Addressing PTSD Through Trauma Focused CBT

By Donald Cox


Trauma is very much affective and damaging at all points and stages. However, let us go out on a limb here and emphasize its dire effects on children and young adults. That is perhaps because they have less things going on for them, and they are more likely to dwell on a particular event that have altered their psyche and scarred them for life. Early intervention is therefore imperative, and that is assured through trauma focused cbt Nyack.

CBT is an acronym for cognitive behavioral therapy. When talking about TFCBT, the nub of the matter are usually children or adolescents, but adults can still benefit from it. It is recognized, however, that for children a traumatic experience essentially comes under the turf of a crisis. That is because they have higher brain plasticity, which enables them to absorb a whole spectrum of learning, habits, and of course, experiences.

It may also come on gradually, such as that if the stress is building up because of past traumas. Other stressors may come in the picture and contribute to the oppressive feeling, even when it is unrelated to the event or experience itself. Also, if an experience happens repeatedly over a long period of time, then the trauma can be accordingly debilitating. Oppressive feelings, like self guilt and helplessness, also vamp up the traumatic disorder.

One has to employ a battery approach in this enterprise. That is because PTSD and its derivatives may be expressed in sundry, potentially unrecognizable ways. And, of course, there is no determining whether a particular experience or event has been traumatic to a particular person. After all, there is simply no way of keeping a weather eye open at all times and knowing all the nitty gritty of your childs life.

Having a mindset that puts preponderance on trauma is, needless to say, harmful for a person. That is because it can totally alter everything about them, from their thoughts, actions, behaviors, habits, and essentially how they live out their life. They can be particularly depressed, anxious, aggressive, suicidal, or whatnot.

Therefore, emotional reprocessing is imperative and necessary. Specific variations are existent, as with prolonged exposure therapy. With this kind of approach, patients reprocess the ordeal and then put it into perspective by finding import and meaning in it. As per its tenets, the mind is overloaded after occurrence of trauma, and that translates to difficulties in unburdening.

One can appreciate the considerable challenge in this enterprise. Thats essentially because of the diversity and stark difference in individual cases. One patient may have been a victim of domestic violence, or sexual assault, or gone through combat experiences, or else been at the receiving end of debilitating grief. Deep dives are necessary here, and the therapist has to be able to draw on a just as comprehensive knowledge and knowhow.

Because children are naturally more adaptive, a short term intervention like TFCBT does them an inordinate good. However, there is no firm evidence on this treatments effects for adult war veterans, whose PTSD may be said, in a medical standpoint, as more complex. This is also a relatively new enterprise, founded in the 1990s as a go to therapy option for young people who have experienced sexual abuse. It goes without saying that it has expanded in its patient demographic all throughout the years.

There is a whole host of benefits to be gleaned with TFCBT. For one, the patients are taught anxiety management through relaxation. They are also taught emotional regulation and healthy expression. Proper ways of coping are integrated, as well as putting the trauma narrative into perspective and working through maladaptive thoughts like self blame. There is an in vivo exposure of sorts, so that the client may gradually desensitize himself or herself to the pain and shock of the experience. And, of course, maintaining recovery is extremely important, so that they retain the methods and coping mechanisms in future situations, and it is assured that the recovery process is smooth and consistently uphill.




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