Upon exploring multiple modalities for the treatment of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy by far was the most interesting. What intrigued the most about this therapy was that it is directed at decreasing a client’s avoidance strategies when coping with unwanted thoughts and emotions while increasing acceptance of the past events causing anxiety. Normally when clients are experiencing unwanted thoughts and memories of traumatizing events, they avoid behaviors and places that remind them of those memories. However, with the use of ACT these once avoided behaviors can finally be relieved. The main focus of the therapy is not solely focused on symptom reduction; it is mainly used to create a commitment to maintain behavior change in order to sustain a happy life without a disturbance of unwanted memories (Orsillo and Batten, 2005). ACT can provide provide improvement of a client’s quality of life by incorporating strategies to diminish experiential avoidance and increase acceptance of traumatizing events. By providing insight into ACT therapy with empirical based evidence supporting the use of ACT in the treatment for PTSD, I hope to increase awareness of the effectiveness of this therapy in the treatment of PTSD. In addition, provide feedback as to my personal interpretation of the efficacy of this therapy. Brief History The main approach to ACT is to get the client to stop avoiding the problems they are facing and attack it head on, in order to process internal and external cues that are triggered in the body that cause anxiety (Orsillo and Batten, 2005). Internal and external cues refer to objects or thoughts that remind an individual of the traumatizing event that occurred in their life. Bec... ... middle of paper ... ...nd commitment therapy with survivors of adult sexual assault: A case study. Clinical Case Studies, 12(3), 246-259. Orsillo, S. M., & Batten, S. V. (2005). Acceptance and Commitment Therapy in the Treatment of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. Behavior Modification, 29(1), 95-129. doi:10.1177/0145445504270876 Thompson, B. L., Luoma, J. B., & LeJeune, J. T. (2013). Using acceptance and commitment therapy to guide exposure-based interventions for posttraumatic stress disorder. Journal Of Contemporary Psychotherapy, 43(3), 133-140. doi:10.1007/s10879-013-9233- Walser, D. L., & Hayes, S. C. (2006). Acceptance and commitment therapy in the treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder: Theoretical and applied issues. In V. M. Follette, & J. I. Ruzek (Eds.), Cognitive-behavioral therapies for trauma (pp. 146−172)., 2nd ed. New York: Guilford Press.Welch, S. S., & Rothbaum, B. O.
The article under review is Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in the DSM-5: Controversy, Change, and Conceptual Considerations by Anushka Pai, Alina M. Suris, and Carol S. North in Behavioral Sciences. Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a mental health problem that some people develop after experiencing or witnessing a life-threatening event, like combat, a natural disaster, a car accident, or sexual assault (U.S. Department VA, 2007). PTSD can happen to anyone and many factors can increase the possibility of developing PTSD that are not under the person’s own control. Symptoms of PTSD usually will start soon after the traumatic event but may not appear for months or years later. There are four types of symptoms of PTSD but may show in different
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a form a therapy that is short term, problem focused, cost effective, and can be provided to a broad range of disorders and is based on evidence based practices, in fact it is has the most substantial evidence based of all psychosocial therapies (Craske, 2017, p.3). Evidence based practice are strategies that have been proven to be effective through research and science. One goal of CBT is to decrease symptoms and improve the quality of life by replacing maladaptive behaviors, emotions and cognitive responses with adaptive responses (Craske, 2017, p.24). The behavioral intervention goal is to decrease maladaptive behavior and increase adaptive behavior. The goal of cognitive intervention is to modify maladaptive cognitions, self-statements or beliefs. CBT grew out of behavioral therapy and the social learning theory (Dobson, 2012, p.9). It wasn’t until the 1950s that CBT started to swarm the psychology field. Due to nonscientific psychoanalytic approaches, there was a need for a better form of intervention which ensued to behavioral therapy (Craske, 2017, p.9). Behavioral therapy included two types of principles classical and instrumental. Classical conditioning is based on response behavior and instrumental conditioning is more voluntary behavior (Craske, 2017, p.10). Although there was improvement in treatment, clinicians were still dissatisfied
Marks, Lovell, Noshirvani, Livanou, and Thrasher (1998) did their study on the, “Treatment of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder by Exposure and/or Cognitive Restructuring.” Marks et al. (1998) main purpose for the study was to answer questions from controlled studies of posttraumatic stress disorder concern the value of cognitive restructuring alone without prolonged exposure therapy and whether its combination with prolonged exposure is enhancing. In the study, 87 patients with posttraumatic
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder is defined by our book, Abnormal Psychology, as “an extreme response to a severe stressor, including increased anxiety, avoidance of stimuli associated with the trauma, and symptoms of increased arousal.” In the diagnosis of PTSD, a person must have experienced an serious trauma; including “actual or threatened death, serious injury, or sexual violation.” In the DSM-5, symptoms for PTSD are grouped in four categories. First being intrusively reexperiencing the traumatic event. The person may have recurring memories of the event and may be intensely upset by reminders of the event. Secondly, avoidance of stimuli associated with the event, either internally or externally. Third, signs of mood and cognitive change after the trauma. This includes blaming the self or others for the event and feeling detached from others. The last category is symptoms of increased arousal and reactivity. The person may experience self-destructive behavior and sleep disturbance. The person must have 1 symptom from the first category, 1 from the second, at least 2 from the third, and at least 2 from the fourth. The symptoms began or worsened after the trauma(s) and continued for at least one
Francine Shapiro developed the therapeutic intervention called Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR) in 1987. In the ten years prior, Shapiro, a PhD in English Literature, took an interest in behavior therapy and when she was diagnosed with cancer, it was the impetus for her to focus on, “ the interplay of mind and external stressors” (Shapiro, 2001). The foundation of EMDR and its use is firmly committed to the belief that clinicians must be properly trained and supervised in the methods, through programs offered worldwide to increase the rate of success. EMDR has many components and a detailed structure, but in essence the premise insists that individuals early life experiences are integral in the formation of psychopathology. The overarching goal is for clients to convert this dysfunction “from the past and transform it in to something useful” (Shapiro, 2001). Studies have shown that EMDR is an evidence-based practice, effective for the treatment of psychological trauma, specifically Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. EMDR has also shown efficacy in the treatment of other mental health disorders and has been used in substance use treatment, often co-morbid with PTSD. The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) states that people who have been exposed to trauma have higher likelihood of abusing substances.
Resick, P. A., & Schnicke, M. K. (2007). Cognitive therapy for posttraumatic stress disorder. Journal of Cognitive Psychotherapy, 15(4), 321–329.
Foa, E. B., Keane, T. M., Friedman, M. J., & Cohen, J. A. (Eds.). (2008). Effective treatments for PTSD: practice guidelines from the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies. Guilford Press.
Stapleton, J. A., Taylor, S., & Asmundson, G. G. (2006). Effects of three PTSD treatments on
...ate with their therapists. “A systematic relationship between the therapists' personal reactions to the patient and the quality of their communication, diagnostic impressions, and treatment plans” (Horvath & Greenberg, ). While positive attitudes from the therapists are more likely to result in a successful treatment, negative attitudes will not develop the necessary cooperation from the clients side to successfully reach the goal of the therapy.
In this paper I will be writing about the program Trauma Affect Regulation: Guide for Education and Therapy or also known as TARGET. This program is a manualized, trauma-focused psychotherapy for adolescents and/or adults suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder. This program is rated EFFECTIVE on the crimesolutions.gov website. Their where significant reductions in measures of PTSD symptoms and anxiety for the treatment group compared to the control group. In this paper I will be going over the outcomes of the two main studies, who this program is for, and how it helps those in need of this program.
The rapport and friendship built throughout this movie is vital to the success of the therapy exhibited here. This is a great example of Gestalt therapeutic approach and helps to identify most of the techniques incorporated. The techniques and ways of gently confronting but pushing a client all the way through are very beneficial to each viewer of this film.
The investigators sought out potential subjects through referrals from psychiatric hospitals, counseling centers, and psychotherapists. All potential subjects were screened with a scripted interview and if they met all the inclusion criteria they met with an investigator who administered the Clinical-Administered PTSD Scale(CAPS) to provide an accurate diagnosis. In the end the study ended up with 12 subject, 10 females and 2 males with a mean age of 41.4, that met the criteria for PTSD with treatment resistant symptoms, which were shown with a CAPS score of greater than or equal to 50.
In the preparation phase, the therapist starts to teach the client some self-care techniques that could guide the client to control his/her emotions (Bartson, 2011). Self-care techniques are also very helpful in guiding the clients’ emotions during and between sessions (Bartson, 2011). In this stage of the therapy, the therapist is able to thoroughly explain the therapy to the patient in the aspect of the process, expectations during and after therapy (Bartson, 2011). Trust is usually developed in this phase of the therapy between the therapist and the client (Bartson,
There are hundreds of different kinds of psychiatric disorders listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th ed. (DSM-IV). One of them is called Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Based on the research, post-traumatic disorder usually occurs following the experience or witnessing of life-threatening events such as military combat, natural disasters, terrorist incidents, serious accidents, or violent personal assaults like rape (Harvard Women’s Health Watch, 2005). The purpose of this paper is to discuss the risk factors, pathophysiology, clinical manifestation, diagnostic criteria and tests, treatment, prognosis and future research and approaches to treat this psychiatric illness of post-traumatic stress disorder.
Hayes, S. C. & Strosahl, K. D. (2005) (Eds.), A practical guide to Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. New York: Springer-Verlag.