Name: 【TED】Melissa Walker: Art can heal PTSD's invisible wounds (Art can heal PTSD's invisible wounds | Melissa Walker)
Uploaded: 2017-04-06T09:08:27.000Z
Duration: 9 min 49 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

You are a high-ranking military service member

Incoming mortar rounds are exploding all around you.

Struggling to see through the dust and the smoke,

you lay on your side and attempt to process what has just happened.

This vision continues to visit you multiple times a day and in your sleep.

You choose not to tell anyone for fear of losing your job

If you can, you're beginning to see the face

commonly known as post-traumatic stress disorder

While I can't say I have post-traumatic stress disorder,

When I was a little girl, I would visit my grandparents every summer.

who introduced me to the effects of combat on the psyche.

While my grandfather was serving as a Marine in the Korean War,

a bullet pierced his neck and rendered him unable to cry out.

He watched as a corpsman passed him over,

Years later, after his physical wounds had healed

he rarely spoke of his experiences in waking life.

But at night I would hear him shouting obscenities

And during the day I would announce myself as I entered the room,

and I didn't yet have the tools to guide him.

I wouldn't have a name for my grandfather's condition

Seeking a graduate degree in art therapy,

I naturally gravitated towards the study of trauma.

And while sitting in class learning about post-traumatic stress disorder,

my mission to help service members who suffered like my grandfather

We've had various names for post-traumatic stress

And while I was pursuing my degree, a new war was raging,

and thanks to modern body armor and military vehicles,

service members were surviving blast injuries they wouldn't have before.

But the invisible wounds were reaching new levels,

and this pushed military doctors and researchers

to try and truly understand the effects that traumatic brain injury, or TBI,

Due to advances in technology and neuroimaging,

we now know there's an actual shutdown in the Broca's,

or the speech-language area of the brain, after an individual experiences trauma.

or speechless terror as it's often called,

possibly even removed from their current duties,

has led to the invisible struggles of our servicemen and women.

have chosen not to talk about their experiences,

I had my work cut out for me when I got my first job

as an art therapist at the nation's largest military medical center,

After working for a few years on a locked-in patient psychiatric unit,

I eventually transferred to the National Intrepid Center of Excellence, NICoE,

which leads TBI care for active duty service members.

but I was going to have to convince service members,

to give art-making as a psychotherapeutic intervention a try.

The results have been nothing short of spectacular.

Subtitles ListPlay Video

【TED】Melissa Walker: Art can heal PTSD's invisible wounds (Art can heal PTSD's invisible wounds | Melissa Walker)

process

eventually

applause

physical