Abstract

The purpose of this chapter is to provide essential empirical knowledge and evidence-based practices relevant for psychological support of those who survive a traumatic event under isolation or captivity. These include research of resilience and vulnerabilities factors from the past 30 years in risk management and intervention for traumatic stress management, both used to prepare students for survival programs and to assist recovered personnel who survived isolation and/or captivity. In this respect, one of the inherent roles of the psychologists is to bring their expertise into the training environment through stress inoculation mechanisms, teach students to recognize individual reactions to extreme stress and prevent clinical outcomes. Therefore, it is necessary to consider the effects of isolation and captivity on an individual, professional, family and social level, taking into account possible exploitation in captivity, gender differences in coping strategies, pain perception and management, posttraumatic stress disorder and secondary traumatization. At the same time, adequate management of traumatic stress can be complemented by early intervention programs used primarily to calm and stabilize patients with acute stress reactions and to treat intrusive sensory and motor fragments, promoting adaptive integration, expressed in post-traumatic growth, self-assertion, resilience and other functionality indicators.