Cognitive Behavioral Therapy And Ptsd

What Are The Different Types Of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

There are many differing CBT models, but each is based on the same principles. These are:

Below are some leading CBT models and the types of problems they can assist with.

What Are The Benefits Of Cognitive

CBT is an effective treatment for a wide range of mental health conditions, including depression, anxiety, eating disorders, substance abuse, PTSD, and more. CBT can be used to help people manage their symptoms, identify and change negative thought patterns, and improve their coping skills.

PTSD is a condition that can develop after a person experiences or witnesses a traumatic event, such as a natural disaster, a car accident, or a violent attack. Symptoms of PTSD can include flashbacks, nightmares, anxiety, and depression.

Does Va Have An App For That

Yes, CPT Coach is a mobile app that you can use with a provider during CPT. CPT Coach can help you to learn more about CPT and PTSD symptoms and helps you stay organized with worksheets as you complete CPT. CPT Coach is free and can be downloaded on most mobile devices. After your initial download, you will not be required to use any of your personal minutes or data to use the app. This app does not share any information with the VA or your provider. It is up to you if you want to show your provider your information.

Read Also: Can You Get Disability For Bipolar

Choosing Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

When you choose cognitive behavioral therapy, it is often scheduled over the course of 12-16 treatment sessions. This can take place either as group therapy or individual therapy. The following are some of the most common steps a CBT therapist uses to help trauma survivors regain their sense of confidence and control:

A CBT therapist will spend some time explaining trauma as well as the kinds of reactions people often have to a traumatic event. This information can help the individual put a plan in place for better stress management, as well as how to handle an emotional crisis if one arises.

Modifying distorted thoughts is another aspect of CBT treatment. This can help someone who has PTSD to let go of negative expectations or patterns of depressive rumination, making way for brighter possibilities.

Results In The Context Of Other Research

The results consolidate previous work that has shown the efficacy of guided internet based CBT-TF for the treatment of PTSD. Meta-analyses of face-to-face CBT-TF for PTSD found lower mean levels of improvement than our results for face-to-face CBT-TF and guided internet based CBT-TF, although participants could have had more severe PTSD, given the focus on mild to moderate PTSD to one event in our trial. However, the mean participant score of 35.1 on the CAPS-5 at baseline indicates severe PTSD and the mean number of traumatic events reported per participant was 5.5, including 42 reports of exposure to childhood abuse. The mean number of reported traumatic events was similar to that found in general population representative large scale epidemiological research. Although not explicitly investigated, the mechanism of action of the guided internet based CBT-TF used in this trial was probably similar to other CBT-TF treatments, with processing of the trauma through imaginal and in vivo exposure, coupled with effective challenges to patterns of thinking, improving the symptoms of PTSD.

Also Check: How Many Hours Can You Work On Partial Disability

Studies Involving Other Types Of Trauma

There are examples of use of CBT following natural disasters affecting huge populations.6568 It has been proposed that a randomized controlled trial of CBT for PTSD must be conducted with public health relevance and enhanced methodological rigor.69 Systematic reviews have found that individual and group trauma-focused CBT is effective in the treatment of PTSD following various kinds of trauma.70 Psychological treatments empirically supported for PTSD following different kinds of trauma are trauma-focused CBT and eye movement desensitization and reprocessing , which are efficacious and specific for PTSD.51

Five Core Elements Of The Tf

Although other variations of CBT for traumatized children and adolescents have been reviewed in recent years , this review focused on what we identified as five core elements of the current TF-CBT model and the iterations that preceded it. These are psychoeducation coping strategies, such as relaxation, identification of feelings, and cognitive coping gradual exposure, for example, through imagining or in-vivo exposure cognitive processing and caregiver participation, such as parent training and conjoint sessions. Although studies that were conducted before publication of the most recent treatment manual used an earlier version of the manual, all the studies reviewed here adhered to the five key elements we have identified.

