Treatment for ptsd includes a range of different types of psychological therapy. You may be able to access these directly through local psychological therapy services. Psychological therapies for ptsd include:
a type of cognitive behavioural therapy (cbt) called trauma-focused cbt, or tfcbt for short
a therapy called eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing (emdr)
you would normally be offered 8 to 12 sessions of therapy.
More may be offered if you need them. To have these therapies, you need to be able to think about and recall your trauma. If you aren’t ready or able to revisit your trauma, your specialist may suggest certain other types of cbt.
Background: psychological therapies are the recommended first-line treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (ptsd). Previous systematic reviews have grouped theoretically similar interventions to determine differences between broadly distinct approaches. Consequently, we know little regarding the relative efficacy of the specific manualized therapies commonly applied to the treatment of ptsd. Objective: to determine the effect sizes of manualized therapies for ptsd. Methods: we undertook a systematic review following cochrane collaboration guidelines. A pre-determined definition of clinical importance was applied to the results and the quality of evidence was appraised using the grading of recommendations, assessment, development and evaluations (grade) approach. Results: 114 randomized-controlled trials (rcts) of 8171 participants were included.
Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) »
Work through a self-help guide for ptsd and cptsd based on trauma-focused cognitive therapy (tf-ct).
Cognitive processing therapy is a specific type of cognitive behavioral therapy that focuses on how your traumatic event is perceived and how you tend to cope with the emotional and mental part of your experience. this process includes educating you on the elements of cognitive behavioral therapy and emphasizes that you and your therapist work together as a team. Together you collaborate in processing the traumatic event and work through "stuck points. " stuck points are certain thoughts related to the trauma that are preventing recovery. This method of counseling can be conducted in an individual or group format.
There are several kinds of exposure-based therapies and examples of this include prolonged exposure therapy for ptsd, brief, eclectic psychotherapy, narrative therapy and written exposure therapies for ptsd. Exposure-based therapies for ptsd emphasize exposure to the stimuli that remind the person of the trauma and cause anxiety. Exposure may be in person, done through imaginings, written or oral. Very small amounts of exposure are initially done and then, little by little, the exposure gradually increases until the person is able to control their anxiety around that stimuli. While this therapy can sound scary at first, exposure therapy has been well studied and when done by a qualified practitioner, in a safe and steady way, it has been shown to be very effective.