Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for PTSD

Maurice Prout

Introduction As a professor at the Institute for Graduate Clinical

Psychology at Widener University, Dr. Maurice Prout coordinates the school's cognitive-behavioral therapy concentration. Dr. Maurice Prout also serves as faculty liaison to the institute's Military and Veteran Behavioral Health Certificate, which teaches clinicians the skills that they need to treat veterans for PTSD and other mental health challenges

Post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, can cause a person who has experienced a traumatic event to relive the situation and the emotions that surround it. The individual may become intensely emotional, experience flashbacks to the event, and avoid situations that may be reminders of the trauma.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

Psychotherapy and counseling methodologies, including cognitive-behavioral therapy, can help an individual to cope with these symptoms and to achieve a higher quality of life.

Cognitive-behavioral therapy, or CBT, allows the client to change his or her thoughts surrounding the traumatic event and its effects. Therapist and client collaborate to identify thoughts that lead to negative emotions, and to assess whether these thoughts are adaptive or destructive. The client then learns ways of replacing these thoughts with others that are less troubling and more grounded in reality, which in turn changes the mind's response to the trauma and reduces the severity of symptoms.