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4/20/2016 Cognitive Processing Therapy PTSD: National Center for PTSD
http://www.ptsd.va.gov/public/treatment/therapymed/cognitive_processing_therapy.asp 1/2
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PTSD: National Center for PTSD
Cognitive Processing TherapyAvailable in Spanish: Terapia de procesamiento cognitivo | Ver todos
Trauma often causes people to struggle with their memories and thoughts about the event. You may have ahard time making sense of what happened. You may find yourself getting "stuck" in your thoughts about thetrauma and how it affects your life. This feeling of being unable to make sense of the trauma can make youwant to avoid thinking about or dealing with your memories.
How Cognitive Processing Therapy can help
Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) helps you by giving you a new way to handle these distressingthoughts and to gain an understanding of these events. By using the skills learned in this therapy, you canlearn why recovery from traumatic events has been hard for you. CPT helps you learn how going through atrauma changed the way you look at the world, yourself, and others. The way we think and look at thingsdirectly affects how we feel and act.
The four main parts of CPT
Learning About Your PTSD Symptoms. CPT begins with education about your specific PTSD symptomsand how the treatment can help. The therapy plan will be reviewed and the reasons for each part of thetherapy will be explained. You will be able to ask questions and to know exactly what you are going to bedoing in this therapy. You will also learn why these skills may help.
Becoming Aware of Thoughts and Feelings. Next, CPT focuses on helping you become more aware ofyour thoughts and feelings. When bad things happen, we want to make sense of why they happened. Anexample would be a Veteran who thinks to himself or herself, "I should have known that this would happen."Sometimes we get stuck on these thoughts. In CPT you will learn how to pay attention to your thoughtsabout the trauma and how they make you feel. You'll then be asked to step back and think about how yourtrauma is affecting you now. This will help you think about your trauma in a different way than you didbefore. It can be done either by writing or by talking to your therapist about it.
Learning Skills. After you become more aware of your thoughts and feelings, you will learn skills to helpyou question or challenge your thoughts. You will do this with the help of worksheets. You will be able to usethese skills to decide the way YOU want to think and feel about your trauma. These skills can also help youdeal with other problems in your daytoday life.
Understanding Changes in Beliefs. Finally, you will learn about the common changes in beliefs that occurafter going through trauma. Many people have problems understanding how to live in the world after trauma.Your beliefs about safety, trust, control, selfesteem, other people, and relationships can change aftertrauma. In CPT you will get to talk about your beliefs in these different areas. You will learn to find a betterbalance between the beliefs you had before and after your trauma.
Learning new ways to deal with your trauma
You and your therapist will work together to help you learn a new way of dealing with your trauma. In CPTyou will work closely with your therapist to reach your goals. You will be meeting with him or her on a regularbasis for 12 sessions. During your therapy you will also have the chance to practice your new skills outside
4/20/2016 Cognitive Processing Therapy PTSD: National Center for PTSD
http://www.ptsd.va.gov/public/treatment/therapymed/cognitive_processing_therapy.asp 2/2
basis for 12 sessions. During your therapy you will also have the chance to practice your new skills outsideof your therapy meetings. The more you practice your new skills, the sooner they will begin working for you.By choosing to approach your experiences in a new and different way, you will be able to decide how yourpast affects your future.
CPT for Veterans
CPT has been shown to be one of the most effective treatments forPTSD. For this reason, the VA's Office of Mental Health Services hasrolled out a national therapist training program. VA therapiststhroughout the country will be trained in how to use CPT treatment.These therapists will also consult with CPT experts to learn how tobest provide this therapy. Then they will be asked to use CPT in theirroutine clinical care.
How can I get help?
Ask your VA healthcare provider about getting CPT. A list of VA facilities can be found online at: VAFacilities Locator.
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The National Center for PTSD does not provide direct clinical care, individual referrals or benefits information.
