This week marks the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landings, a pivotal moment in World War II which then lead to the allies defeat of Germany in 1945.

Whilst my dear dad, who will be 88 soon, was not there at the time, he did sail to the Normandy beaches sometime after the landings on a Royal Navy minesweeper, with the object of finding the undetonated mines and clearing this area of them. We cannot comprehend the bravery of the troops who served in this war and WWI, and in the many conflicts since. This is impossible, even with the many films, accounts and images that are relayed to us as, unless you are actually there in the situation, you do not go through the experience. Many of these boys were not yet 20, and yet had to endure the most traumatic experiences, that if they survived, would still leave them with severe emotional, if not physical scars.

Post-traumatic stress disorder is thankfully now recognised as an illness, but it was not always so. I am currently reading a wonderful book ‘Regeneration’ by Pat Barker which is about the First World War Hospital Craiglockhart and the psychiatric treatment of shell shock under the direction of Dr W.Rivers. Rivers was reasonably enlightened in terms of his understanding of how war mentally damaged young soldiers, but was caught between this empathy with the men and his duty as a war doctor to get troops back to the front as quickly as possible. Amongst his patients were the First World War poets Siegfried Sasson and Wilfred Owen, who wrote so descriptively of their experiences, so that we are able to still have an insight into this brutal conflict. Another patient, an emaciated soldier called Burns, was sick every time he ate, as he had been blown up by a mine and had landed on the dead body of a German, which was bloated with gas, and the impact of Burns had made him explode. As I write this, I feel sick myself, these are terrors that would have caused the most resilient person to break down. And yet, at the time, shell shock was not fully recognised and thought by some to be a cowardly way to avoid service.

Thank goodness that we are now so far from this, yet we still have to make sure that we find the most effective treatments for post-traumatic stress, and make them available for all those affected by the traumas of war.

I am signed up to the National Council for Hypnotherapy’s ‘Help for Heroes’ campaign, which means that I offer one free session of hypnotherapy to any serving armed forces men or women who have experienced PTSD and feel that hypnosis would help them.

Do please get in touch if you, or anyone you know would like to find out more. My telephone number is 01449780352 or 07817158429 or you can email me at wendy@wendychalk.co.uk.

Best wishes,
Wendy x