CBT Training Program - Workshop Trauma

Trauma Focussed CBT for Simple and More Complex Presentations of PTSD following Adult Trauma: Beyond Prolonged Exposure

In this workshop, we will step beyond the use of straightforward prolonged exposure. Participants will be trained in the implementation of Ehlers and Clark’s (2000) cognitive model of PTSD (pdf 265k) which addresses both simple and more complicated presentations. Ehlers and Clark’s model is probably the most sophisticated current model of PTSD and has received excellent support in a series of random controlled trials. In particular, it uses reliving procedures to restructure ‘hotspots’ through updating and inserting corrective information into trauma memory, cognitive strategies, behavioural experiments and imagery.

The treatment protocol will be described and practiced during the workshop.  The workshop presenter, who has significant experience in working successfully with both simple and complicated cases of PTSD, will offer examples of the challenges and how they have been overcome using the model.

The workshop will provide a brief review of diagnosis and assessment of PTSD following adult trauma, and will include formulation of cases, key assessment tools, treatment planning and process.  The theory and model will be introduced in the pre-workshop readings and exercises and then will be further expanded on and integrated into practice through role play demonstrations, group exercises including formulating a case.  The aim is that participants will start working with the model in the workshop and feel confident enough to begin integrating the ideas into their own therapy practice, perhaps with some supervision.

By the end of the workshop and post-workshop activities, participants can expect to:

1. Understand Ehlers and Clark’s (2000) cognitive model of PTSD
2. Be able to assess and formulate cases of PTSD
3. Have gained skills in the therapeutic interventions of: reliving, cognitive restructuring, updating of the traumatic hotspots, implementing behavioural experiments, use of imagery, working with nightmares in PTSD; and helping clients deal with the longer term recovery process from PTSD
4. Have increased confidence in working with traumatised clients

Please note:  this workshop addresses adult PTSD presentations only, not childhood sexual abuse.

References

Duffy, M., Gillespie, K. & Clark, D.M. (2007). Posttraumatic stress disorder in the context of terrorism and other civil conflict in Northern Ireland: randomised controlled treatment trial. British Medical Journal. [BMJ, doi:10.1136/bmj.39021.846852.BE (published 11 May 2007)]

Ehlers, A. & Clark, D. M. (2000). A cognitive model of post-traumatic stress disorder. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 38, 319-345.

Ehlers, A., Clark, D.M., Hackmann, A., et al. (2003). A randomized controlled trial of cognitive therapy, a self-help booklet, and repeated assessment as early interventions for PTSD.  Archives of General Psychiatry, 60, 1024-1032.

Ehlers, A., Clark, D.M., Hackmann, A., et al. (2005). Cognitive therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder: Development and evaluation. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 43, 413-431.

Grey, N. (Ed.) (2009). A Casebook of Cognitive Therapy for Traumatic Stress Reactions. Routledge.

Grey, N., Young, K., Holmes, E. (2002). Cognitive restructuring within reliving: a treatment for peritraumatic emotional “hotspots” in posttraumatic stress disorder.Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy, 30, 37-56.  

Mueller, M., Hackman, A., Croft, A. (2004). Post-traumatic stress disorder. In: Bennett-Levy, J., Butler, G., Fennell, M.J.V., Hackmann, A., Mueller, M. & Westbrook, D. (Eds.) (2004): Oxford guide to behavioural experiments in cognitive therapy. Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Workshop Application

Workshops page