Residential PTSD Trauma Treatment Centers In California

Post-traumatic stress disorder or PTSD as it is widely known is an anxiety disorder that can affect a person who experiences an extremely threatening event. Even if the individual isn’t directly affected by the event, the shock from seeing these things occur is often enough to cause PTSD. PTSD makes it difficult for people to live a normal life as they continuously experience flashbacks of the traumatic event, insomnia, low self-esteem along with many other emotional problems. PTSD can cause memory loss and ruin the sufferer’s relationship with others. When you suspect that you or your loved one has PTSD, the most logical thing to do is to visit any of the residential PTSD trauma treatment centers in California for diagnosis and treatment.

Using Therapy To Treat PTSD In A Residential PTSD Trauma Treatment Centers In California

Therapy is the most common treatment option for people living with PTSD. Therapy aims to improve the symptoms of PTSD and help the patient to live a normal life. The therapist will teach the patient different skills that can help restore their self-esteem by changing their thought patterns. Therapy can be done in either a group of individually. The therapist might also recommend that the therapy is done with the members of the sufferers family.

During the therapy session, the individual is expected to discuss the traumatic event with the therapist. The patient will also be expected to vividly explain how these events and the thoughts about it have affected their life over time. After that, the therapist will ask the patient to write down everything that happened during and after the event. The idea is to find out how the patient feels and what they think about the trauma in a bid to figure out new ways to live with what happened. For example, if an individual has conceived thoughts of self-blame regarding the traumatic events, the therapist can help he or she understand that some things are beyond the patient’s control. These things will be taken into account. The therapist will help the patient understand and accept that it wasn’t their fault. The patient will eventually accept that there is nothing they could have done or avoided to make the situation different.

Other Types of Therapy

1) Prolonged Exposure Therapy

In a situation where the patient has been avoiding anything that reminds them of the event, prolonged exposure therapy is the ideal treatment course. It will help the patient to confront these fears in a series of PE sessions. The sessions are usually 90 minutes long for 15 sessions. The therapist will teach the patient different useful breathing techniques that can be used to ease anxiety anytime it comes up. The patient will later be required to write down all the things they’ve been avoiding and talk to the therapist about it in the subsequent session. Everything a patient discusses will be recorded and replayed later.

2) Eye Movement Reprocessing And Desensitization

This has to do with helping the patient maintain positive thoughts while they remember the trauma. The therapist might ask the patient to concentrate on the event while they look at them. They could be flashing light in the eyes of the patient or moving their hands.

3) Stress Inoculation Training

This can be done in a group or individually. The idea is to focus on changing how the patient views what has happened to reduce the stress from the event. The patient can stop negative thoughts by practicing breathing or massage techniques.

These are the three main types of therapy that can be used for PTSD.

If you or a loved one is suffering from PTSD and is in need of treatment, please call our Admissions team at Elevation Behavioral Health, call 888-561-0868