You May Like: How Long Does It Take To Get Ss Disability Approved

Cbt For Ptsd In A Veteran

Jamie, a 36-year-old Iraq war veteran, reports having had symptoms of PTSD for the past six and a half years. He continuously avoids thoughts, memories, or images that could be connected with the experience of his fellow unit members and himself driving over an explosive device while traveling to another base.

Jamie reports a history of difficulties attending work for a number of days out of the week, repeated nightmares of the event, higher levels of depressive moods along with some irritability, and difficulty feeling connected with his spouse and other family members.

Jamie goes to 12 to 16 sessions of cognitive behavioral therapy with a focus on prolonged exposure to process these emotions and thoughts to reduce avoidance. During these sessions, the therapist assigns Jamie weekly homework assignments to regularly practice coping skills. The therapist encourages Jamie to journal his anxiety levels each day to increase awareness of stress, anxiety, and his other symptoms. In doing so, Jamies therapist hopes that he will increase self-expression about how he is feeling to be able to rely both on himself and a support system. This helps Jamie to monitor and reduce the impact of his symptoms by becoming aware of his warning signs and the need to initiate his coping skills.

What Are The Treatment Goals Of Tf

Trauma can impact individuals in various ways. Even though some are resilient and do not develop serious behavioural or emotional problems, that is not the case for everyone. The main focus of TF-CBT is to address the symptoms activated by the trauma, along with any associated issues.

TF-CBT treatment goals include:

• Help the individual recognise and accept that they are not responsible for the trauma
• Reduce symptoms related to or triggered by the trauma
• Assist the person in improving all areas of functioning that were affected by the trauma
• Lessen any acting out behaviour connected to the trauma
• Help mend and strengthen relationships, including communication and attachment

Recommended Reading: Do You Claim Va Disability On Taxes

Is Cbt Effective For Ptsd

While cognitive behavioral therapy research continues to grow, it is one of the most widely-researched psychotherapy treatments and has been found to be effective in short- and long-term approaches as well as with a variety of populations, ranging from PTSD in young children to older adults.2,4

Here are several studies highlighting the effectiveness of CBT for PTSD:

• CBT has been researched and observed to be as effective as a number of other therapy types, and research indicates that it has been culturally validated across a variety of populations.4
• Compared to a placebo, CBT was reported to be moderately helpful in treating anxiety-related disorders. The researchers did note that drop out rates were higher in PTSD samples, especially in the exposure therapy group, which infers a need for more specialized types of CBT for PTSD.11
• A research review notes that CBT can be an appropriate, safe, and helpful intervention in the presentation of acute and chronic PTSD for people of any age.4
• Research noted a significant improvement and significant reduction in symptoms of PTSD, in addition to feelings of depression and anxiety.12
• After reviewing clinical trials ranging from 1980 to 2005, researchers noted that CBT had significantly maintained healthy behaviors after treatment in comparison to EMDR and therapies that are more supportive. CBT was equal to exposure therapy and cognitive therapy in reducing PTSD symptoms and the maintenance of healthy behaviors.13

What Type Of Treatment Is This

Cognitive Processing Therapy is one specific type of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. It is a 12-session psychotherapy for PTSD. CPT teaches you how to evaluate and change the upsetting thoughts you have had since your trauma. By changing your thoughts, you can change how you feel.

Video

What is Cognitive Processing Therapy ?

Providers describe CPT in this 1 minute video.

You May Like: Does Adhd Count As A Disability

Meditation & Progressive Body Relaxation

Meditation has become highly popular in the last few years in the physical and mental health fields. When dealing with PTSD symptoms, it may be common for you to struggle with constant tenseness in your body that you feel like you cant release.

By engaging in guided meditations, guided breathing, grounding exercises, or guided progressive relaxation, you should be able to relax your body and maybe even your anxiety levels, especially if youve recently experienced a trigger.

