The NLP View: Dr. Richard M. Gray Discusses PTSD

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) affects thousands of state and local police officers, armed service men and women and civilians of every description. PTSD is a psychiatric disorder that can occur following the experience or witnessing of a life-threatening event. PTSD  can stem from military combat, natural disasters, terrorist incidents, serious accidents, or physical or sexual assault in adult or childhood. The majority of people who experience or witness a life threatening event will return to normal given a little time. However, some people will have stress reactions that do not go away on their own, or may even get worse over time. PTSD is complicated by the fact that people with PTSD often may develop additional disorders such as depression, substance abuse, problems of memory and cognition, and other problems of physical and mental health.

Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) is a process by which language is used to reframe, reroute and redesign our memories, understanding and feelings about experience. Based upon strategies for modeling human excellence NLP is a program designed to use language to interrupt and recreate neural pathways in the brain to optimize human functioning. When something reminds us of trauma the brain immediately searches inside itself for associations and then represents back to you what it finds in the way of mental pictures and emotions.

Tune in to this segment of The NLP View Radio Show, as host, Donna Blinston is joined by expert, Dr. Richard Gray to discuss his research on NLP as it pertains to PTSD. Dr Gray is Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice, Fairleigh Dickinson University. Before his move to academia, Dr. Gray served for more than 20 years in the US Probation Department, Brooklyn, NY. He is the creator of the Brooklyn Program, an NLP-based substance use treatment program which operated for seven years in the Federal Probation System.