What is a PTSD Retreat?

Once known as shell shock and combat fatigue, post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental health issue that people suffer from or experience after a traumatic event¹1.X.-R. Miao, Q.-B. Chen, K. Wei, K.-M. Tao and Z.-J. Lu, Posttraumatic stress disorder: from diagnosis to prevention – PMC, PubMed Central (PMC).; Retrieved September 29, 2022, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6161419/. PTSD develops in individuals who have experienced a variety of traumatic events including war and combat, violent assaults, sexual assaults, natural disasters, car accidents, and terror attacks.

Why PTSD Retreats Are Needed

To deal with a growing number of people developing and needing treatment for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, wellness retreats have been created to provide recovery programs and enable healing. PTSD retreats offer patients Western psychotherapeutic treatment programs and anxiety recovery with research-proven Eastern wellness practices. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder retreats offer complete toolkits for patients to maintain a healthy and happy lifestyle free of mental health issues.

Are all Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Retreats the Same?

Not all PTSD retreats offer the same treatment programs and many will cater their recovery packages to guests. It is common for treatments such as Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) to be used during recovery programs. Both have been found to ease the symptoms experienced by PTSD sufferers.

Understanding PTSD

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is most often seen in current and former soldiers who have experienced combat first hand. In spite of being seen in combat veterans, PTSD is experienced by people of all backgrounds, nationalities, or ethnicity.

In the United States, 3.5% of adults experience PTSD²2.C. L. Lancaster, J. B. Teeters, D. F. Gros and S. E. Back, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: Overview of Evidence-Based Assessment and Treatment – PMC, PubMed Central (PMC).; Retrieved September 29, 2022, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5126802/. Research has discovered women are more likely to develop PTSD than men although that could be due to women seeking help more often than their male counterparts.

Symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

Individuals suffering from PTSD experience a range of symptoms. Symptoms can be mild to severe and can be triggered at any time.

PTSD symptoms include:

• Night terrors, nightmares, or thoughts of the traumatic experience
• Flashbacks and re-living the traumatic episode or event
• Anxiety and the feeling of constant stress
• Avoiding certain people, places, or things that trigger flashbacks
• Uncontrollable anger or outbursts
• Hyper alertness to potential danger or believing danger could happen at any time
• Loss of memory and difficulty with concentration

PTSD symptoms can cause distress in an individual as they do not know when an episode or flashback will occur.

Benefits of a PTSD Retreat

There are myriad benefits to a Post Traumatic Stress Disorder retreat. First and foremost, guests can remove themselves from an environment that triggers flashbacks and other symptoms. The change of scenery can improve a patient’s recovery. Guests will be surrounded by medical professionals that enable the healing process to occur. Most treatment programs do not allow patients to have the round the clock access to help that a PTSD retreat offers.

Along with therapy sessions, luxury PTSD retreats provide guests with a variety of activities to activate the mind and body. This allows sufferers to heal and eases the mind of the PTSD burden. In addition to therapy sessions, guests may participate in mindfulness workshops, yoga classes, and massage sessions amongst other activities.

Recovery from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is possible and there are retreats that can give individuals back their lives. PTSD is not a mental disorder that individuals have to live with anymore and PTSD retreats enable the healing to take place for a new life worth living.

How does a Post Traumatic Stress Disorder retreat work?

The Worlds leading Post Traumatic Stress clinics harmoniously blend holistic and person-centered methods. They incorporate a combination of talking therapies, complementary treatments and medical processes to relax and heal both body and mind from the effects of PTSD, generalized stress and a range of mental health issues.

Private PTSD Treatment

Therapy and counseling can help people who have experienced trauma or who have been diagnosed with PTSD understand their experiences and feelings, develop healthy coping skills to learn to stay safe and connect with other resources and support. Psychotherapy is one of the most commonly used therapies for people with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and is recognised as the second most common treatment for PTSD in the US.

There are many different types of psychotherapy, but the two most popular and widespread therapies are cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) and psychosocial counselling. Other therapies that have not yet been clinically tested include mindfulness-based cognitive therapy, psychoanalytic therapy, and cognitive behavioral therapy.

Conjunctival therapy can be used as a therapy for artistic expression therapy, the aim of which is to discover meaning and heal by dealing with existential questions that arise from trauma. Research has shown it can support curative illnesses such as insomnia and depression.

The thin needles of acupuncture are inserted into the body to regulate the flow of energy. By stimulating pressure points, acupuncture corrects imbalances in qi flow and aligns it in a positive direction.

Four randomized controlled trials (RCTs) reviewed showed that acupuncture was equivalent or better than conventional medicine and had additional effects in combination. A systematic review of acupuncture for PTSD found that there was no significant difference in the treatment of chronic anxiety associated with PTSD.

Both electroacupuncture and paroxetine were found to significantly improve PTSD outcomes, but the improvement was greater with electroacupuncture. The evidence of efficacy is encouraging and points to the potential of acupuncture as an effective treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

A recent uncontrolled pilot study showed that acupuncture appears to be effective in treating traumatized soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other emotional disorders. Given the high level of research on the effects of acupuncture in the treatment of PTSD, it could be considered as a therapeutic option within the existing repertoire.

It is generally believed that acupuncture stimulates the nervous system and causes the release of neurochemical messengers. The resulting biochemical changes influence the homeostatic mechanisms of the body and thus promote physical and emotional well-being. In this case, it is used to manage symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other emotional disorders. Stimulating the body’s own opioids, which affect the vegetative and nervous systems, and stimulating the production of neurotransmitters such as serotonin and dopamine in the brain and spinal cord.

Satori Chair for PTSD

According to Satori, the company’s technology has been specifically designed to aid individuals experiencing rehab. Satori technology works to wake up an individual’s ability to end their craving for drugs and/or alcohol. According to one study, the Satori Chair technology has an 87% success rate in drug rehab.

Due to the positive response the Satori Chair has received, more luxury PTSD Retreats now offer the recovery system, and more individuals are now able to access the Satori Chair to improve their mental health than ever before.

Psychedelic Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Retreat

Researchers are seeing dramatic results from therapy that uses psychedelic drugs to treat PTSD, depression and addiction. Therapy involving substances like Psilocybin and MDMA, show 80 percent success rates many years after treatment.

Because of the nature of evolving laws and research developments there is still confusion among patients as to the legality to various treatments. Psychedelic psychotherapy clinics are not routinely available in every country, even though there is predicted to be an overwhelming explosion of these specialist clinics over the next decade.

In spite of psychedelic drugs being illegal in most countries, the medical setting in which the doses are administered by a trained professional, changes the context of the experience. In the same way that opioids given in a medical setting are safe, the consumption of psychedelics can be too. Medical monitoring is conducted throughout the psychedelic session.

Previous: Stress Retreat

Next: Post Covid Stress Disorder