Profound Impacts
New Zealand
Self Help Strategies
When your life changes dramatically as a result of trauma, working with a professional therapist is recommended. Knowing how to support yourself in those moments when the grief, fear, memories and anger catch you, is something a therapist will be able to teach you. There are some effective practices that will support you as you work through some of the trauma responses you will no doubt encounter.
The techniques below have been found to be useful by others in this community and you are encouraged to give them a go. The techniques only take around ten minutes and can be used anywhere, at anytime.
Tapping to Promote Healing
Tapping, EFT - Emotional Freedom Technique, can seem a very odd practice but we have found it to be a self-help tool that helps to heal and provides a tangible practice that can be used when you feel nothing else will bring peace.
​
'Tapping with Brad', a channel on YouTube, provides many examples of 'tap-alongs' that support people who want to address areas in their lives where they want greater peace, security or joy for example.
​
This is a short explanation of, and introduction into Tapping With Brad.
​
The documentary 'The Tapping Solution' may help you understand the healing tapping can bring to individuals.
​
This article provides a personal point of view of Tapping.
​
Please seek advice and discuss this practice with your health professionals.
​
This clip provides discussion and insight into the lives of those who are seeking healing, as they carry the trauma, grief and shame of accidental death. There are two tap-alongs:
-
21 minutes in - Tapping for happiness and peace
-
42 minutes in - Tapping for forgiveness
Havening to Promote Healing
Another self help tool that can be used to address mental health difficulties is Havening.
​
This article gives some background to this effective practice.
​
Michelle Paradise is a practitioner who has a number of Havening videos on Youtube.
​
If you are able, seeking support from a trained professional is encouraged.
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder ~ PTSD
In 2023 Stuff.co.nz released 'Post Trauma'. It is a four-part documentary that dispels myths about PTSD/I. It tells the stories of four people living with it and their search not only for successful healing modalities but for understanding of a condition that is not just ‘in the head’. Many who are responsible for an accidental death find it extremely difficult to move beyond the intense feelings associated with the accident. This documentary may be of interest.
​
Part One - Post traumatic stress: The real toll it takes on people's lives
Part Two - Treatment: Why talk therapy might miss the mark
Part Three - Public health crisis - mental health systems not designed to heal