The Journey Home from Trauma

The Journey Home from Trauma

Close your eyes, and journey home from trauma. This study examines the question of meditation as a complementary treatment for PTSD and Anxiety symptoms, and recommends the most effective type of meditation to reduce these symptoms. Furthermore, the study concludes that meditation is effective in treating Veterans, and other populations whom suffer from these symptoms, and it can have positive effects on them. There is a review and evaluation of recent empirical research concerning open, focused, and transcendent meditation to determine if they are helpful in treating these symptoms. Included in this study is a review to determine whether the effectiveness of different meditation techniques on stress outcomes is similar or varied. A rigorous systematic review of meditation showed that the practice of regular meditation, resulted in reducing negative effects of stress and anxiety across a wide variety of diverse populations. The evidence presented in the study is useful for clinicians and clients in making decision about the best available options for treating PTSD and Anxiety. Meditation can be defined as a family of practices that train attention and awareness, usually with the objective of fostering psychological and spiritual wellbeing and maturity. Meditation does this by training and bringing mental processes under greater voluntary control, and directing them in beneficial ways. This control is used to cultivate specific mental qualities such as concentration and calm, and emotions such as joy, love, and compassion. Through greater awareness, a clearer understanding of oneself and one's relationship to the world develops (Hofman, Grossman, & Hinton, 2011).