Transcript
The idea with CPT is that people who get PTSD after trauma,
somehow their worldview changed
because of the traumatic experience.
It became very extreme.
So maybe they went from thinking the world was a pretty
safe place to thinking, "The world is dangerous any time.
Any time something horrible can happen,
and it's just not safe to be in the world."
Or some people start to think,
where before the trauma they thought,
"I can go about my business in the world, and I'm OK,"
after the trauma, they think,
"I'm completely incompetent to keep myself safe.
I can't handle any danger that might come up in the world."
Or maybe they have both of these beliefs,
that the world is unsafe and they're incompetent.
But these kind of radical beliefs that happen
after this traumatic event really changes how they
function in the world.
So they stop doing things,
they stop going places, they start avoiding.
And so Cognitive Processing Therapy helps identify
these thoughts, and in therapy we call them "stuck points,"
these stuck points that people have after trauma
and through a series of exercises over
a number of weeks, helps people get a more balanced view.
Sometimes, Veterans think, "Is this going to be kind of
a Pollyanna-ish, oh everything-is-great kind of view?"
And it's not at all, but it's just returning
to a more reasonable place of, "Yeah,
some situations are really dangerous, and I shouldn't do them,
but generally, day-to-day in my town, I can
go about life and be OK."
So it's helping someone get back to that place
through their thoughts, and then they kind of are willing
to go out and do the things they've been avoiding.