Trauma-Focused Treatment

At Psychological Healing, we primarily utilize Prolonged Exposure (PE) and Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) for our Trauma-Focused Treatment. These are two of the most highly supported, evidence-based treatments for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and other trauma-related difficulties.

What is Trauma-Focused Treatment?

Trauma-focused treatment helps you process what happened and reduce PTSD symptoms. Our clinicians offer two well-researched approaches:

Prolonged Exposure
PE teaches you how to gradually approach trauma-related memories, thoughts, and situations that you have been avoiding since experiencing your trauma. Through directly confronting these memories, thoughts, and situations, you learn how to overcome your PTSD symptoms and the impact of PTSD in your life.

 

Cognitive Processing Therapy 

CPT teaches you how to identify and challenge thoughts that you developed since your trauma that keep you stuck in your PTSD. CPT teaches you how to handle these unhelpful thoughts; during treatment, you learn skills to identify and challenge the thoughts that maintain your PTSD. By challenging and changing your thoughts, you change how you feel.

How Does It Work?

Prolonged Exposure

PE is a treatment that is typically provided over a period of three to four months of weekly psychotherapy sessions. During the initial appointment, therapists typically perform a comprehensive assessment of your trauma symptoms. After the first session, therapists will typically prepare you to engage in the treatment for 1–2 sessions. During these sessions, therapists will provide you with in-depth education about PTSD and PE, and teach you coping skills such as breathing techniques and grounding exercises. Following these sessions, exposure sessions typically begin. During exposure, there are two primary types of exposure, imaginal and in-vivo:

Imaginal Exposure

In session, you and your therapist follow a set protocol to talk through your trauma and process the emotions it brings up. You record yourself describing the event and listen between sessions to continue that processing.

In-vivo Exposure

Between sessions, you gradually confront feared situations linked to your trauma, using exercises you and your therapist plan together. Your therapist encourages you to challenge yourself at a pace that sets you up for success.

Cognitive Processing Therapy

CPT is a short-term, evidence-based treatment, typically three to five months of weekly sessions. After an assessment and education about PTSD and CPT, your therapist helps you identify “stuck points”: beliefs formed after the trauma that keep you stuck in PTSD.

For example, you may believe you are to blame or that the world is fundamentally dangerous. CPT teaches you to examine whether the facts support these thoughts, so you can build more accurate, helpful beliefs that reduce PTSD symptoms and their impact on your life.

What Can I Expect With Trauma-Focused Treatment?

Prolonged Exposure

You start by learning coping skills, then gradually process your trauma; early exposure sessions can feel hard, but talking about it usually gets easier. With your therapist’s guidance, many people notice fewer nightmares, flashbacks, and avoidance.

Cognitive Processing Therapy

You learn to identify and challenge stuck points, the beliefs your trauma shifted in ways that keep PTSD going. CPT is structured, so you build clear tools to recognize and change these beliefs.