Cathy Malchiodi expresses her reservations about debriefing in an article in Psychology Today.
"How the body reacts to remembering a traumatic event is a critical aspect that must be addressed when a narrative emerges or is encouraged at any stage of intervention. Unfortunately, many incident debriefers do not know the simple principles of "putting on the brakes" when it comes to how the body reacts when recalling a distressing event.
Therapist Babette Rothschild coined this phrase to describe the necessity of slowing down the body's reactions. She believes that it is not good practice to proceed with a trauma narrative unless both client and therapist first know how to find and apply these brakes."
The Trauma Centre stopped doing Critical Incidence Stress Debriefing about 6 or 7 years ago. Unfortunately the word 'debriefing' is still used by both consumers and some providers, to describe group sessions in which a recent trauma is addressed.
The confusion between "trauma counselling", "trauma debriefing", and good "early intervention" is one of the current tragedies in our field. The "all or nothing" logic leads us all astray. Just because CISD does no good (and occassionally does harm), it doesn't follow that nothing at all should be done to support people whose lives have been threatened. There is much good that can be done when practitioners read the research about what does actually help!
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