This paper comes out of discussions of issues addressed in meetings with combat veterans in the Stress Disorder Treatment Unit at North Chicago VAMC, now named The Captain James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center.
The Short Version:
The main psychological challenge while in combat is to, minute by minute, find courage to overcome fear and pain. The main challenge of civilian life is to find wisdom to define and meet long term goals. Knowing this is a big step toward overcoming the problems which come with mistaking civilian challenges for combat challenges.
The Long Version:
The Great Lakes Event Questionnaire (GLEQ):
The Great Lakes Event Questionnaire (GLEQ) is a one page trauma history questionnaire initiated in 2000 aid in psychotherapeutic work with combat veterans. It was subsequently developed and refined to its current form. Key features include:
- asking about broad categories of events in order to gently prompt consideration of both major trauma and significant less obviously destructive events.
- subjective units of disturbance ratings of the effects of events to
facilitate understanding of their relative impact and measure change.
- a format that indicates that specifics are verbalized and disclosed at client discretion.
A second page can be included to briefly ask about client values and positive aspects of client lives. Clinical suggestions about when and how to use the GLEQ are offered in the attached paper. The GLEQ is in the public domain and can be modified to fit therapist needs.
The attached paper describes The Four Activity Model (FAM) of psychotherapy and its application to EMDR and other methods (just like the title suggests). The model is more fully elaborated in the book EMDR and Psychotherapy Integration.
