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How do I talk about all this with someone I've never met?

James Jones, Social Worker, answers common questions about PTSD.

Transcript

First and foremost, I think what folks are concerned about

is that I'm going to have to go in

and right away meet this strange person

and talk about this horrific event that happened in my life.

And that's not what happens.

We have to build some kind of a relationship

and some kind of rapport.

I want to get to know you,

I want to find out what your life is like right now,

things that you enjoy, things you don't enjoy.

How is your sleep?

How is your eating?

Do you exercise?

Things like that.

To build some kind of a relationship

so that we have some groundwork to work, to come from.

Otherwise, I can't start with somebody

out of the gate and work on trauma.

They don't know me, they don't trust me, so we don't do that.

Once that's done, and that can take a few sessions,

then we'll slowly enter into the trauma part.

Talk about maybe what happened, how it affected the person,

what we're going to do to help un-stick them, so to speak.

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