At the Cognitive Behavior Therapy Center of Silicon Valley in San Jose/California, we offer cognitive behavior therapy and other evidence-based therapies for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Post-traumatic stress disorder is characterized by intrusive and unpleasant memories of a past trauma, becoming triggered by people, situations or things in real life that remind you of the trauma, reliving the trauma in dreams, and, often times, unhelpful coping strategies such as excessive alcohol use, drug use and binge eating to deal with the depression and anxiety related to the trauma.

What is PTSD?

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) may develop after you or your loved one has experienced a traumatic event involving the threat of bodily injury or death.  PTSD includes three main categories of symptoms:

• Reliving the trauma, which interferes with day-to-day activities (dreams, flashbacks, recurrent memories)
• Avoidance (feelings of detachment, staying away from people or objects that remind you of the event, emotional numbing)
• Arousal (exaggerated response to things that startle you or bother you, difficulty concentrating, sleep problems, hypervigilance,  irritability or anger)

PTSD may develop after physical or sexual abuse, rape, domestic violence, car or other accidents, war and military combat. You might also experience vicarious PTSD from hearing about someone else’s trauma or seeing traumatic images on TV or in photos.

How is PTSD treated?

The main components of PTSD therapy are telling the story to your therapist, recording your story and listening to it every day at home to desensitize to the traumatic images and memories, gaining perspective on the trauma, trying to reframe the story through distance from the events and attributing new meaning to the trauma.

How to Get Help for PTSD

The Cognitive Behavior Therapy Center of Silicon Valley (San Jose/California) specializes in PTSD therapy and counseling with adults, children and teenagers. Click to send an email for more information on how we can help you or your family members overcome post traumatic stress disorder.