What Trauma Treatments are:
Prolonged Exposure (PE) and Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) are two empirically-supported treatments for traumatic experiences and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in adolescents. In PTSD, teens develop maladaptive thought patterns as well as repeated misfirings of the fear mechanisms in the brain. As a result, traumatized adolescents overestimate the likelihood that something bad will happen to them and underestimate their ability to cope with it if something bad does happen. They may also have intense physiological or emotional experiences related to trauma reminders. Both PE and CPT directly target aspects of the traumatic response.
Treatment may also have a positive impact on a teen’s depression, anxiety and stress, insomnia, anger, and shame that may be secondary to trauma.
Therapeutic Components:
- Structure: Both PE and CPT are structured and skills-based types of talk therapy. Rather than talking broadly about trauma, CPT and PE identify certain elements of the trauma(s) to target directly with the adolescent in session.
- Theory: Both CPT and PE stem from cognitive-behavioral (or CBT) approaches. CPT theory focuses more on the effects of beliefs on trauma symptoms, whereas PE theory focuses more on the effects of avoidance on trauma symptoms.
- Intervention: CPT involves identifying and challenging unhelpful trauma-related thoughts and beliefs. PE involves decreasing avoidance of thoughts, emotions, or behaviors that remind the teen of the trauma. Both therapies help teens better understand and experience their emotions, as well as change their behaviors to be more consistent with their goals.
- Modalities: The TAP Clinic currently offers CPT or PE for adolescents with an individual therapist
What Trauma Treatment Address: