Tools for trauma processing, narrative construction, trigger management, and safety planning.
A formulation based on Ehlers and Clark's cognitive model of PTSD — mapping the nature of the trauma memory, negative appraisals, sense of current threat, and the maintaining strategies.
~25 min
Explore how the traumatic event has affected your beliefs about yourself, others, and the world.
~25 min
Practise and record the use of grounding techniques when experiencing flashbacks, dissociation, or overwhelming emotions.
~10 min
Identify triggers that activate trauma memories and systematically compare the original trauma context with the present reality to reduce flashback intensity.
~15 min
Prepare for trauma reliving sessions and process the experience afterwards — tracking hotspots, emotions, and updated meanings.
~20 min
Identify the "hotspot" moments in a trauma memory — the moments of peak emotion — and work on updating their personal meaning.
~20 min
Identify and challenge stuck points — the unhelpful beliefs about the trauma and its aftermath that maintain PTSD symptoms.
~15 min
Track PTSD symptoms across the four DSM-5 clusters — intrusion, avoidance, negative cognitions and mood, and arousal and reactivity — to monitor progress through treatment.
~10 min
Prepare for a visit to the trauma site, record predictions, and process the experience afterwards to update the trauma memory.
~15 min
Identify valued activities lost to PTSD and plan a graded return to engagement with life.
~15 min
Write a structured impact statement exploring how the trauma has affected your beliefs about safety, trust, power, esteem, and intimacy.
~30 min