Healing trauma, healing humanity | Rolf Carriere | TEDxGroningen

This talk was given at a local TEDx event, produced independently of the TED Conferences.
Rolf Carriere speaks about the use of EMDR to heal trauma on a global scale.

Thank you Mark.

Ladies and gentlemen,

you will probably wonder why I,
as a development economist,

am here today to talk
about treating trauma.

It's because I've come
to see that trauma is

not only a huge global problem
of truly epidemic proportions

but traumas also have a devastating impact

on human development,
economic development,

and even on the possibility of peace.

Given the importance of trauma worldwide,

it's actually rather surprising
to see the invisibility,

it's almost like the problem is hidden.

In fact, most traumas worldwide
remain unrecognized,

undiagnosed, and therefore untreated.

That's particularly true
for the developing countries.

I'm here today to make a plea,

to make available treatment services

to the hundreds of millions
of people worldwide who are in need,

and to do so not in small doses,

but rather as a quantum jump.

I believe that that is now possible
for the first time in history,

with a new treatment called EMDR,

for Eye Movement
Desensitization and Reprocessing.

Ladies and gentlemen,

I have this picture on my desk at home,

to remind me of the human face of trauma.

Look at this man's eyes,
look at the anguish,

the vulnerability, the hopelessness.

I first came to realize
the importance of trauma,

when I was UNICEF representative
in Bangladesh in the 1990s.

And I was pondering

the development challenges
of the country,

its grinding poverty, their regularly
recurring natural disasters;

they've just gone through
a punishing war of liberation.

I could not believe
that anyone in that country

had actually been able
to escape being traumatized

because the signs
and the sources of trauma

were everywhere to be seen.

So I was wondering what can we do
about a problem at such a large scale.

The answer came to me rather unexpectedly.

I was taking a brief sabbatical
in San Francisco,

I was in a book store,

and inexplicably, my hand reached out

to a book with the title EMDR.

I'd never heard of EMDR, I didn't know
why my hand was doing this.

Nonetheless, I sat down
on the floor, began to read,

and about an hour later when I reemerged,

I realized that I had just read

about a treatment facility,

a treatment modality,
that was rapidly scalable,

and that was very effective
in treating people

in a very short period of time.

So that was exactly the kind of treatment

that we could very well use in Bangladesh.

So I called the author,
Dr. Francine Shapiro

- who also is the developer of EMDR -

I asked for an appointment,
and the next day, I was in her home

negotiating a contract for EMDR trainers
to come to Bangladesh

and to begin to treat
the many people there.

The training would be given

to the 54 Bangladeshi psychologists
and psychiatrists in that country.

So that way I learned first hand

about the amazing,
almost magical effectiveness of EMDR.

Most of you probably have heard
or know someone,

who has been traumatized,

perhaps even suffer from PTSD,
post traumatic stress disorders.

In fact, statistically speaking,

there should be a good number
of you here in this audience

who actually have suffered PTSD yourself.

The PTSD symptoms include three sets:
the first is the hyper-arousal,

that means you can't sleep,
you can't concentrate very well.

There is also easily being angered,
or getting into a panic,

or even feeling
intense feelings of hatred.

Then there is the reliving
of the traumatic event,

and that comes in nightmares,

invasive, intrusive flashbacks.

And thirdly, there is
the avoidance and numbing,

you avoid any situation
that reminds you of the traumatic event.

You avoid certain relationships.

And there is also the growing

distrust of anyone around you,

your isolation, the hopelessness,

and that can go all the way
to outright depression.

So, from these symptoms,

you can see that PTSD is
a very severe and disabling illness

that has very serious consequences

for both the ability to learn,

the creativity of people,

the productivity,
and the general well being.

There is also new evidence to show

that if people have suffered
even a minor trauma

there are heightened chances there

that you would get ill
with substance abuse,

with cardiac conditions,
and even with cancer.

There's a saying that says
"Violence begets violence."

What we don't often realize is

that the trauma is the 'trait d'union'
between violence and violence.

Because, if somebody gets traumatized

as a result of violence,

then that person is at a heightened risk

of himself or herself
become a perpetrator of violence.

That's actually
quite a scary understanding.

If PTSD is left untreated,

then it will last a life time.

Ladies and gentlemen,

we don't have
a very good statistics worldwide,

about trauma and PTSD.

