma informed. I use young science plus wisdom traditions. E.g. The Western medical model uses the ‘Biopsychosocial Framework’: what biological, psychological, and social factors impact mental health? 10/14

This medical model is vital. However, young science stops there. The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Framework extends it to include: the body, mind, social connection, country, culture, spirit and ancestors. How beautiful. More wholistic. Has helped many people. 11/14

Can it be entirely measured by young science? No. But nothing existential can. At some point you take science as far as it can ever go and either stop or put down the test tubes and immerse yourself in someone else’s school, tens of thousands of years older, humbly more. 12/14

Meditation, yoga, martial arts, etc, existed long before Western science, before modern psychology grabbed it. Only recently young science confirms the benefits of these practices. So thank people like Bessel van der Kolk for mirroring what wisdom traditions already knew. 13/14

As for EMDR, described as a controversial 'pseudoscience', it is the Gold Standard treatment, for single event trauma, available on Medicare, and backed by young science. If I was anally raped as a child I’d want this therapy. I’d also want you to respect my choices. 14/14

@threadreaderapp please unroll.