Intensive Vipassana Meditation Practice: An Intervention with Promise for Traumatized Prisoners

The United States has the highest rate of incarceration in the world. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2,266,800 adults were incarcerated in U.S. federal and state prisons and county jails at year-end 2010 – about 0.7% of the resident adult population. Childhood trauma increases the likelihood of criminal justice involvement in adulthood (Wolf & Shi, 2010). A high percentage of prisoners are survivors of childhood abuse and other traumas before they are imprisoned (Wallace, Connor, & Dass-Brailsford, 2011), and prisons are notoriously violent and traumatic places for inmates. In a survey of inmates in Midwestern prisons, 54% of men and 28% of women reported having been raped in their current facility (Struckman-Johnson & Struckman-Johnson, 2000). In short, prisons are veritable warehouses of traumatized adults.

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Relationship Between Trauma, Shame & Guilt: Findings from a Community-Based Study of Refugee Minors in Germany

Below:  Scatterplot of the total number of traumatic events and the severity of PTSD symptoms experienced by unaccompanied (UMR) and accompanied (AMR) minor refugees

Below:  Scatterplot of the total number of traumatic events and global guilt experienced by unaccompanied (UMR) and accompanied (AMR) minor refugees

Below:  Scatterplot of the total number of traumatic events and intensity duration frequency of shame episodes experienced by unaccompanied (UMR) and accompanied (AMR) minor refugees

Feelings of guilt and shame as well as trauma symptoms were all associated with the number of traumatic event types subjects had experienced. Posttraumatic guilt and shame were both correlated with PTSD symptom severity.

The findings indicate that cumulative stress such as exposure to multiple traumatic events poses a risk factor for the mental health including greater suffering and functional impairment due to shame and guilt.

Read more at:   http://ht.ly/QXt2q HT @unikonstanz