But if we look at the number of people

who are exposed to
traumatic circumstances and events,

we may be able to get
an order of magnitude.

For example, take a look
at these numbers here.

They're all taken
from authoritative sources.

1.5 billion people worldwide live

in situations of political
and criminal violence.

That includes the Syrias and the Congos,
and Somalias, and all the other countries.

Then 42 million people worldwide

are either refugees
or internally displaced people,

and displacement itself
is a big risk factor for trauma.

Some 200 million people have been exposed
to natural disasters in 2011 alone.

And so, this becoming an annual feature

with the global climate change

more and more people getting traumatized.

Then some 1.3 billion people
are living in absolute poverty.

I don't think that we can imagine
[more] traumatizing circumstances

in which these people
live their day to day life.

And then get this,

one in every three women worldwide

actually suffer during their lifetime

from sexual, physical or emotional abuse.

These are staggering numbers
you will agree.

Most of these traumas
are called Big "T" traumas

because they are the results
of extreme events.

They are the results
of loud emergency, if you could say,

But there are also the small "t" traumas.

And they are well known to all of us,

they are caused by
everyday traumatizing events,

usually we call them normal events,

but they are accidents, they are bullying,

they are child abuse, divorce
and many other circumstances like that.

These are silent emergencies

but they affect literally millions
and millions of people at any given time.

If you add big "T" trauma
and small "t" trauma together,

you end up with a staggering
global burden of trauma.

Now, let me hasten to say

that not all traumatic experiences
also lead to PTSD.

Thankfully, humans are,
by and large, remarkably resilient

and usually, after traumatic experience

get better all by themselves
without any medical or psychological help.

If we took

the PTSD prevalence,
life time prevalence of the United States,

which is between 7 and 8%,

and we apply that number
to the world as a whole,

we would end up with
at least 500 million cases of PTSD.

That's like the total population
of the European Union.

And the question could be asked:
"Is this problem not too big to tackle?"

I think a mere 30 years ago,

I would have said,
yeah, this can't be done.

We didn't have the means, we didn't have
the technology at that time.

But today I think, with EMDR,
we actually have a good chance.

In a way, I believe that, you know,

this is not rocket science
to begin to deal with this problem,

even at that very large scale.

How does EMDR work?

EMDR resolves the emotional distress,

but the precise mechanism is probably

a good topic for the next TED talk.

Meanwhile, let me just say

that the psycho-neuro
physiological processes

that lead to the healing
are set in motion by bilateral stimulation

and that is usually
rapid eye movement, from left to right.

It seems as simple and magical as that.

As soon as that process has happened,

the trauma memory is healed

and all the symptoms of PTSD disappear.

And they disappear for good.
They won't come back.

And all of this can be done
in a matter of few sessions.

This is why the World Health Organization

recently gave official recognition to EMDR

as one-evidence based
and scientifically validated

treatment modality for trauma.

We now have the possibilities
of rapidly scaling up

with this new treatment called EMDR.

EMDR can treat
in a matter of hours and days,

as opposed to the conventional therapy

that took weeks, months,
and sometimes years of therapy.

It can also be administered to groups
of people not just individuals.

It is more easily accepted,
because unlike the conventional treatment,

you don't have
to talk about your trauma,

people who have been traumatized
don't want to talk about their trauma.

And then there's a possibility
of using paraprofessionals

to provide services
of psychological first aid,

thereby relieving the psychologists
and psychiatrists

from the more mundane kind of work.

So based on my profession
as a development economist,

I'm convinced that it is now possible

to begin to scale up
these trauma services.

Ladies and gentlemen,

you will agree with me

that this woman
and all the millions of people

who have been traumatized like her,

at least deserve their peace of mind.

They deserve actually much more,

they deserve to get back
their laughter and their self confidence,

and be able to make
a contribution to society again,

and be part of their community.

What would the world look like

if we were able to
systematically heal all the traumas?

I believe that that world
would be a lot less violent

because we would finally begin
to interrupt the insidious,

interpersonal and inter-generational
transmission of violence and abuse.

So, that world, I believe, would be

a lot more peaceful,
and also a lot more prosperous.

I believe that that world is within reach.

I am convinced

that EMDR has the power and the potential

to help treat and heal

the humanity's wounded memories.

Do you think that that will happen?

Thank you.

(Applause)