Trauma — Xplorio Therapy | CBT | ACT | EMDR

Trauma / PTSD:

The NICE guidelines recommends both Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) and Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) for the treatment of trauma.

If you decide to choose EMDR as your treatment of choice, your therapist will collaborate with you to develop an understanding of your trauma. They will complete an assessment of your trauma and the physical and physiological ways that it manifests. The therapist will work with you to build resources and grounding techniques to help you feel balanced throughout your treatment. They will help you to choose a specific point of your trauma that holds the most meaning and they will examine the beliefs that you hold in present day surrounding that incident. Your therapist will then use a technique of bilateral stimulation (eye movements, hand tapping, etc) that feels most comfortable for you. They will encourage you to think about the incident (without verbalising) whilst performing bilateral stimulation. During this process, the therapist will check-in to assess what you are thinking and will encourage you to continue until no new information is generated. This process will be repeated as many times as needed until the memory no longer generates distress.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is also a recommended therapy for the treatment of trauma. During your treatment, your therapist will assess the components of your trauma and they will work with you to set goals and develop a formulation of the problem. Your therapist will look at factors, such as your appraisal of the event and the symptoms you experience as a consequence of the event. They will collaborate with you to develop a bespoke treatment plan, involving reclaiming your life (the things that trauma has stopped you from doing), stimulus discrimination and exposure to help lessen the distress caused by the event.

What to look out for:

If you were exposed to: death, threatened death, actual or threatened serious injury, or actual or threatened sexual violence, in the following way(s): Direct exposure, Witnessing the trauma, Learning that a relative or close friend was exposed to a trauma, Indirect exposure to aversive details of the trauma, usually in the course of professional duties (e.g., first responders, medics).
The traumatic event is persistently re-experienced in the following way(s): Unwanted upsetting memories, Nightmares, Flashbacks, Emotional distress after exposure to traumatic reminders, Physical reactivity after exposure to traumatic reminder.
Avoidance of trauma-related stimuli after the trauma, in the following way(s): Trauma-related thoughts or feelings, Trauma-related external reminders.
Negative thoughts or feelings that began or worsened after the trauma, in the following way(s): Inability to recall key features of the trauma, Overly negative thoughts and assumptions about oneself or the world, Exaggerated blame of self or others for causing the trauma, Negative affect, Decreased interest in activities, Feeling isolated, Difficulty experiencing positive affect.
Trauma-related arousal and reactivity that began or worsened after the trauma, in the following way(s): Irritability or aggression, Risky or destructive behavior, Hypervigilance, Heightened startle reaction, Difficulty concentrating, Difficulty sleeping.