EL PASO, Texas (ANS) — Millions of Americans have experienced or lived with someone who has experienced deep trauma in the past year with the Covid-19 Pandemic and its related stresses and stressors.
Now, Christian psychologist and author, Dr.Tiffany Tajiri says PTSD isn’t just for combat warriors. She has written about trauma in her new book, “Peace After Combat: Healing the Spiritual and Psychological Wounds of War,” which uses both Science and Scripture to help sufferers of everyday trauma.
Dr Tajiri is a Veteran United States Air Force officer and Army psychologist, Board-certified clinical psychologist, Author and currently the chief of the largest behavioral health clinic at Fort Bliss, Texas. She is the CEO and founder of Stand Up and Recover, Inc., the creator of Rhythm Restoration, and co-author of Abundant Recovery curriculum at Abundant Church.
Her expertise is in PTSD, trauma recovery, Christian counseling, Psychological counseling, therapy, Rhythm Restoration, Military life, Family advocacy, Suicide prevention, Neuroscience, and Neuroplasticity.
In the wake of the recent ’20 Years of War’ study (see: https://news.yahoo.com/study-military-suicide-rate-four-181229516.html?guccounter=1) on the surging suicide rate among the military population, released by Brown University and reported on by most major outlets, it seems a highly relevant opportunity for a uniquely qualified voice in our faith-based space.
Dr. Tajiri said: “The fact is that there are scientific and spiritual reasons to explain what untold thousands of combat veterans and their families are experiencing. And while most people wouldn’t dare use the words spiritual and psychological in the same sentence, (I am) insistent that addressing both fronts is critical. We can no longer afford, as the church, to dismiss the role of science. Just as science must acknowledge the role of faith.”
Dr. Tajiri, a veteran USAF officer and board-certified clinical psychologist, has been in countless sessions with combat veterans and their loved ones and shares powerful first-hand accounts, lessons, proven exercises, and biblical truth in Whether experiencing combat directly as a veteran or wanting to help bring healing as a family member, pastor, chaplain, or counselor, this book is essential. The emotional, psychological, and spiritual healing encountered applies to anyone facing harsh realities and uncomfortable questions and hoping to find peace again.
Watch Dr. Tajiri talk about “Peace After Combat” here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6s115Wa0D9I
In an interview with Assist News, Dr. Tajiri said: she wrote the book because she found herself asking the question, “Where is God in War?” nearly every session and every day when in therapy with her combat vets.
She said she wrote three fiction novels prior to this — “No publishing luck, but it now makes sense that they served to teach me for the purpose of Peace After Combat!”
“I want this book to be the military’s ‘chicken soup for the soul’ and the answer to lowering their unprecedented suicide rates! I believe Rhythm Restoration (the treatment used in the book) is the catalyst to creating a more resilient and Spirit lead fighting force!”
She hopes the ‘takeaway’ for readers will be: “God is on your side and we need to rewire our neuroplastic brains to this incredible truth!”
In ‘Peace After Combat,’ Dr. Tajiri covers such relevant topics as:
** Trauma affects people of all walks of life and the church oftentimes wants to exclude science, medicine or ‘secular’ counseling
** The enormous amount of extended time we spent with each other and each others’ dysfunction the last 18 months means unchecked PTSD is breaking families apart in an unprecedented way.
** Trauma opens the door to deep spiritual issues.
** Thousands of veterans don’t seek help for fear of being labeled ‘broken’ or ‘faithless’.
** One US combat veteran dies by suicide every hour.
** Over 90 percent of our combat veterans profess a belief in God, but many lose their faith after experiencing the horrors of war.
What’s different about Dr. Tajiri’s new book?
** Other books don’t aid our service members, veterans and their loved ones in overcoming the spiritual and psychological dilemmas caused by war. This one does.
** This book provides fresh perspective on the topic of treating a spiritual crisis and PTS.
** No glossing over the horrors of war or writing in flowery cliche language.
** Practicality. Dr.Tajiri offers powerful stories, proven exercises and biblical truths to help restore peace to the veteran’s soul in a way that they may never have thought possible.
Other topics in Dr. Tajiri’s new book include:
- Five critical things to know when welcoming a veteran back home
- Loving him/her, when your warrior is entitled, angry, distant, addicted or behaving like a victim
- What is Rhythm Restoration?
- God’s grace for actions in combat
- The illusion of control
- Where Is God in war and combat?
- Isolation
- Understanding triggers
- How can my family help me?
- How to find the right therapist/counselor and why it’s critical
- Exposure therapy, psychotropic medications: Helpful or harmful?
Dr. Tajiri says: “Faith and family are the two most critical components of suicide prevention. But what happens when both start to slip away? What are other causes and the symptoms to look for?”
Here’s what’s inside “Peace After Combat”:
** The relational expectations of family and friends
** What is Rhythm Restoration?
** God’s grace for actions in combat
** Compelling, raw stories of other veterans’ struggles and triumphs
** Help rediscovering God’s goodness, love, presence, and delight in who you are
** Process the effects of post-traumatic stress to become spiritually free from the negative and painful beliefs they acquired about themselves and God after experiencing the horrors of war or traumatic life events
** Post-traumatic stress
** The illusion of control
** Death in combat
** Where Is God in war?
** Isolation
** Understanding triggers
** How can my family help me?
** How could I ever be forgiven for what I did in carrying out my orders?
** Am I who I was before combat/my trauma? Or who I am now? Who am I?
** PTSD isn’t just for combat warriors. What are other causes and the symptoms to look for?
** Why do people compartmentalize healing, leaving it to either faith or science? Why BOTH are critical.
** Faith and family are the strongest protective factors in suicide prevention, but often families fail because of the strain deployments place on marriages. All that’s left is faith, but what happens when faith is seemingly lost?
** How to find the right therapist, counselor
“Peace After Combat” is available from Amazon.com
If you or someone you know may be considering suicide, contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 (En Español: 1-888-628-9454; Deaf and Hard of Hearing: dial 711 then 1-800-273-8255) or the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741.
The author of this story, Michael Ireland, is a self-supported media missionary with ANS. Click here to support him as a missionary journalist.
