At the first stage, the person denies what happened. On the second, he realizes what happened and experiences strong emotions (fear, horror, anger, sadness). On the third, he accepts what happened and adapts. If after the second stage a person does not move on to the third stage and gets stuck in the trauma, he develops PTSD.

In the acute period (the first month after the traumatic event), a crisis psychologist works with the client. For example, if we are talking about shock due to physical trauma, being in a military conflict zone. And the trauma therapist gets involved later.

The psychologist’s task is to help the client live through the second and third stages. To do this you need:

Inform the client. Tell him that his condition is a normal reaction to a traumatic situation. Recommend books, talk about PTSD. It is important that the client understands what is happening to him and that it can be dealt with.

Work with the individual holistically. It is important not only to remove the symptoms of PTSD and work out the cause, but also to explain to the client the importance of a healthy lifestyle. Help him maximize his personal potential.

Provide social support. Communication with a psychologist already provides a powerful base, but it is important that other people also support the client. This could be friends, family or therapy groups.

Help the client individually reassess the traumatic experience. Direct processing of trauma.

PTSD Treatment Plan

1. Establishing contact. The specialist needs to determine the client’s motivation and mood, his attitude towards therapy, himself and the psychologist himself. Set up for work: talk about PTSD, therapy, talk through the client’s fears and anxieties.

The goal of therapy is to help the client feel in control of life, accept experience, and take responsibility. At the beginning, it seems to him that the future is doomed, and the pain will never go away. The psychologist’s task is to set the client up for work. To do this, at the stage of establishing contact, you can ask questions:

What helped you cope at that moment?

What has kept you going all this time?

What you went through is terrible, but can you say that it made you stronger?

What resources did you see in yourself then, and do you see now?

What would you say to someone who has experienced something similar?

In the work, you can ask questions from three groups: establishing contact, collecting information about the injury, maintaining the client’s confidence. It is important to move at a pace that is comfortable for the client to avoid retraumatization.

2. Working with emotions. The psychologist needs to help the client release repressed feelings and emotions. And also ask the client’s loved ones to support the experience of emotions, and not try to distract him.

3. Processing traumatic memories. The psychologist’s task at this stage is to work through the trauma using psychotherapy methods.

In addition, the psychologist must remember that a person may have several traumas, and they may overlap each other. And the subjective perception of a traumatic situation is different for each client. There cannot be a universal algorithm in PTSD therapy; in this article we have analyzed the basis of the work.