The story you told about your trauma is making it worse | Rachel Yehuda

Become a Big Think member to unlock expert classes, premium print issues, exclusive events and more: https://bigthink.com/membership/?utm_... Trauma survivors struggle double: During the traumatic event, then after, when they create a narrative about why the traumatic event happened, which often sticks with them for years. That narrative is often more disabling than the trauma itself, and conventional therapy rarely goes deep enough to dislodge it. Rachel Yehuda, one of the world's leading PTSD researchers, breaks down why MDMA-assisted psychotherapy is producing recovery rates that would have seemed implausible a decade ago using psychedelic therapy. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- About Rachel Yehuda: Rachel Yehuda, PhD, Professor of Psychiatry and Neuroscience, is the Director of the Traumatic Stress Studies Division at Icahn School of Medicine, and the Mental Health Patient Care Center Director at the James J. Peters Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Dr. Yehuda has authored more than 300 published papers, chapters, and books in the field of traumatic stress and the neurobiology of PTSD. Her current interests include the study of novel treatments for PTSD, the examination of risk and resilience factors, the study of psychological and biological predictors of treatment response in PTSD, genetic, epigenetic, and molecular biological studies of PTSD and the intergenerational transmission of trauma and PTSD. Her team's research on cortisol and brain function has revolutionized our understanding and treatment of PTSD worldwide. Dr. Yehuda has received many awards in recognition of her work including the Curt Richter Prize in Psychoneuroendocrinology, and the Laufer award from the International Society for Traumatic Stress. She was also awarded the Max Planck Institute for Psychiatry (Munich, Germany) 2004 Guest Professorship in Psychiatry and Neuroscience, and the Marcus Tausk Professorship in Leiden University to honor her accomplishments in the endocrinology of PTSD. Dr. Yehuda received her PhD in Psychology and Neurochemistry and her MS in Biological Psychology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and completed her postdoctoral training in Biological Psychiatry in the Psychiatry Department at Yale Medical School. She has an active federally funded clinical and research program that welcomes students and clinicians.