How Psychotherapy Helps PTSD

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and anxiety after traumatic events are difficult mental health challenges that can affect every part of your life, even your physical health. Psychotherapy helps PTSD by reducing stress responses to triggering events or experiences, correcting unhelpful beliefs, and learning coping skills so you can better respond to distress. 

Who Experiences PTSD?

When most people hear about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD they think of war veterans and first responders, people who face disasters and conflict every day. It is true that many (but not all) veterans experience traumatic events during their time of service, which can result in symptoms of PTSD, including:

• Flashbacks
• Nightmares
• Intrusive Thoughts
• Memory issues
• Dissociative events or derealization
• Mood dysregulation including guilt, numbness, recklessness, aggression, or depression
• Avoidance behaviors

But they’re not the only ones. People in every profession and stage of life can experience PTSD as a result of a traumatic life event. It is a mental health condition that is an unhealthy or disordered response to a violent or traumatic event, which continues for an extended time after the event is over. You may experience PTSD if you:

• Are the victim or survivor of violence or abuse
• Are in a severe car accident
• Experience a severe injury or major health event
• Have a difficult childbirth experience
• Face family disruptions such as divorce or unexpected relocation
• Experience harassment or bullying (including as a child, teenager, or at work)
• Experience a natural disaster
• Lose a caregiver, parent, relative, or close friend
• Work in an industry helping other people deal with trauma

How Do You Know If You Have PTSD?

PTSD can only be diagnosed after the traumatic event is over. While you may experience distress in the days immediately following the event, these may be natural stress responses, or aggravation of a different anxiety disorder, and not necessarily symptoms of PTSD. However, if you continue to experience symptoms like those described above for an extended period of time after the event has resolved, or if they seem to resurface in the face of specific triggers (such as sights, sounds, smells, events, or ideas), you might have PTSD. When discussing your symptoms with your doctor, psychotherapist, or mental health professional, it is important to disclose any traumatic experiences you may have faced. Otherwise, your PTSD may be incorrectly diagnosed as anxiety or depression. 

How Psychotherapy Helps PTSD

The good news is that psychotherapy is often an effective treatment for PTSD. In 2023, the Departments of Veterans Affairs and Defense (VA/DoD) Clinical Practice Guideline (CPG) recommended individual trauma-based psychotherapy over other kinds of PTSD treatments, including medication. Some types of psychotherapy can also be supplemented with medications for an even greater effect. 

Psychotherapy, sometimes called “talk therapy” can be highly effective in treating PTSD and other trauma responses because it has a low chance of negative side effects, and can be used for children and adults alike. Rather than using chemicals to negate or smooth out behavioral symptoms, talk therapy builds stress management skills and reduces the distress caused by triggers, so that you can live a better, more complete life and take control of your mental health.

Types of Psychotherapy Used to Treat PTSD

There are different types of psychotherapy that your mental health professional may use, alone or in combination, to help with your PTSD. 

PTSD Assessment

Before diving into treatment, your psychotherapist or general practitioner may have you undergo a detailed PTSD assessment. This will give your mental health provider a clear picture of your symptoms, so your treatment can be tailored to your situation and needs.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) helps you understand the connections and relationships between your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Using it, you may be able to more clearly identify your triggers and the emotional and cognitive responses they cause. Then you and your psychotherapist can focus on changing those patterns, to improve emotional reulation and reduce unhelpful thinking. 

Cognitive Processing Therapy

Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) is a type of CBT that helps you challenge and unlearn unhelpful beliefs related to the trauma, including misplaced guilt. Reframing the way you think about your past can help reduce your negative symptoms, intrusive thoughts, and other negative PTSD effects. 

Prolonged Exposure Therapy

In prolonged exposure therapy, you and your psychotherapist will gradually explore your trauma-related memories, feelings, and situations. If you tend to avoid specific events or triggers, your psychotherapist may introduce them in controlled ways that teach your brain they are no longer a danger. 

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a specialized PTSD treatment that pairs brief focus on a traumatic memory with a simultaneous, unrelated stimulation, such as tracking a moving finger or light. This strategy helps to reduce the vividness and intensity of emotions associated with the traumatic memory, making it easier for you to discuss and process what happened. 

Narrative Exposure Therapy (NET)

The way brains process traumatic memories can often result in spotty, disjointed, or confusing memories about the traumatic event and the circumstances surrounding it. It is common for PTSD survivors to have trouble putting traumatic events in order or placing them in context of other life events. Narrative Exposure Therapy (NET) helps you create a coherent life narrative that puts your traumatic life events in context, making it easier to tell your story.

Coping Skills Education

In addition to specialized PTSD psychotherapy treatments, your mental health professional may also provide you with coping skills and stress management techniques you can use when you are experiencing distress. This could include mediation, breathing techniques, exercises, journaling prompts, or other strategies. Finding the coping skills that work best for you can take time, but having a variety of tools at your disposal can reduce the duration and intensity of your PTSD symptoms when they occur. 

Get Help Coping with Traumatic Memories from an Experienced Psychotherapist

PTSD is a complicated mental health condition that can threaten everything from your relationships to your physical health. That is why it is so important that you have your PTSD properly diagnosed, assessed, and treated. Through psychotherapy and other treatments, you can take control of your mental health and improve your quality of life. 

David Stanislaw is a psychotherapist with over 30 years of experience. He helps children, teens and adults with post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental health concerns. Contact David Stanislaw to get help today.