Topic
Trauma
After a traumatic event, many people have intense reactions that fade with time; for others, they persist as intrusive memories, avoidance or a constant state of alert. The resources in this topic explain these reactions and the idea of the window of tolerance. The manuals for professionals describe trauma-focused treatments for adults, children and adolescents.
10 resources
For the public
Post-traumatic stress: understanding it and rebuilding
Images that come back without warning, broken nights, places you no longer go near, and the feeling that the danger has never quite passed. This guide explains what distinguishes the normal reactions of the first weeks from post-traumatic stress that has taken hold, what keeps it going, and which treatments have proved themselves. It then offers a concrete method for regaining your footing in daily life, which prepares and supports the work done with a therapist.
Understanding trauma and the window of tolerance
What the body and memory do after a shock, explained clearly. The window of tolerance as a practical map, what closes it, what widens it — and the treatments whose efficacy is established.
For professionals
These manuals are written for psychologists, psychiatrists and other mental health practitioners. Anyone can read a preview; the full text is reserved for practitioners who have submitted proof of their professional status and who hold a professional plan.
After a traumatic event: early intervention — a therapist's manual
A stepped programme for the first month after a traumatic event in adults. For everyone, psychological first aid and three dated contacts over four weeks, with a measure each time, because most people get better on their own and those who are not improving need to be identified. For those who present acute stress disorder or significant symptoms that are not coming down, trauma-focused cognitive behavioural therapy in five sessions at most, started within the month, and a hand-over to the PTSD manual if symptoms remain significant beyond one month. The manual explains why routine psychological debriefing and preventive medication are advised against, and covers suicide risk, children and victim support services; worksheets to hand over and verified references.
Complex post-traumatic stress disorder: a therapist's manual
A protocol of twenty sessions, thirty at most, for adults with complex post-traumatic stress disorder as defined by ICD-11: the symptoms of post-traumatic stress, together with lasting disturbances in emotion regulation, self-image and relationships, most often after repeated trauma. The manual sets out the central debate of the field, stabilising first or treating the trauma from the outset, with the trials, the meta-analyses and the positions of the ISTSS, and says what it does with it: no stabilisation of fixed length, three regulation sessions whose place is decided on criteria, then work on three to five memories chosen on a lifeline. Then come shame, self-image, trust, boundaries, closeness and taking life back, with nine worksheets and verified references.
Post-traumatic stress disorder in children and adolescents: a therapist's manual
A fourteen-session protocol, session by session, for post-traumatic stress disorder in children and adolescents, with child time and parent time in every session. Safeguarding first: if the child is still exposed to violence or abuse, reporting and making the child safe come before treatment. Then the components of trauma-focused cognitive behavioural therapy and of cognitive therapy for PTSD in children — understanding, regulating, telling what happened in a way that fits the child's age through play, drawing or writing, taking back what is avoided, sharing the story with the non-offending parent, learning to keep safe. Presentations by age, differential diagnosis, school, legal proceedings, the place of medication, worksheets to hand over and full references.
Dissociative identity disorder: safety, stabilisation and phase-oriented treatment — a therapist's manual
A sixteen-key-session protocol, over eight to twelve months, covering the safety and stabilisation phase for adults with dissociative identity disorder or its partial form, and preparing, if the person chooses, later work on traumatic memories. First, meeting the person, assessing carefully — psychosis, borderline personality disorder, epilepsy, complex post-traumatic stress, imitated or feigned presentations — and writing a safety plan. Next, understanding dissociation without suggestion, identifying lost time and its triggers, learning to come back to the present, widening the window of tolerance, fostering internal communication and cooperation, and easing nights and flashbacks. Finally, relationships and current safety, shame, the question of memories and their truth, the shared decision on what comes next, and a more continuous life. A debated diagnosis, practices that do harm, seven worksheets, and the references of a field in which the evidence is mostly naturalistic.
Post-traumatic stress disorder in adults: a therapist's manual
A twelve-session protocol, session by session, for post-traumatic stress disorder in adults. First present safety, because you do not treat a trauma that is still going on. Then the work on the memory — imaginal exposure, hot spots, in vivo exposure — and on what often lies behind failures when it is left out: guilt, shame and anger. Dissociation and the window of tolerance, complex PTSD, traumatic grief, the place of medication, those close to the person, worksheets to hand over and full references.
Intimate partner violence: supporting victims — a therapist's manual
A fourteen-session protocol, in two phases, for supporting an adult who is experiencing or has experienced violence from their partner: physical, sexual, psychological or economic violence, or coercive control. First, getting protected and regaining a footing, by assessing the danger at every session, writing a protection plan, breaking the isolation and deciding at one's own pace, including deciding to stay; then, once the danger has passed, working on guilt, shame, the memory and future relationships. Professional confidentiality, reporting and child protection are described in general terms, with a pointer to the law of each country, and the worksheets are designed not to put the person in danger if they are found.
Adjustment disorder: a therapist's manual
A brief protocol of six to eight sessions for adjustment disorder in adults, as ICD-11 has redefined it: a preoccupation with a stressor and a failure to adapt. The manual begins by deciding whether this really is the disorder in question, and says what moves you on to another diagnosis — major depressive episode, post-traumatic stress disorder, prolonged grief. It reduces the room the preoccupation takes up, solves one by one the problems the blow has produced, gets the days going again, makes room for what does not change and prepares the return to work. Suicide risk, often underestimated in this diagnosis, is assessed at every session; measures, worksheets to hand over and full references.
Nightmares: a therapist's manual
A seven-session protocol, individual or in a group, for adolescents from the age of twelve and adults who suffer from chronic nightmares, with no clear cause or after a trauma, with an adaptation for younger children. The reference treatment is imagery rehearsal: rewriting the nightmare while awake, then rehearsing the new version every day, without having to recount the trauma. The manual begins with sorting — sleep terrors, REM sleep behaviour disorder, apnoea, narcolepsy, epilepsy, medications and withdrawal —, looks for suicide risk, links the work with the treatment of post-traumatic stress and of insomnia, states the real state of the evidence on medications, and provides measures, worksheets to hand out and full references.
Other topics
- Addictions10
- ADHD6
- Anxiety34
- Attention & focus9
- Autism4
- Children & parents35
- Depression & mood25
- Eating disorders4
- Emotions24
- Gender identity1
- Grief7
- Loneliness5
- Longevity5
- Mindfulness1
- Neurocognitive disorders3
- OCD7
- Personality disorders12
- Psychosis8
- Relationships14
- Self-esteem7
- Sleep12
- Stress & burnout10
- Studying3
- Tics & Tourette1
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