Cognitive Processing Therapy

Working in the substance abuse field, one comes to understand that trauma is a common factor for many clients. It doesn’t always show up in the first assessment but eventually and in more cases than not, the evidence appears. Sometimes clients don’t initially identify the events as traumatic; however, those events have usually had a significant and negative impact on the way they see themselves and the world.

Since beginning to work with a Veterans Treatment Court, I’ve received additional training in the recognition and treatment of PTSD. What has been most surprising, is the level of trauma experienced by many veterans prior to their service. Not to diminish the significance of combat experiences, but many of these men and women experienced considerable traumatic episodes as children. In many cases, their experiences in Iraq and/or Afghanistan only compounded an already existing problem.

I’ve recently been utilizing an evidenced based treatment called Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) on a small number of clients. There is great training available online offered by the Medical University of South Carolina as well as various in person training opportunities. The therapy is a manualized 12 session protocol that does a remarkable job of resolving the symptoms of PTSD.

An unintended byproduct of the treatment is that the clients are able to apply these standard cognitive processing techniques to a variety of other problems. In working through the treatment protocol, they learn valuable processing and self-analysis skills that are remarkably valuable in resolving any number of concerns. Not only have the clients become better at resolving difficulties on their own, I believe I’ve become a more effective counselor though my experience with CPT.

The therapy was developed by Dr. Patricia Resick and is now widely used by the VA and others to treat PTSD. The free online training provides 9 hours of Continuing Education Units (CEU’s) and in my opinion, will enhance your abilities as a counselor whether you choose to use CPT or not. I’d be interested to hear from others who have had experience with CPT or any other effective methods of addressing trauma.