Come Hell or High Water
Come Hell or High Water is a documentary produced and directed by David Grand. Filmed in December, 2005, Come Hell or High Water follows Dr. Grand and three trauma survivors of Sept. 11th on a trip to New Orleans to heal Katrina survivors suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Utilizing the same Biolateral audio that accompanies the book Ignite the Genius Within, Dr. Grand heals devastated residents on the very site where their trauma took place, to extraordinary and dramatic effect. Click here to view a trailer.
Trauma Doc, a treatment:
Firemen pulled from the wreckage of the Twin Towers. Children washed away by the waters in New Orleans. Veterans returning home with missing limbs from wars without end. Since Sept. 11th, 2001, Americans have become educated in ways we never dreamed of with an affliction the rest of the world is very familiar with: trauma.
While the 21st century has introduced to Americans the physical devastation that often characterizes a traumatic event, we are less familiar with the devastation that befalls survivors after.
Enter Trauma Doc.
In this groundbreaking thirteen episode reality series, America’s leading trauma specialist Dr. David Grand puts an end to the debilitating after-effects of trauma on the life of survivors desperately in need of help, and in the process helps them regain their lives…all in one episode.
Applying the powerful method he pioneered to quickly and successfully treat some of the most traumatized populations in the world – including hundreds of survivors of Sept. 11th, bombing victims in Belfast, and inner city mothers who lost their children to gun violence – Dr. Grand will take one trauma survivor per episode to the site of the event in order to trigger what they fear most: the flashback. Whether it be the intersection of a terrible car accident; a hallway where they were assaulted; the field where a hurricane almost took their life; or the home where they suffered abuse, Dr. Grand will use his powerful techniques to bring the survivor out of trauma shock – which is the condition of being frozen in the moment of terror at the time of the event – and into the present.
Everyday people who have suffered immensely from a feeling they can’t shake that it’s about to happen again, and the debilitating imprint it leaves on their every day lives – the inability to drive; anxiety attacks in narrow spaces; break downs at the site of storm clouds; an overwhelming fear to leave the house – recover what the traumatic event took from them: the ability to live a full life.
The results are spellbinding. Over the course of one episode Dr. Grand transforms a trauma survivor paralyzed by fear and living an incomplete life into a person who is finally able to move on.
In the tradition of Trauma: Life in the E.R. which introduced the life and death decisions emergency room physicians face with survivors of physical trauma, Trauma Doc will bring the realities of facing, treating, and healing psychic trauma to audiences for the first time. Combined with Grand’s unmatched understanding of the physical workings of trauma in the human brain mixed and his equally astounding compassion for human suffering, Trauma Doc is dramatic, mesmerizing, healing, and as real as it gets.
In an era in which the news brings trauma to America’s living rooms every night, the timing of Trauma Doc couldn’t be better.
Emotional Healing at Warp Speed (Random House, 2001)
Emotional Healing at Warp Speed provides a popular introduction to a miraculous new psychotherapeutic method called EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing). Within these pages psychotherapist David Grand, Ph.D., describes his own first encounter with EMDR, then recounts the dramatic results of bringing this new therapy into the lives of his patients. By alternately stimulating the left and right sides of the brain to clear psychological blocks and resolve trauma, EMDR helped Grand’s patients put the pieces of their emotionally shattered lives back together with a speed that exceeded his wildest dreams.
Grand’s use of EMDR has helped people from all walks of life, from railroad engineers reliving the nightmare of death on the tracks to mothers of children killed on the mean streets of America’s inner cities, from bomb victims in Belfast and Oklahoma City to Arabs and Israelis traumatized by decades of hatred and violence. His account of this work inspires and touches the reader’s heart as it reveals the healing power of a process that works as swiftly as thought itself.
Grand takes EMDR–developed by Francine Shapiro, M.D –far beyond its initial use in healing trauma. In addition to turbo-charging breakthroughs in psychotherapy, Grand uses EMDR to clear away blocks to performance and creativity. Remarkable examples show athletes, actors, musicians, and artists improving their performance, and a self-use chapter describes practical ways readers can apply this remarkable method to resolve fear of public speaking, enhance creativity, enjoy deeper, more restful sleep, resolve stress and anxiety, and much more.
