What Is Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)?

This informational handout provides a client-friendly overview of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and ways to address it.

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Professional version

Offers theory, guidance, and prompts for mental health professionals. Downloads are in Fillable PDF format where appropriate.

Client version

Includes client-friendly guidance. Downloads are in Fillable PDF format where appropriate.

Overview

Our ‘What Is … ?’ series is a collection of one-page information handouts for common mental health conditions. Friendly and explanatory, handouts in the series describe how it can feel to struggle with a difficulty and are reliable sources of information for your clients. Drawing upon established cognitive behavioral models, each handout has a particular focus on maintaining factors that might prevent the problem from getting better.

What Is Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)? is designed to help clients with PTSD to understand more about their condition.

Why Use This Resource?

This resource is expertly designed to support clients by:

Describing key features of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Explaining what keeps PTSD going.
Highlighting effective treatment options.
Fostering optimism about change and recovery.

Key Benefits

Educational

Provides a client-friendly description of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Supportive

Normalizes the experience of PTSD and helps clients feel understood.

Insightful

Sheds light on factors that may be contributing to these difficulties.

Informative

Describes effective treatments for PTSD.

Encouraging

Reassures clients and instills hope.

Who is this for?

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

Designed to help clients affected by PTSD.

Integrating it into your practice

Review

Discuss the common symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Scaffold

Help the client understand how their symptoms fit together and make sense.

Explore

Explore what might be maintaining the client's difficulties.

Highlight

Point out treatments that can be effective for addressing these issues.

Theoretical Background & Therapist Guidance

Many of us will experience trauma at some point in our lives. With time, most people recover from their experiences without needing professional help. However, for a significant proportion of people, the effects of trauma last for much longer, and they develop a condition called post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). It is thought that between 3 and 5 people out of every 100 will experience PTSD every year. Fortunately, there are a range of excellent psychological therapies for PTSD.

The What Is Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder? information handout is designed to help clients with PTSD understand more about their condition. It includes a summary of the most common symptoms of PTSD and insights into why PTSD might not get better by itself, derived from the Ehlers & Clark (2000) cognitive model of PTSD.

What's inside

An overview of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Insights into why PTSD persists.
Instructions for using the resource with clients.
Key references for learning more about these difficulties.

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FAQs

It provides insights into how people experience post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), why it persists, and how it can be addressed.

It can be used to signpost clients to relevant treatments at assessment or help clients understand how their symptoms fit together at the start of therapy.

How This Resource Improves Clinical Outcomes

This resource enhances clinical outcomes by:

Providing a clear understanding and insight into post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Highlighting effective treatments for these issues.
Reassuring clients and fostering optimism.

References And Further Reading