I'd like to learn more about Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. The Stress Management and EMDR make sense but I would think that CBT is to cognitive and not emotional enough. If the TFCBT has elements of shamatha or vipassana meditation, then there is a stronger case for the TFCBT. Has anyone reseearched TBCBT to identify which elements are most successful?

Personally, I'm skeptical of this research. I question the researchers agenda, is it in pushing the latest greatest thing, and also what is the demographic profile of the people who are studied?

PTSD is not a monolithic phenomena. Age of onset, number of traumatic events, nature of the event itself effect how PTSD is manifested in people.

James Chu wrote in rebuilding shattered lives that recovery from PTSD is a long term process. There is a video on youtube that shows a man who went for EMDR, and it did reduce some of his symptoms. However, at the end of the story it said that he was still in counselling.

Personally I think the sooner that the medical community accepts that recovery from PTSD is a long term process the better. Once that happens then people, will start to have the possibility of getting access to the resources that they need.

And, they will stop being ostracized and alienated by their friends and family, their community, their employers, and society for the behaviors caused by traumatic situations that often they are not responsible for initiating in the first place.

I'd like to put in a plug for Dr. James Gordon's mind-body skills group approach! (Center for Mind-Body Medicine out of D.C.) This basically falls under stress reduction training, but there is something that is very subtle and powerful about the way these groups are structured that I believe adds to te effectiveness of the actual skills that are taught. There is one research article published on this approach with PTSD already and they are now investigating the model further through a grant with the VA system, based out of New Orleans to look at implementation for returning military, veterans and their families. I just completed the Advanced training in this area and am looking to implement it in a medical model for chronic pain, headache, eating disorder, cancer, and just plain old "healthy living".

As someone who has experienced personally the recovery/healing process for ptsd, I appreciate this dialogue and the research. Today (14 years after my initial dx), I am one of those survivors who has healed (thanks Belleruth, et al!).

It was a long process and my belief is that it doesn't need/have to be..and more importantly shouldn't be. Life is short enough! When I was diagnosed in 1995, we had very little info about imagery-based therapies. I had been in cognitive based therapy off and on for many years and like your Franni was experiencing a worsening of symptoms. The prognosis at that time was dismal at best. I began a search of my own for answers about healing. I had and still have a deep belief that 'living while I was dead' is not an option and that perhaps there was info out there that could show me the way. I found your work, as you know, and then this snowball of so many others.

The imagery-based therapies were a major key and I have since seen them work remarkably well for others. Certainly the picture is not that simple and we each need to find the right combination for ourselves. But I remain convinced that these therapies will continue to be an integral part of the healing process for trauma.

I am forever changed by the traumas, by the ostracism and alienation, and by the recovery and healing process and I am well!..in fact, I say, "weller" than I ever imagined possible. And my husband and partner on this journey says he agrees!
Dr. Gordon's work also is excellent in my book! Thanks!

To learn more about the trauma focused CBT, you'll need to write the contact name - the email address is at the end of the citation. Definitions of what this means exactly vary, from country to country and even from researcher to researcher. CBT is a pretty broad category.
As for the person who questions the research, I have to say that a review of randomized, controlled clinical trials is hard to distort or fudge. These findings are pretty much in sync with what I've been reading for some time now.
I agree that Jim Gordon's program - basically an ingenious adaptation of his cancer protocol - is first rate. I wish he'd do some RTC research with it.
BRN