“All therapists and anyone who has suffered emotional trauma (and those who love them) should read this book.” -- Daniel G. Amen, M.D., psychiatrist and author of Change Your Brain, Change Your Life
“David Grand’s dazzling stories of patient recovery are exciting to read. This book lies at the cutting edge of modern treatment for the mind.”
— Andrew Solomon, author of Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression
“As an actor, artist, humanitarian and mother I am heartened by Dr. Grand’s success in healing trauma and helping people open up to new levels of creativity and performance.” –Jane Seymour, actress
“I believe Dr. Grand’s method has great potential as a healing modality.” – Bernie Seigel, M.D., Author of Love, Medicine and Miracles
“Unusual and thought-provoking.” – Library Journal
”Grand's engagingly written book documents his experiences as a trauma specialist with clients as diverse as bombing victims and artists seeking to unblock their creativity. An intriguing presentation of a promising new therapy.” – Patricia Monaghan, American Library Association.
“David Grand provides compelling anecdotal evidence of his effectiveness with train engineers traumatized by suicides and accidents on the tracks; survivors of bombings and Hurricanes; and professional actors and athletes.” – Publishers Weekly
I, Witness, a treatment:
”I had the experience of performing I, Witness at the Duke Theater on Broadway. This is a work that cannot be dismissed as another 9/11 story. It is so much more than that. You could hear a pin drop at the reading as the audience was riveted from start to finish. The final, poignant tableau had the audience first stunned in silence, then suddenly on their feet with the acclamation of their applause.” — Michele Lee
Trauma therapist Dr. Daniel Green witnessed the horrors of Sept. 11th like no other.
Starting on Sept. 12th, New York City therapist Green was called on by relief organizations to treat firefighters and other 9/11 survivors suffering from acute Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Green’s success at treating these devastated survivors opened up the floodgates of requests to treat scores of rescue workers, survivors and family members suffering in ways that only a cataclysm like Sept. 11th could result. Driven by the unfathomable need he encountered, Green became consumed with trying to heal these survivors, eventually treating hundreds of them pro bono.
Though physically safe in his Long Island office on the day of the attack, Green’s countless hours of direct exposure to countless horrific untold stories of that day left him trapped in his own endless hall of mirrors of traumatic sights and sounds from which he cannot escape.
I Witness tells the story of how he did.
I Witness opens a year later when Green is forced into therapy for the first time in 17 years. Not sure where to turn, Green seeks out his former analyst, Dr. Martin Waterman. Back in the patient chair, Green remembers and recounts traumas he witnessed vicariously through three patients. As he does, Sheila, who was on the 80th floor when the first plane hit, “Unbreakable”, a firefighter hurled 60 feet by the blast, and Lila, a mother who can’t look at the picture of her firefighter son in uniform, come to life to tell their stories.
As they do the audience is taken through an unexpected odyssey, not just through the vortex of Sept. 11th, but into the mind of a therapist with a miraculous ability to shepherd others out of their nightmares, and who now cannot seem to escape his own. And as the audience slowly discovers, Dr. Green’s own trauma is a debris cloud that goes back long before the attack on the World Trade Center.
With Waterman’s own hidden secret hanging over the sessions, Green discovers the true source of his trauma, and thus the source of his gift for healing…and finally heals himself.
I Witness is based on real people, their actual stories told in their own words, and the real life events of NYC trauma therapist David Grand, Ph.D. who successfully treated hundreds of survivors of the attack on the World Trade Center.
I Witness combines aspects of Sept. 11th portrayed in film (World Trade Center), on television (Rescue Me), and in stage productions (The Guys, Omnium Gatherium), with the hit HBO series, In Treatment, revealing the inner turmoil of the mind of the therapist himself.
I Witness has been performed in a staged reading by acclaimed actors Michele Lee, Tony Lo Bianco and James Dobson at The Duke Theatre. I Witness has also been staged at The American Place Theatre and September Space in NY, the Raleigh Theater in LA, as well as one-man-show performances in Buenos Aires, Rome, Athens, Phoenix and Jerusalem.