PTSD can be difficult to recover from, but you dont have to do it alone. BetterHelp has over 20,000 licensed therapists who provide convenient and affordable online therapy. BetterHelp starts at $60 per week. Complete a brief questionnaire and get matched with the right therapist for you.

Choosing Therapy partners with leading mental health companies and is compensated for referrals by BetterHelp

How Effective Is Tf

Esther Deblinger, Judith Cohen and Anthony Mannarino originally developed trauma-focused CBT, all of whom are experienced doctors of medicine and psychology. The therapeutic treatment method has been carefully studied and polished over the last 25 years. 14 randomised and controlled trials have already been conducted in countries throughout Europe, the US and Africa, comparing the outcomes of completed TF-CBT sessions with those of other therapeutic approaches.

Each one of these studies established that this specific method was superior in providing trauma survivors and their immediate families with the support and direction required to overcome destructive traumatic experiences and associated disorders.

Don’t Miss: How Long Does It Take To Get Social Security Disability

Cbt For Ptsd In Children And Adolescents

PTSD is a common psychiatric condition in childhood and adolescence following traumatic events.71,72 CBT has been considered to be the first choice of treatment of PTSD in children and adolescents.73,74 The effectiveness and feasibility of CBT have been established even for preschool children with PTSD following a range of traumatic events. It has been concluded that young children can cooperate meaningfully in structured, trauma-related exposure exercises and can utilize relaxation techniques successfully. Highly anxious parents do not inhibit their childrens improvement per se, as long as they can facilitate the manual techniques.75 Studies of CBT in children comparing PTSD with EMDR and play therapy are methodologically more rigorous, having used manualized, reproducible treatment, and contain examples of group-based or school-based therapies.76

Practice The Abc Technique

The ABC Model allows you to explore more about how or where a negative or maladaptive belief began.

Here are the first three steps:

This gives you the chance to challenge your interpretation of the trigger or belief that influenced the consequences. By engaging in this practice in a journal, you can actively track the cognitive restructuring in a more structured manner, giving you the opportunity to challenge a belief or emotional response that may have started following a traumatic event.

Don’t Miss: How To Win A Disability Reconsideration

Cbt Interventions For Ptsd

Created by Dr. Aaron Beck, cognitive behavioral therapy is a form of psychotherapy that looks at the connection between your thoughts and your behaviors, moods, and attitudes.

The premise behind CBT is that our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are interconnected, and thus when we make changes in one area, we inherently shift the others, explains Elena Welsh, a licensed clinical psychologist in Los Angeles, California.

So What Does Cognitive Behavioural Therapy Mean

Cognition is the word that sums up our thought processes, and the way we constantly analyse input from our senses and memory, to make decisions on how to behave.

As far back as the early 1900s, an Austrian psychotherapist called Alfred Adler identified that focusing on resolving unpleasant emotions and thoughts could result in successful psychotherapy. As with many of the techniques we use today, this initial basic concept has been developed and combined with other theories and practices to create something really powerful and effective.

This is now a widely used therapy. It focuses on that link between thoughts, feelings and action in one-to-one sessions, or you can have CBT in a group of people with the same challenges. There are also CBT online therapists.

Read Also: How Much Of My Social Security Disability Is Taxable

How Does Cbt Help With Ptsd

Cognitive behavioral therapy is a positive and effective treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder .2 CBT helps those with PTSD by challenging the unhealthy thought processes and emotions connected to someones trauma. Challenging these thought processes allows the patient to acknowledge the reality of the trauma. In addition, CBT can help by increasing someones emotional insight through exploring responses to reminders of the trauma.

