This month we’re highlighting Therapeutic Alliance partner DE-CRUIT® – an organization dedicated to helping the veterans of our country overcome trauma and transition back into civilian life using therapeutic interventions. Let’s get to know them!
Shakespeare, Trauma, and Our Veterans
Why should I write this down, that’s riveted,
Screw’d to my memory?
Cymbeline, William Shakespeare
In the U.S., many people join the military in their late teens – the minimum enlistment age is only seventeen, a time when the brain is still developing. Whatever age people join, they will go through an intensive physical and psychological training period to “ready” them for war. Those who are enlisted may be exposed to firefight simulations, trained to kill, and sometimes are forced to use their skills in combat.
However, no training currently exists within the military to ready people to leave. At a minimum, this can leave people institutionalized and does not prepare them for civilian life. In the worst case, people are left suffering from the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder. Humans were not meant to go to war, and this takes a huge toll on our mental and physical wellbeing.
Untreated trauma manifests itself in many ways – flashbacks, depression, anxiety, and substance use are all very common side effects. These make it very hard to function in everyday society and the statistics speak for themselves. Veterans are:
- 4-6 more likely to be homeless
- 2-3 times more likely to die by suicide
- More likely to perpetrate violent crime
- More likely to suffer from substance addiction
- More likely to receive longer prison sentences
- Have a far higher rate of PTSD than the rest of the population
Serving in the military makes you very capable in certain areas. Rejoining society as a veteran means finding new ways to be resilient. Traditional treatment modalities for PTSD over-rely on pharmaceutical interventions, which coupled with society’s interpretation of veterans’ expectations of never showing vulnerability makes for a potent cocktail of untreated trauma.
As Stephan Wolfert, founder of DE-CRUIT® puts it, “what happened to me is, myself and my brothers and sisters who were recruited or drafted were done so at a psychologically malleable age, and then we were wired for war. But we were never unwired from war after our service. We were not rewired for society.”
The DE-CRUIT® Approach
DE-CRUIT® is a drama-based program to help military veterans overcome the common hurdles in rejoining society as a civilian. They aim to counter the intense psychological conditioning people undergo in the military, while allowing them a non-judgmental space to process the extreme events they’ve often gone through without focusing solely on the trauma or assuming pathology.
Drama may seem diametrically opposed to military training. In the words of Stephan Wolfert, “me, an infantry officer. I’m supposed to be a manly man doing manly things in a manly manner with other men. Me, the youngest brother of a severe alcoholic father and neglectful mother and the bully brother who used to beat me up just to make me a man. And now I’m in the theatre.”
However, there are some helpful parallels. DE-CRUIT® uses techniques taken from the principles of classic actor training such as experiential analysis, symbolic representation, and techniques of breathing and spoken verse to replicate, within a treatment group, the cohesive bond veterans felt with their fellow soldiers. This helps to make the process of healing more effective and communal.
DE-CRUIT® also incorporates therapeutic techniques from cognitive science, narrative therapy, nutritional therapy, and writing and analyzing trauma through the lens of different Shakespearean characters. Veterans also write their own trauma monologues which they will perform for a select audience including their friends at the end of their training.
DE-CRUIT® is one of the only organizations in America dedicated to helping to simultaneously deprogram and treat the trauma of the veterans through drama. We are proud to partner with them as members of our Therapeutic Alliance!
