Trauma Treatment

is a time-limited, evidence-based treatment that aims to reduce anxiety and improve your quality of life. Treatment consists of approximately eight to fifteen 90-minute sessions involving psychoeducation, breathing retraining, ongoing out-of-session practice, and imaginal and in vivo exposure. By exposing yourself directly to trauma reminders both in and out of session, you will gain experience confronting situations and memories that you have previously worked to avoid. You will come to learn that you can actually tolerate these situations and the feelings they provoke, a process called habituation. You will gain a new sense of competence and confidence as a result. Through guided imaginal exposure (repeatedly revisiting the traumatic memory) in session, you will come to realize that your trauma was a specific event occurring at a specific time and place in the past. In addition, you will also gain a new perspective on the memory and see that although memories can be very scary, they are not dangerous.

is a time-limited, evidence-based treatment of approximately 12 hour-long sessions, scheduled once or twice a week. CPT helps people recover from the effects of a traumatic event by examining the impact of this event on their lives and then identifying and changing unhelpful beliefs and emotions (“stuck points”) related to the event, themselves, others, and the world. CPT begins with psychoeducation about PTSD and barriers to recovery, including the role of avoidance and stuck points. Patients are then asked to complete a brief writing assignment about how the traumatic experience(s) affects them, to help identify these stuck points. (Patients may choose to write an account of the traumatic event itself, but this is optional.) CPT helps individuals evaluate their beliefs about the trauma and consider alternative viewpoints of the event and its circumstances. As CPT progresses, individuals focus on their beliefs within five specific domains: safety, trust, power and control, self-esteem, and intimacy. People often find that traumatic events have meaningfully affected these areas of their lives. Patients are asked to complete worksheets about their thoughts between sessions. CPT has been shown to be effective for a variety of people, including individuals who struggle with substance use and those who have had several traumatic experiences. No matter the trauma or the ways it may be interfering with your life, CPT can help lessen feelings of anxiety, anger, guilt, and shame; reduce distress related to memories of traumatic events; and reclaim your life from the effects of trauma—even when this seems impossible.

is an evidence-based, time-limited treatment that addresses PTSD and complex trauma. STAIR teaches people skills, which a traumatized individual might not have learned due to early traumatic experiences or which may have diminished due to prolonged or chronic trauma later in life. STAIR is a two-phase treatment, each phase consisting of approximately 8 sessions. The first phase focuses on handling negative feelings, managing distress, and developing emotional awareness. Phase I also prepares you to work effectively in the more emotionally demanding Phase II, which involves discussion and analysis of painful memories of childhood trauma. The goal of Phase II, or Narrative Story Telling (NST), is to organize your memories of trauma and resolve your feelings about them, so that you are able to control the memories rather than the memories controlling you. In addition, the process of describing your past is a means by which you will be able to identify beliefs about yourself, as well as patterns of relating that might have been adaptive in abuse circumstances but are not helpful in current relationships. The skills training from Phase I will help you leave behind old patterns of functioning and develop interpersonal behaviors and emotion management strategies that are consistent with your current life goals. We offer both group and individual STAIR services.

is an evidence-based, brief intervention for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). The treatment is grounded in emotional processing theory, which suggests that confronting trauma-related memories and feelings in a safe, controlled environment can lead to symptom reduction. During WET, patients engage in structured writing sessions about their traumatic experiences, focusing on detailed accounts of the event and associated thoughts and emotions. This process is typically conducted over five 30-40 minute sessions, with patients writing for about 30 minutes once a week. A therapist provides guidance and instructions but does not read or directly discuss the written content, allowing for a private processing experience. This approach aims to help patients confront and process traumatic memories, leading to a reduction in avoidance behaviors and intrusive thoughts. WET is designed to address various PTSD symptoms, including: intrusive memories or flashbacks, avoidance of trauma-related stimuli, negative alterations in cognition and mood, heightened arousal and reactivity, sleep disturbances, concentration difficulties, and emotional numbing. The brevity of WET compared to other PTSD treatments may make it more accessible and less demanding for patients, potentially increasing treatment adherence and completion rates.