How Can Cognitive Processing Therapy Help People With Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder?

Many people will live through traumatic experiences at some point during their lives — and a significant portion of them will develop post-traumatic stress disorder, particularly if they have been exposed to multiple traumas.

For these people, the trauma never really ends, as it continues to invade every aspect of their existence. They may suffer from flashbacks or other reexperiencing symptoms at the slightest, and sometimes subconscious, reminder of the past, and they may go to great lengths to avoid physical and mental triggers. People with PTSD may live under the shadow of chronic fear, self-blame, and anger, or they may become so emotionally numb that they're unable to experience any positive feelings. They're often constantly on the lookout for new danger, quite automatically. 

While some who meet the diagnostic criteria for PTSD recover without treatment, many trauma survivors will find discover that time definitely isn't a healer, as their wellbeing and daily functioning continue to be heavily impacted by the events that traumatized them. 

If that describes you, or someone you care about, you're aware that the recommended treatments for post-traumatic stress disorder can include medications (like antidepressants and sleeping pills) as well as talk therapy. But not all kinds of psychotherapy are suitable for every person and every condition, so you can't just walk into a random psychologist's clinic and assume they'll be able to help you. 

What is cognitive processing therapy?

Cognitive processing therapy — which belongs to the cognitive behavioral branch of psychotherapy — is considered to be among the most successful treatment options for PTSD. Usually quite a short term therapy that may take no more than 12 sessions (of about an hour to 90 minutes), it helps you process your trauma, analyze the impact it still has on you now, and catch ways of thinking that may no longer be beneficial to you. 

Depending on your preference, cognitive processing therapy can be one-on-one with a therapist, or delivered through group sessions in which you will participate together with other people, who will usually have lived through similar traumas as yourself.

Anyone who takes the plunge and starts a course of CPT can expect the following components:

• First, the therapist will help you come to a greater understanding of the ways in which PTSD can "hijack" the mind. You'll learn about the way the thoughts you're having impact your mood, behavior, and worldview. 
• Next, you'll be asked to write an impact statement detailing your worst traumatic experiences. You can expect this to be tough, but you may already see that it helps challenge unhelpful coping strategies like avoidance of reminders of the trauma. 
• Your therapist will help you uncover exactly how the trauma affects you right now, how you're coping, and what old thought patterns have become a burden rather than a help. You'll learn better coping strategies. By talking (and often writing, too) about the trauma in detail, you process it, lightening the load. 
• You'll put your new coping strategies to work, you'll get homework to do, and you and your therapist will evaluate how that's helping you and how you can continue your path towards healing. 

Does cognitive processing therapy really work?

Yes, cognitive processing therapy helps many people with PTSD reach remission or reduce the severity of their symptoms. It's one of the most effective treatments for people with post-traumatic stress disorder currently "on the market". US Veterans Affairs (VA) highly recommend it, as does the American Psychological Association. 

People just starting out with it may not immediately feel cognitive processing therapy is helpful, however. Some people will even find that therapy makes PTSD symptoms worse for a while. If you've been especially heavy on the avoidance symptoms, that's only to be expected — therapy involves mentally going back, on purpose, to the place of your worst moments. 

In time, however, you are incredibly likely to find that the sessions and the work you do outside of them really help you. You may feel worse, and then better; like a weight has been lifted, as you learn to give the trauma a place.