24 November 2016 November 2016 25 Expert guide: Psychology 2016 At times, a traumatic event may evoke repressed and unresolved memories of trauma and stress from one’s past, such as an unresolved bereave-ment, accident, or emotional crisis. PTSD may also appear years after the actual trauma. For instance, a Holocaust survivor can suddenly feel flooded and overwhelmed by traumatic memories of the war in later life. In a way, one can consider this a positive sign. Individuals find a way to delay reactions to stress in order to get on with life and to cope, but find that these memories arise much later in life when we feel more secure and able to “open the box” and ad-dress the trauma more effectively. Hence, it is not a question of whether to address the trau-matic memories, but when.It turns out that people are much more resilient than we think. Most people will undergo a pe-riod of stress and anxiety following a traumatic incident, but manage to resume full function-ing within one year, providing that they have some support, manage to engage positively with work and personal life, and adhere to healthy perceptions of coping. If the specific reactions to trauma continue over six months it is recom-mended to seek professional advice. With treat-ment, the vast majority of PTSD sufferers man-age to resume expected functioning and regain confidence. If one is fortunate, one can come out of this feeling even stronger and enriched by the experience. We call this “Thriving.” David is an experienced and principal clinical psychologist with expertise in psychological as-sessment, treatment, and academic lecturing. His clinical experience includes work in the USA, Israel and the UK. Currently, David is the Prin-cipal Clinical Psychologist for the Early Inter-vention Service within the NHS providing treat-ment, conducting assessments, supervising clini-cal staff, and lecturing. David has also published four books and several articles.In private practice, David’s approach is eclectic, informal, and professional. He is trained and pro-ficient in Biofeedback, Clinical Hypnosis, family therapy, long term psychodynamic approaches as well as brief, defined CBT approaches in treat-ment for individuals with PTSD, Chronic Pain, Anxiety and OCD, Interpersonal Distress, and Problems in functioning. He regularly provides psychological reports related to litigation that in-volves Accident Compensation, Criminal Injuries Compensation, Malingering, Cognitive Abilities, and Pain. David provides workshops and lectures for Medi-cal Education Training, UCL, Birkbeck Univer-sity, The Institute of Psychiatry, and Private Edu-cation. The popular topics include Chronic Pain, PTSD, Stress, Development Issues, Personality Development, and Health Psychology. Unietd Kingdom Most people will undergo a period of stress and anxiety following a traumatic incident, but manage to resume full functioning within one year, providing that they have some support