Talking Treatments For Ptsd

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence the organisation that produces guidelines on best practice in health care currently recommends two types of talking treatment for PTSD:

• Trauma-focused cognitive behavioural therapy . This is a form of cognitive behavioural therapy specifically adapted for PTSD. NICE recommends that you are offered 812 regular sessions of around 6090 minutes, seeing the same therapist at least once a week. See our pages on for more information about this therapy.
• Eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing . This is a fairly new treatment that can reduce PTSD symptoms such as being easily startled. It involves making rhythmic eye movements while recalling the traumatic event. The rapid eye movements are intended to create a similar effect to the way your brain processes memories and experiences while you’re sleeping. EMDR Association UK – a professional association of EMDR clinicians and researchers – provides lots more information about EMDR on its website. They also have a search function to find EMDR-accredited therapists in your area.

NICE may recommend other talking treatments in future if they are found to help with PTSD, but more research is needed.

One of the most disturbing things has been the feelings of aggression and anger towards anyone who looks like the person who attacked me… EMDR therapy has been massively helpful.

What if I don’t feel better?

You May Like: Can You Collect Unemployment After Disability Runs Out In California

Eye Movement Desensitization & Reprocessing

Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing is a newer treatment in the CBT world that focuses on talking about the traumatic event or memories, processing this information, and giving attention to a back and forth movement with the eyes. The purpose is to match the way you mentally process memories unconsciously to help reduce the amount of stress and anxiety related to the memories.1,5,9

Using Cbt To Treat Ptsd

Therapists use a variety of techniques to aid patients in reducing symptoms and improving functioning. Therapists employing CBT may encourage patients to re-evaluate their thinking patterns and assumptions in order to identify unhelpful patterns in thoughts, such as overgeneralizing bad outcomes, negative thinking that diminishes positive thinking, and always expecting catastrophic outcomes, to more balanced and effective thinking patterns. These are intended to help the person reconceptualize their understanding of traumatic experiences, as well as their understanding of themselves and their ability to cope.

Exposure to the trauma narrative, as well as reminders of the trauma or emotions associated with the trauma, are often used to help the patient reduce avoidance and maladaptive associations with the trauma. Note, this exposure is done in a controlled way, and planned collaboratively by the provider and patient so the patient chooses what they do. The goal is to return a sense of control, self-confidence, and predictability to the patient, and reduce escape and avoidance behaviors.

You May Like: What Not To Tell A Disability Doctor

Treating Ptsd: A Review Of Evidence

• Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, United States

Posttraumatic stress disorder is a chronic, often debilitating mental health disorder that may develop after a traumatic life event. Fortunately, effective psychological treatments for PTSD exist. In 2017, the Veterans Health Administration and Department of Defense and the American Psychological Association each published treatment guidelines for PTSD, which are a set of recommendations for providers who treat individuals with PTSD. The purpose of the current review article is to briefly review the methodology used in each set of 2017 guidelines and then discuss the psychological treatments of PTSD for adults that were strongly recommended by both sets of guidelines. Both guidelines strongly recommended use of Prolonged Exposure , Cognitive Processing Therapy and trauma-focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy . Each of these treatments has a large evidence base and is trauma-focused, which means they directly address memories of the traumatic event or thoughts and feelings related to the traumatic event. Finally, we will discuss implications and future directions.

Trauma Survivors And Their Limbic System

In normal circumstances, the nervous system turns the body back into its usual status once the threat has passed. It does this by lessening stress hormones and enabling the brain to go back to its normal function. However, that reaction does not happen for some survivors of trauma. Instead, it keeps them in a responsive state.

The traumatic event is never given access to the neomammalian brain, which is the section of the brain that controls decision-making, cognitive processing, self-awareness and memory. It is also the area of the brain that enables us to process traumatic events and enables us to heal. For trauma survivors, the event stays stuck in the limbic brain, and the amygdala remains overly stimulated. Trauma survivor then become trapped in a circle of endless arousal, searching for and sensing threats everywhere.

Since the memory of the traumatic event stays in the limbic brain, which does not recognise the notion of time, events that occurred many years ago can seem as though they are happening right now. That is why people with PTSD continue to relive the trauma through nightmares and flashbacks and appear like they are stuck in the past.

Recommended Reading: Is Ptsd A Disability Under Ada