What is the very first thing you notice about a person? Appearance? What if the first thing you saw was everything that they were trying to hide? We would see every flaw but we would also see every truth. What Lies Beneath is an exploration of interior and exterior and an exposure to the dark and abject inside all of us; the parts we keep hidden and the things that build up until they have no place else to go. Rooted in an examination of the human psyche, my thesis explores the difference between the facade we project to the world and the truth within ourselves.

This collection of essays, organized with two fiction pieces to every three essays, blends fiction and nonfiction craft elements and is intended to challenge the reader's notion of experienced reality. There were three goals in mind while creating the collection: to give the reader a better understanding of PTSD and its symptoms, to illustrate the ways in which storytelling impacts our perception of reality, and to examine the ways in which a gendered experience affects an individual's reality.

People with intellectual disabilities (ID) experience trauma and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in similar ways as individuals in the general population. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore and describe clinicians perceptions of trauma treatment for people with ID. Theories of trauma, PTSD, and stigma were part of the conceptual framework from which interview questions were developed. Purposive and snowball sampling were used to recruit 8 participants in the Denver, Colorado area. Four participants had experience working with people with ID, and 4 participants did not have this experience. Participants sat for semi structured open-ended recorded interviews, which were used to gather data for interpretation. Eight essential themes were identified: (a) chosen field, (b) lack of training, (c) stigma and stereotypes, (d) they're just folks like us, (e) preying on their vulnerabilities, (f) PTSD and trauma symptoms are the same with people with ID, (g) EMDR and the adaptive information processing theory, and (h) mindfulness interventions. The participants dispelled myths such as people with ID do not experience trauma and PTSD, and people with ID cannot participate in trauma therapy such as EMDR. Participants who had experience working with people with ID wanted more training on adaptations for treatment interventions, and participants without this experience welcomed advanced training on trauma treatment for people with ID. This study adds to the research on trauma treatment for people with ID and may affect social change by inspiring more conversations among clinicians on appropriate trauma treatment for people with ID. Clinicians with experience can build stronger relationships with community mental health centers, and continue to educate, clients, families, direct care providers, and agency personnel on trauma-informed care.

Adjustment to prison culture may influence the development of psychological issues for some individuals and may contribute to the difficulties of reentry to society, potentially contributing to the high rates of recidivism. The purpose of this study was to explore prisonization and its potential psychological effects from the perspective of individuals who experienced it. The theoretical foundation used to guide this study was the constructivist self-development theory, which can be used to explain how individuals may or may not have been affected by their traumatic experience. The participants for this phenomenological study included 10 individuals who experienced incarceration to fulfill the purpose of exploring psychological effects that may have developed during incarceration. The open-ended research questions that were used in this study were designed to obtain a full description of the prisonization and postincarceration experience, including any psychological issues that may have resulted from the incarceration experience. The process of explicitation, which included bracketing, extracting unique themes, and summarizing, was used to analyze the collected data. The interviews suggested that symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder may result from the prisonization experience. It is hoped that the results of this study may bring to awareness the psychological effects that can develop in some individuals during incarceration and may contribute to the difficulties of successful reentry to society.

Trauma due to sexual assault becomes a life changing event during a child's critical developmental years. Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory outlines the process of understanding an individual's environment and how disruptions in one level may affect other levels. This study determined if gender and ethnicity among sexually traumatized children diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) predict symptom severity as measured by the Trauma Symptom Checklist for Children (TSCC) after controlling for the socioeconomic level and home environment. The population consisted of 126 children aged 8 through 16 with at least a second-grade reading level. Multiple regression examined whether male and female children were significantly different concerning the magnitude of PTSD symptom presentation. Multiple regression was also used to test whether gender and ethnicity played a significant role in predicting specific symptoms. Female gender had statistically significant predictive power concerning anger and sexual concern. Age at intake was associated with significantly higher scores for anxiety, anger, and dissociation. Home environment was a statistically significant predictor for anxiety, depression, PTSD, and sexual concern with children living in a foster home having significantly higher symptom severity in these domains. Socioeconomic status was the strongest predictor variable. The addition of sexual assault in the diagnostic criteria for the diagnosis of PTSD with the adoption of DSM-5 indicate a justification for further research. Increased awareness of inefficiencies in identification of symptoms and inadequacies in training trauma providers are indicative of social change. Further knowledge of PTSD symptom expression propagates a new protocol when treating traumatized children.

Military personnel who have served during Operation Iraqi Freedom, Operation Enduring Freedom, and Operation New Dawn have experienced longer and more frequent deployments than U.S. personnel involved in any previous conflict. These multiple tours in combat zones have resulted in complex psychosocial needs for military personnel. The goal of this action research study was to understand social workers' perceptions and experiences of military personnel who experienced 3 or more deployments in a combat zone. The theoretical foundation for the study was narrative theory. Research questions sought to understand the social workers' perceptions of the psychosocial treatment needs of these veterans, to understand the social workers' experiences in providing services to address their needs, and whether participants perceived that the services provided were enhancing the mental and social well-being of the veterans. Data were collected from a focus group of 8 master's-degree-level social workers who worked with veterans with multiple deployments. Data were analyzed using descriptive coding to determine categories and themes. Findings included increased incidents of posttraumatic stress disorder and complex psychosocial needs, the importance of evidence-based practice and successful reintegration, clinical considerations, and potential barriers to effective service. Findings also focused on the importance of organizational support and continuing education for social workers providing these services. The findings of this study might be used to promote positive social change by highlighting the need for ongoing education for social workers, organizations, and society to provide informed evidence-based treatment for veterans who have experienced multiple deployments.

