Presenting Common Reactions to Trauma in PE Therapy Session 2
Associate Vice-Chair of Clinical Research, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Emory University School of Medicine
Director, Emory Healthcare Veterans Program
Director, Emory Trauma and Anxiety Recovery Program
Paul A. Janssen Chair in Neuropsychopharmacology
Key Points
- The common reactions to trauma discussion is a conversation.
- It helps to:
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- Gather information about the patient’s experience.
- Educate, validate, and normalize.
- Instill hope.
Materials Downloads
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Transcript
In video 3, we’re going to discuss the reactions to trauma that we’ll present in session 2.
One of the most important parts of session 2 is the discussion of the common reactions to trauma. It’s very important that this is a conversation, not a lecture or a soliloquy. We recommend that you print this out: one copy for yourself, one copy for your patient. When I do it, I highlight, I make notes, I underline so I can refer to it, but I’m not reading it.
Foa, E., Hembree, E. A., Rothbaum, B. O., & Rauch, S. (2019). Prolonged exposure therapy for PTSD: Emotional processing of traumatic experiences - Therapist guide (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press. Rothbaum, B. O., Foa, E., Hembree, E. A., & Rauch, S. (2019). Reclaiming your life from a traumatic experience: Client workbook (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press.
In this part of our psychoeducation, discussing the common reactions has three main purposes. We want to elicit from the patient his or her own experience of their PTSD symptoms and related problems. We want to educate, validate, and normalize the patient’s experiences and symptoms in the context of PTSD. Very often, especially if the trauma occurred years or even decades earlier, patients don’t necessarily identify what’s been happening to them as PTSD symptoms. They may just think they’re weak or they’re being babies or they’re not handling it very well. So it’s important to let them know, no, this is PTSD and we have treatments for it. And that one of the other goals is to instill hope. We want to help the patient realize that a good deal of their distressing symptoms and problems are directly related to PTSD and that much of this should improve as we go through treatment.
Foa, E., Hembree, E. A., Rothbaum, B. O., & Rauch, S. (2019). Prolonged exposure therapy for PTSD: Emotional processing of traumatic experiences - Therapist guide (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press. Rothbaum, B. O., Foa, E., Hembree, E. A., & Rauch, S. (2019). Reclaiming your life from a traumatic experience: Client workbook (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press.