How Psychotherapy Can Help Overcome PTSD

Psychotherapy can improve the life of a traumatized person. PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) is common in people who have survived traumatic events. Emotional and mental disturbances make their healing almost impossible. That is why PTSD patients cannot live normal lives. Treating this mental condition can take time. If you want to know how psychotherapy can help you win over PTSD, here are the details.

Prolonged exposure

This can teach PTSD patients how to face trauma-related situations and memories. The patients can learn that the triggers are not harmful at all. Prolonged exposure can trigger anxiety in most patients. Even so, psychiatrists say that this is a healthy way to accept terrifying stimuli. Prolonged exposure treatment can last for about three months. This includes weekly one-on-one sessions.

CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy)

CBT concentrates on the patient’s behaviors, feelings, and thoughts. It focuses on the patient’s problems. Then, the treatment will change the patient’s disruptive state. CBT encourages PTSD patients to recheck their thinking. This can help them spot the unhealthy mental distortions. Regular sessions can help the patient cope and heal.

Brief eclectic psychotherapy

This treatment combines the psychodynamic technique and CBT. It focuses on removing shame and guilt. Brief eclectic psychotherapy stresses the relationship between the therapist and the PTSD patient. The patient will attend 16 one-on-one sessions. Each one will last for 45 minutes to an hour. This treatment will be for patients who went through one traumatic event.

CPT (cognitive processing therapy)

CPT runs on the idea that the patient may not have processed the trauma right after it happened. The patient may not be concluding the trauma the right way because of a lack of comprehension. Afterwards, wrong conclusions may start filling the patient’s mind. CPT’s goal is to spot and restructure the wrong conclusions. It often takes 12 sessions to process the trauma through this psychotherapy. This is possible through writing and talking about the experience.

Narrative exposure therapy

This psychotherapy helps patients set a life narrative of the traumatic events. Narrative exposure therapy is for people who went through several complicated traumas. These traumas may be due to social, cultural, or political factors. The resulting narrative can lead to a clearer understanding of the traumas.

EFT (emotional freedom technique)

One of this psychotherapy’s elements is tapping. It is like acupressure, which uses physical pressure on specific points of the skin. It then relieves muscle tension and pain. It will take four to 10 sessions.

The therapist will teach the patient to tap rhythms on the areas like the collarbones. The patient will reframe the memories of the trauma while tapping. This treatment decreases cortisol levels in the body. The patient will then achieve lower stress levels after this type of psychotherapy.

Neurofeedback

This treatment is also called neurotherapy. It keeps an eye on the brain with electroencephalography. This psychotherapy combines techniques like guided imagery and constructed visualizations. Studies show that this treatment is effective among veterans of the Vietnam war. Their PTSD became better for about 30 months after neurofeedback sessions.