Emergency Medical Service (EMS) professionals are consistently exposed to a variety of traumatic events on the job, such as cases that involve the death or injury of a patient, being physically threatened, or encountering a mass casualty incident. Not surprisingly, research has found that such traumatic exposure has major implications, as it has been related to a plethora of negative strain outcomes such as posttraumatic stress (PTS) symptoms and burnout. However, at this point, research has not empirically examined the mechanisms by which these traumatic events lead to strain. Therefore, this study aims to further investigate these mechanisms by incorporating the role that emotion regulation (i.e., expressive suppression) plays in this process. Further, this study investigates various moderators in this process, including one individual difference factor (i.e., implicit theories about emotion expression) and two contextual factors (i.e., social support and organizational constraints). To test the links in the aforementioned process, a weekly diary study was conducted online with 200 current EMS professionals. Specifically, participants completed a baseline survey (Time 0) that measured trait-level variables and demographics. Then, participants completed 10 weekly diary studies that included measures of exposure to traumatic events, negative affective reactions, expressive suppression, and strain outcomes. Multilevel structural equation modeling was used to test the study hypotheses. Results of this study show that within person, traumatic event exposure was related to strain. Further, although traumatic event exposure was not consistently related to expressive suppression, the positive link between expressive suppression and strain was consistent. Additionally, organizational constraints were found to serve as a moderator in the relationship between expressive suppression and strain, such that higher organizational constraints exacerbate this relationship. Overall, these results provide a better understanding of the process that links traumatic event exposure to strain in the EMS profession. This research has implications for organizations, as it examines various factors that may be addressed in order to ensure that EMS professionals are better equipped to deal with these unfortunate exposures. Ultimately, the results of this study will hopefully prove helpful in devising interventions to enhance the wellbeing of EMS professionals in the wake of exposure to traumatic events.

The academic study of rape has historically ignored the recovery experience of the person being raped. Beyond medical and physical effects, and the possibility of legal prosecution, little attention has been paid. Existing research loses sight of the survivor's experience, ignoring the fact that a rape affects every aspect of life. The trauma is not only physical, but also impinges on the emotional, intellectual and interpersonal spheres. Rape can be, and often is, a life-threatening experience: one that needs to be faced and dealt with before there can be any sort of productive future. While it has been demonstrated that rape strips away a sense of safety and well-being, very little work has addressed how this can be regained, especially from feminist perspectives. A rape renders every aspect of identity subject to destruction and must be renegotiated and rebuilt if one is to survive. Survivor is the right term-there is no other word to describe it. The feminist canon has struggled for decades to open a discourse into the division between the sexes, critiquing the notion that masculinity equals aggression and proclaiming the falsity of the notion that men are genetically programmed to dominate. Despite this, stereotypes remain. In part because of this, feminist researchers and theorists who address the topic of rape have been preoccupied with increasing public education and awareness. Women's perspectives of rape have been neglected. The act of identity renegotiation involves three steps: understanding the event, accepting the trauma, and recovering one's identity by adapting what was to define what is. As feminist thought recognizes that there is no one definitive characteristic meant by "woman", this project by no means claims to include every survivor's path, but instead offers an overview of what might be involved. What I hope to accomplish through this project is illustrating how the process of renegotiation crosses into every sphere of identity: that is emotional, intellectual, physical, spiritual and psycho-social.

<p>Subject: The Teacher Training Programme, Degree Project in Educational Sciences</p><p>Södertörn University College</p><p>Autumn Term, 2006</p><p>This study titled, Those who feel worst, need help to feel better, is a Degree Project in Educational Sciences for the Teacher Training Programme at Södertörn University College. The purpose of this study is to find out how school introduction for newly arrived refugee children is organized in two schools, considering the fact that many refugee children can suffer from PTSD, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. The study is qualitative, based on interviews with principals, teachers and students in one junior high school and one high school. The study also reviews literature and research on how to work with children who suffer from PTSD. The results show that lack of national policy for the school introduction and education of refugee children, leads to the fact that school introduction can vary from school to school. The lack of co-operation between the different units around the refugee child makes the school introduction much more difficult than it needs to be. But this is also a matter of resources, and how they are divided. Thus, many of the children in this study seemed to be happy with their time in the preparatory class. The results also show that problems occurred when the children started in their new class, where they had difficulties in catching up with their new classmates.</p>

<p>The purpose of this essay is to find out how two schools work with newly arrived children and to see how they differ. There is a lack of national directives for those who work with newly arrived children and teenagers; this makes the introduction very different between schools.</p><p>The study is qualitative, based on interviews with four teachers in two different compulsory schools. One school is situated in a suburb of Stockholm and the other one is situated in a minor community in Dalarna. One schools got a preparatory class for newly immigrated pupils and the other school doesn’t.</p><p>The theoretical frame that I have chosen to analyse these interviews are literature and research on Bilingualism, Children with PTSD, Intercultural Pedagogy and Special Pedagogy</p><p>My results also show that these schools work very differently, and that there is very little co-operation within the school and with the units around the school, regarding these children. Major parts of the work end up on the teachers and they feel insufficient. My results also show that it is very important for teachers in schools to have an intercultural sensibility when relating to the pupils and their families.</p>