What are the psychotherapy techniques for post-traumatic stress?

Post-traumatic stress is a psychological disorder associated with a traumatic experience that produces consequences that can last for years or even decades if not treated by professionals. That is why it is important to know its characteristics to go to therapy as soon as its symptoms appear, without letting time go by and the psychopathology is consolidated in the memory system of the person who suffer.

In this article We will talk about post-traumatic stress disorder and the psychotherapeutic techniques used for its intervention.

• Related article: "What is trauma and how does it influence our lives?"

What is post-traumatic stress?

Post-traumatic stress appears as an independent disorder for the first time in the third edition of the Diagnostic Manual of the American Psychiatric Association (DSM III). Currently, the DSM 5 establishes that to diagnose it in a patient, compliance with at least 4 Criteria or symptomatological categories to be able to make the diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Likewise, it will be necessary for the symptoms to be present for more than a month and, as with other disorders,

that the situation generates discomfort in the subject or its functionality is affected.

The diagnostic criteria are the following:

• The presence of a limit experience is necessary for which the life of the subject or of a very close individual is in danger.
• Reexperiencing: The patient shows intrusive thoughts related to the trauma.
• Avoidance: the subject avoids stimuli or people that remind him of the traumatic event.
• Negative cognitions and affects: Mood and type of thinking become more negative after the traumatic event.
• Hyperarousal: increased bodily arousal linked to the traumatic event.

The trauma that triggers the onset of PTSD is thought to be actually the trace that the traumatic experience leaves in the emotional memory of the person, that is, the part of our mental activity dedicated to storing and evoking the charge emotional link to an event we have experienced (which cannot be expressed directly in words). As this memory content is "filed" in a dysfunctional way, it gives rise to crises of anxiety and emotional imbalances when it emerges in the form of flashbacks, intrusive thoughts, etc.

• You may be interested: "Emotional memory: what is it and what is its biological basis?"

Psychotherapy techniques used in post-traumatic stress disorder

Now that we know better what are the characteristic symptoms of PTSD and the alteration that these entail, Let's see what the intervention of a psychology professional can consist of in the face of this kind of alteration mental. Different types of pharmacological and psychological treatments have been tried, the latter being the ones that have shown greater efficacy because they are not limited to mitigating symptoms in the short and medium term.

Thus, here we will see the most used psychotherapy techniques in the face of PTSD and that allow us to intervene on the root of the problem (although they do not have to all used in a therapeutic process, everything depends on the specialties of the psychologist and the needs of the person who needs help professional).

1. exposure therapy

Exposure therapy is one of the techniques that has shown greater efficacy. As its name indicates, this usually consists of repeatedly and prolonged exposure to trauma-related stimuli or symptomatology.

The exhibition can be done both live and in imagination, depending on the type of event traumatic and depending on where we are in the intervention, how prepared the patient. In general, live exposure is more effective, but it generates more rejection, because it is usually more uncomfortable and difficult to face.

• Related article: "Exposure therapy with response prevention: what it is and how it is used"

2. narrative therapy

Narrative therapy is based above all on dialogue and the word, and is one of the most used resources in the framework of humanistic psychology. Its objective is to help the person to reinterpret their past without being carried away by a bias of negativity and dysfunctional pessimism, so that you are able to reconnect with the experience of living a life with sense. In this way, it helps the person stop assuming that she is doomed to stagnate in her progress towards happiness and to suffer, and can continue participating in an exciting life project which can be the protagonist.

• You may be interested: "Narrative therapy: a quick method that transforms your life"

3. Rapid eye movement treatment, desensitization and reprocessing

This technique, known as EMDR for its acronym in English, has as its main purpose carry out a new processing of the traumatic experience to ensure that the memory is integrated into the memory system in a more adequate way. This intervention consists of 8 phases, some of them being more important than others, but the result is that the traumatic experience ceases to have the power to emotionally destabilize the person to the point that it is a issue.

4. Meditation and Mindfulness

Meditation and mindfulness training have been used mainly for the purpose of reduce the risk of relapse and increase the resilience of patients, that is, the ability to face and overcome negative events and continue to develop in a functional way. These therapeutic resources help the person to be able to focus on the present moment from an attitude of acceptance, letting go of obsessive thoughts that lead to psychological rumination and constant re-experiencing of the trauma.

• Related article: "What is Mindfulness? The 7 answers to your questions

5. dialectical behavioral therapy

This therapy is primarily used for patients with borderline personality disorder, although early studies carried out with this intervention have reported positive results in subjects who show poor emotional regulation caused by due to trauma, as pre-exposure treatment.

6. Combined use of relaxation techniques

Relaxation techniques are not used independently, but are applied in conjunction with another intervention such as exposure, or EMDR. Thus, its efficacy has been proven using it as an adjuvant technique, and its application in isolation is generally discouraged. On the other hand, these are usually simple exercises, so that the patient can easily integrate them into their daily routines.

7. cognitive therapy

The main objective of this therapy is to modify maladaptive cognitive schemas linked to the traumatic event to reduce discomfort. One of the most used strategies in this framework is cognitive restructuring, which is directly linked with the modification of dysfunctional beliefs and interpretations about their problem that makes the patient. This modification of beliefs can be aimed at achieving more functional beliefs related to the trauma or the disorder.

Work will also be done to reduce worries, repetitive negative thoughts, dissociations and concentration difficulties.

The mode of intervention generally consists of reducing the avoidance of the traumatic memory, in order to be able to accept it and thus reduce the affectation it entails.

• You may be interested: "Cognitive restructuring: how is this therapeutic strategy?"

Do you want to have professional psychological assistance?

In Adhara Psychology We work serving people of all ages based on humanistic psychology, intervening in traumas and in all kinds of emotional disorders that make it difficult to move towards physical well-being and mental.

We can assist you in person at our center in Madrid or online via video call.