Audiovisual Overview: Journey of Healing: An Outpatient Therapy Group for War-Related PTSD

Introduction by the column editor: Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has become a focus of increased clinical interest over the past decade, with the consequent development of a broader range of treatment modalities. Short- and long-range stressors, especially those related to war experiences, have been the focus of significant therapeutic effort. Fullerton and Ursano (1), editors of a comprehensive book on PTSD, note that this diagnosis has been the subject of much controversy ever since its introduction in DSM-III in 1980.The three-tape video series reviewed here is especially relevant because American veterans of three different wars—World War II, Vietnam, and the Persian Gulf—participated in the 20 two-and-a-half-hour group therapy sessions depicted. Rarely has this amount of detailed therapeutic process been available for study and reference. A detailed companion monograph about the videotapes and the therapy process is available to mental health providers.Although the focus of the tapes is on war-related PTSD and postwar sequelae, one can agree with coproducer Raymond M. Scurfield, D.S.W., that the dynamics and clinical interventions have considerable applicability for therapists interested in a much broader range of trauma exposure, such as survival of violent physical attacks, air crashes, or natural disasters. That relevance is due to the trauma-related commonality of the areas documented, such as responsibility-based guilt, memory loss, the dynamics of a perpetrator of trauma, the impact of PTSD on the family, and the relationship between childhood trauma and other traumatic experiences.The reviewer of this work is Dr. Theodore Nadelson, who was formerly chief of psychiatry at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Boston and is now vice-chair for education in the division of psychiatry at Boston University School of Medicine. He brings a special experience and expertise to the topic.