Trauma Recovery Guide:
A Journey Toward Peace and Purpose
CLICK to access:
Amendment Trauma Recovery Discussion Guide Intro
To watch
the Amendment
movie...
go to:
theamendmentmovie.com/store
Email Julea directly at Julea@DouglassHouse.org
The Douglass House is dedicated to families and individuals who have experienced similar loss as the Douglass Family and need help finding their way back home—to the lives they lived before the loss, trauma, and grief.
Available FREE for support groups
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a very real and measurable phenomenon that affects millions of people. Anyone who has survived an overwhelming force from violent crime, natural disaster, wartime, a car accident, or a traumatic loss of a loved one can relate to the mental, physical, and emotional sensations that make it difficult to stay focused, sleep well, connect with others, resume work responsibilities, and find peace and joy in life.
The Amendment Trauma Recovery Guide is designed for counselor-led support groups to walk together through the stages of PTSD awareness and recovery strategies. Each session is research-based and includes a clip from The Amendment movie to help group members find their story from loss to recovery in Brooks’ and Leslie’s journey. The 60- to 90-minute sessions use cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) and systems theory techniques to give participants meaningful insights and strategies to understand and manage their PTSD repercussions. (See box to the left for sample lessons.)
Session 1: Watching The Amendment Movie
Session 2: Finding Commonalities
How is your life similar to the characters in The Amendment? How are your life experiences similar to your groupmates?
Session 3: Grieving LossWhat have you lost as a result of the trauma in your life? How do you grieve for what is lost and restore what can be regained?
Session 4: Awaking to a New RealityHow do you recover from the emotional effects of trauma and find contentment in life again?
Session 5: Fighting Back MemoriesHow do you overcome and soothe flashbacks of past events?
Session 6: Sleeping WellWhy is sleep important to trauma recovery? What increases sleep quality and quantity?
Session 7: Rebuilding RelationshipsWhich relationships do you want to improve in your life? What would help improve those relationships?
Session 8: Assessing Coping StrategiesWhat do you do to soothe stress, frustration, or grief? Is it working?
Session 9: Overcoming BlameWho/what do you blame for your suffering? What would your life be like without blame?
Session 10: Going Face-to-FaceIf you could sit across from the person/event that traumatized you, what would you say? What would you want to hear?
Session 11: Seeking JusticeWhat does justice mean for your life? How do you go on successfully when faced with injustice?
Session 12: Moving Forward with PurposeWhat will your life look like in the future? How do you make a happy ending out of your story?
Session 13: Celebrating TogetherWhat have you learned from this group? And when will you meet again?
Julea Douglass, Ph.D., is the wife of Brooks Douglass and mom of their two sweet kids. She is also co-author of School-Connect: Optimizing the High School Experience, a social-emotional skill-building curriculum used in high schools throughout the U.S. and Canada. Julea received her M.Ed. specializing in human development and psychology from Harvard University and her Ph.D. in Education from the University of Virginia's Curry Programs in Clinical and School Psychology.
Brooks Douglass has had diverse careers in business, politics, the military, and film-making. At 27, he was elected the youngest State Senator to serve in Oklahoma. After retiring from the senate, Brooks began to focus on a long-held passion for writing, acting, and creating. He co-authored, acted in, and produced The Amendment, a powerful film honoring his parents, Richard and Marilyn Douglass, who were tragically killed in 1979. Within the Amendment Trauma Recovery Guide, Brooks shares his first-hand experiences with PTSD symptoms and personal recovery strategies.
Have you found forgiveness or healing in your life? If you’d like to share your experience with us, we’d love to hear it. Please e-mail us at info@DouglassHouse.org.
