Posted by Mark Wheeler I was horrified to discover how little knowledge exists in this field the profesionals have to draw from. Some of my friends put together an album of photos & stories from my missing year while I was still in hospital (& had the cheek to invent a couple of amusing anecdotes too) and this was VERY valuable, and I still treasure it. The literature is scant and much of it useless or even misleading. Some of the recent work in neuropsychoanalysis (e.g. Solms & Kaplan Solms etc) is more useful. The SAP have run a couple of training days here in UK about treatment of children who have suffered traumatic abuse at preverbal age have actually informed me far more about brain injury and recovery than any of the head-injury literature. Regular stimulation at a level suitable for the client (not too much) seems to be the best approach for recovery of the capacity to retrieve & process what memories exist (I now have a new narrative for my missing year co-constructed with others). Making new memories requires research into what does & doesn't work for clients. I write essential info over & over & over & over again to try to "fix" it. As you can see (I hope) the effort has been worth it. Fel free to get in touch
on 1/11/2005, 7:04 am, in reply to "Re: Brain Injury, Memory Loss and Phototherapy"
195.10.45.153
As a registered art therapist, and PhotoTherapy practicioner for several years I may be in a unique position to offer some pointers. I suffered a "severe traumatic brain injury" in July 1998. It resulted in a year of complete retrograde amnesia and severral months of no new memories being made.
I still have considerable difficulty making new memories, but the brain is remarkably plastic, and new pathways do generate around the damaged tissue. Sadly when overloaded by stimulation the brain tries the old pathways and we often enter a void.
Global brain injuries (e.g. hypoxic injuries) cause less obvious symptomatic damage but are also more difficult to overcome.
Best wishes
Mark
Message Thread
« Back to index | View thread »