Many individuals experience one or more traumatic events at some point in their lives. Following a traumatic event, some people have difficulty coping. You may want to seek trauma treatment if you have experienced a terrible, stressful life event and notice yourself:
having nightmares, flashbacks, or disturbing mental images related to the trauma
feeling detached or numb
avoiding reminders of the trauma
being easily startled
feeling angry more often
having sleep problems
developing problems in your relationships, work, or other areas of your life
There are several evidence-based cognitive behavioral therapies that specifically address trauma-related issues:
Prolonged Exposure Therapy
Prolonged Exposure Therapy (PE) is a type of exposure therapy in which you revisit memories or reminders of the trauma for an extended period of time until these memories or reminders no longer cause strong anxiety or distress. PE uses imaginal exposures (revisiting the traumatic experience in your imagination) and in vivo exposures (confronting real life situations that you began to avoid after the trauma). While PE does require revisiting unpleasant feelings and memories regarding your trauma, it is a highly effective treatment that is also time limited (treatment typically lasts only a few months). Studies have shown that 80-90% of people who do PE see significant improvement, and the benefits are long lasting.
Cognitive Processing Therapy
Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) is an evidence-based, short-term trauma treatment. Trauma can change how you think about yourself and how you perceive the world, and can make thoughts and beliefs more extreme. In CPT, you examine thoughts that have changed after the trauma and develop more balanced ways of thinking. By doing this, CPT paves the way for healing.
Seeking Safety
Seeking Safety is an evidence-based trauma treatment approach that targets your thinking patterns, behaviors, and interpersonal relationships. Seeking Safety differs from PE and CPT in that it does not require you to delve into your trauma history. Instead, Seeking Safety teaches you practical techniques and coping skills to help you feel safe and more in control of your trauma symptoms. Seeking Safety is a flexible and supportive treatment and can be used to build a foundation of skills before beginning another form of trauma therapy.
Heard of EMDR?
Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) is a treatment that involves recalling aspects of the traumatic event out loud while engaging in side-to-side eye movements. The idea behind EMDR is that the visual stimulation of the eye movements will help reduce emotional and physical reactions to the trauma.
While EMDR has received a lot of publicity in the past few years, many research studies have found that the eye movement component of EMDR does not have an effect on treatment. In fact, studies have shown that EMDR is mainly effective in its similarity to Prolonged Exposure Therapy.
At the Center for Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Mindfulness, we are committed to providing only treatments in which each major component is supported by research. As such, we do not currently provide EMDR and instead strongly recommend one of the three trauma therapies described above.
