Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (tfCBT) - SafeHaven Trauma Centre

tfCBT

Cognitive behavioural therapy aims to help people understand the underlying factors, unhelpful thoughts and beliefs that are linked to their emotional distress and destructive behaviours

Trauma-focused CBT uses a range of psychological treatment techniques specifically to help you come to terms with a traumatic event.

What happens in a session?

You are supported to safely explore your traumatic memories by thinking about your experience in detail. Through the process your therapist will help you cope with any distress you feel, while also identifying unhelpful thoughts or misrepresentations you have about the experience. In identifying and challenging problems you will identify specific goals and gain tools to help you solve problems on your own, giving you a sense of autonomy over your well-being, as you recover from the trauma memory.

Single incident trauma usually requires have 10-14 weekly sessions of trauma-focused CBT.

Sessions usually last for around 60-90 minutes.

Is Cognitive Behavioural Therapy right for me?

Whilst CBT treatment is a clinically proven method of reducing symptoms of many mental health problems including depression, bipolar, addictions and eating disorders, it also is not always the best fit for people. Where the trauma is complex, has multiple-instances or where reliving the event in detail could severely re-traumatise a person, then other methods may be more suitable.

CBT is a two-way process, and personal motivation and individual responsibility are important to its success. With this approach you will need to be prepared put significant time in between treatment, to complete exercises outside your session.