The Forward-Facing Trauma Therapy Approach
Beginning in the nineteenth century, mental health professionals believed that traumatic stress was rooted in the past and treated the condition accordingly. However, as survivors know, suffering is a problem that exists in the present. So what if treatment addressed trauma in the here and now instead of harkening back to the past?
With this thought in mind, Dr. J. Eric Gentry spent over 20 years developing forward-facing trauma therapy.
In his book Forward-Facing Trauma Therapy: Healing the Moral Wound, he uses the active ingredients of effective trauma stress treatment in a way that produces immediate change, working in the present to solve the traumas of the past. This approach goes beyond identifying and managing triggers. Instead, it integrates trauma in an effort to better align behavior with values. Thus, the individual creates an anchor that links action to values and meaning, allowing them to focus on this connection rather than just reacting to life’s events. Ultimately, forward-facing trauma therapy (FTTT) helps trauma clients reclaim a life filled with dignity, meaning, and purpose.
FFTT includes five steps to help trauma survivors lessen their stress symptoms and increase their quality of life. First, individuals learn to understand that it’s their psychological threat-response causing their distress, not their environment. From there, they begin to establish a healthy lifestyle and use self-regulation skills to interrupt this threat response and return to a state of calm and well-being. As an added benefit of FFTT, individuals experience increased cognitive and motor functions, allowing them to better face daily challenges (more on that below). Finally, this approach encourages participants to establish a personal mission statement. It’s important to note here that, in order to maximize your client’s growth and accelerate their treatment, FFTT can occur alongside other therapy methods.
Now, let’s dig a little deeper into the idea of “healing the moral wound.”
According to Dr. Gentry, one of the most insidious pieces of traumatic stress is the demoralization that happens as a result of trauma. There are two types of moral wounding that occur: acute and chronic.
Acute moral wounding
Acute moral wounding happens at the time of the trauma. Prior to trauma, an individual has basic assumptions about the world — beliefs like, “The world is a good place; people are kind; and I will get my needs met.” Trauma blows up these assumptions, and the thinking then becomes, “The world is a dangerous place; people are bad; I cannot get my needs met; and I am weak and damaged.” FFTT helps to heal this wound and correct this way of thinking.
Chronic moral wounding
Following trauma, there is also chronic moral wounding, which happens hour to hour and day to day in the life of a trauma survivor. For instance, an individual may wake up in the morning and decide to be a good husband, a good mother, or a good employee. They plan to work hard and be kind to people. However, as they go about their day, they begin to perceive more and more threats. That feeling rises until they can no longer hold their intentions. They say something sarcastic or behave in an angry, unkind way and fail to live up to their own standards.
In other words, they breach their integrity. What happens when this breach occurs over and over again? It makes sense that someone who willfully and habitually violates their good character will be in some pain. After all, if they didn’t experience some discomfort, what motivation would they have to change? Chronic violation of integrity ultimately impacts the spirit of a human being, producing self-hatred, self-contempt, and self-distrust.
By definition, this antagonistic relationship with one’s self is demoralization, and that’s what trauma does.
In addition to the other symptoms, it makes it impossible for someone to live in accordance with their own principles. Until they learn how to regulate their autonomic nervous system, the only meaning they’ve got to make sense of things is the idea that they’re damaged, broken, or evil. FFTT directly addresses these challenges as the individual recovers from trauma.