Have you experienced a situation in which you feared for your own safety or the safety of a loved one? Following this situation, have you suddenly felt intense feelings of anger, shame, guilt, sadness, or fear? Do you ever feel as though you are mentally transported back to that event and are reliving it? Do you often feel numb or detached from your body or from your current experiences? Do you find yourself second guessing most of your decisions?
If this feels like you, you may be experiencing symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Traumatic events, or situations in which something happens that leads you to fear for your own safety or the safety of a loved one, can alter how we view the world, our sense of safety, our ability to regulate our emotions, and our trust in others. Symptoms of PTSD may arise shortly after a traumatic event or they may appear after years of experiencing adverse events in childhood, such as abuse, neglect, maltreatment, or significant stress across childhood such as a contentious parental divorce.
One of the primary treatments for PTSD is Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT), a brief, structured, evidence-based treatment for teens (14+) and adults. CPT focuses on targeting thought patterns and emotional responses that maintain symptoms of PTSD and requires that patients actively practice skills between therapy sessions. CPT typically lasts between 12-18 sessions. While this treatment was originally developed for adult survivors of sexual assault, it has been applied to a wide variety of traumatic events and is considered effective both for victims of single traumatic events and multiple traumatic events.
CPT starts through educating patients on the PTSD cycle and how PTSD alters our perceptions of the world and our emotional responses. Early in treatment, patients will write an impact statement, which involves their description of why they think their most distressing traumatic event occurred and their beliefs about themselves, others, and the world following the traumatic event. This is not an exposure-focused exercise in which the patient is asked to describe their traumatic event. Instead, the goal is to unpack how trauma may have changed their thoughts and emotions. The goal of therapy is then to learn new cognitive skills and emotion regulation skills to challenge these trauma beliefs and process the world in a new way. CPT starts through focusing on the past and gradually shifts to focusing on the present and the future to lead to lasting change. In CPT, special emphasis is also placed on a patient’s beliefs about safety, trust, power/control, esteem, and intimacy. These are specific beliefs that are often altered following a traumatic event.
Throughout CPT, there is no emphasis placed on sharing details of the trauma unless the patient chooses to share. Instead, we emphasize recognizing the harmful thought patterns and emotional responses that occur following a traumatic event and focus on changing these to recognize current safety, trust, and self-respect with a goal of increasing your self-confidence. Patients typically report feeling more confident regulating their emotions, advocating for their needs, recognizing who they can trust, and increased self-worth following CPT.
If you are looking for support processing a traumatic event, we are here to help!
If you are located in NYC and are seeking support, contact the Gordon Therapy Group. Dr. Graham provides telehealth therapy services and in-person neuropsychological evaluations through this practice located on the Upper West Side. The team members of Gordon Therapy Group are well-versed in CPT and can provide in-person support. Learn more here: https://gordontherapygroup.com/