We can work through this.

One of the characteristics of PTSD is not wanting

to do therapy, which makes therapy that much more hard,

more difficult to do.

So I have yet to meet somebody who has trauma who says,

"Sign me up for that.

I'm so excited, let's go, I want to do this."

Almost always, they're like, "No,

I'm not so sure I'm ready for this.

This is really hard.

I have all these reasons why it's not going to work,

or I can't do it today, or the gas prices are too high,

or I have a headache.

I have a headache today.

It's not a good day to come in for a therapy session."

And I understand all of those reasons,

but part of that is the disorder itself.

Posttraumatic stress leads people to be avoidant,

avoidant of the memory of what happened to them.

And that avoidance itself is the one thing

that the treatment says we're not going to do anymore,

we're not going to avoid it anymore.

And so, if you can imagine a third person in the room,

the posttraumatic stress disorder on the one hand,

and then the treatment professional on the other hand,

and the person all having this discussion

about who's going to win today.

Is the posttraumatic stress disorder going to win,

and I'm going to avoid and stay home on the couch?

Or is the treatment professional's voice going to come

through today and say, "No,

you really need to come to therapy, we can work through this.

We can do it together."

And so most people go through that battle in their mind's eye

of, who's going to win that discussion today?