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Audio Collection: Psychology Tools For Overcoming PTSD

The Psychology Tools for Overcoming PTSD Audio Collection is designed for anyone with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This skills development package gives patients essential information about PTSD and training in practical skills for managing their intrusive and distressing symptoms. The audio pack contains over 2.5 hours of information and practical exercises. It can complement work completed in clinical sessions or it can be used as a stand-alone intervention.

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Audio collection (ZIP)

1. About this audio collection (MP3)

2. Introduction (MP3)

3. Physical soothing introduction (MP3)

4. Relaxed breathing introduction (MP3)

5. Relaxed breathing exercise 1 (MP3)

6. Relaxed breathing exercise 2 (MP3)

7. Relaxed breathing exercise 3 (MP3)

8. Relaxed breathing exercise 4 (MP3)

9. Progressive muscle relaxation (MP3)

10. Peaceful place (MP3)

11. Grounding introduction (MP3)

12. Sensory grounding using smells (MP3)

13. Sensory grounding by using your five senses (MP3)

14. Grounding statements (MP3)

15. Grounding objects (MP3)

16. Retraining your brain introduction (MP3)

17. Mindful attention (MP3)

18. Stimulus discrimination (MP3)

19. Improving your sleep (MP3)

20. Sleep hygiene (MP3)

21. Recovering from a nightmare (MP3)

22. Nightmare rescripting (MP3)

23. Advanced skills introduction (MP3)

24. Advanced stimulus discrimination (MP3)

Audio script (PDF)

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Languages this resource is available in

  • English (GB)
  • English (US)

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Introduction & Theoretical Background

The Psychology Tools for Overcoming PTSD Audio Collection is designed for anyone with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This skills development package gives patients essential information about PTSD and training in practical skills for managing their intrusive and distressing symptoms. The audio pack contains over 2.5 hours of information and practical exercises. It can complement work completed in clinical sessions or it can be used as a stand-alone intervention. As well as providing psychoeducation about PTSD the audio collection contains practical exercises across 4 domains:

  • Physical soothing: PTSD is characterised by heightened arousal and this selection of body-based and imagery exercises are designed to promote physical relaxation and a feeling of safety.
  • Grounding: People with PTSD experience a range of dissociative symptoms. These sensory and cognitive grounding exercises are  designed to promote orientation to safety in the present moment.
  • Brain retraining: Trauma ‘trains’ the brain to orient towards threat. These brain retraining exercises are designed to counteract unhelpful anxiety-promoting learned responses.
  • Improving sleep: Poor sleep is profoundly detrimental to good mental health. These practical and imagery exercises focus on improving sleep in individuals with PTSD.

This audio collection will be useful to individuals with PTSD as well as therapists working with traumatised clients. It is particularly helpful as a skills-development package which can help patients to stabilise before engaging trauma-focused therapies.

Therapist Guidance

This audio collection is designed for anyone suffering from PTSD who would like to learn more about their condition, and would like to practice exercises to help them to manage some of the intrusive or uncomfortable symptoms. Clinicians can also download the verbatim scripts, allowing them to record the exercises for  clients in their own voice to reinforce work completed in therapy.

Addressing symptoms of PTSD is potentially distressing for clients, and clinicians should always take care that clients understand what is being asked of them, and freely consent to engaging in psychoeducation and skills-development exercises like those included in this collection.

How can I share the audio collection with my clients?

The audio collection is downloaded as a .ZIP file which contains multiple .MP3 files. The .ZIP file will need to be ‘unzipped’ before the audio files can be accessed. Once unzipped, the audio files can be played in most media player apps. Instructions on how to unzip files for all major platforms are available at the support pages here:

 The simplest way to share an audio collection with your clients is by using the Psychology Tools ‘Email a client’ function. After obtaining their consent to send them the file you can send it directly from this page by clicking ‘Send securely to my client’. Your client will receive a secure email containing a unique link, and when they click the link the .ZIP file will be downloaded onto their device.

References And Further Reading

  • Brewin, C. R., Gregory, J. D., Lipton, M., & Burgess, N. (2010). Intrusive images in psychological disorders: characteristics, neural mechanisms, and treatment implications. Psychological Review, 117(1), 210.
  • Ehlers, A., & Clark, D. M. (2000). A cognitive model of posttraumatic stress disorder. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 38(4), 319-345.
  • Schauer, M., & Elbert, T. (2015). Dissociation following traumatic stress. Journal of Psychology, 218(2), 109-127.