What is Posttraumatic Stress and Why Does it Develop? Â
Trauma can occur in many forms, and does not necessarily have to happen directly to us to cause post-traumatic stress. Most people will experience some form of trauma in their lifetime, but what comes after may look and feel very different for everybody, even among people who experienced the exact same traumatic event at the exact same time. Depending on how your own world has shifted after the trauma, or depending on how your mind and body adapted, or depending on how incompatible that event was with the way you knew the world before it happened, post-traumatic stress symptoms might develop over the weeks, months, or even years afterward.
Â
Common symptoms of post-traumatic stress include:
​
-Re-experiencing in the form of intrusive memories, nightmares, flashbacks, or psychological or physical cues or sensations that resemble the traumatic event(s)
​
-Avoidance of thoughts, feelings, memories, people, places, situations, etc., which are associated with the trauma.Â
​
-Changes in mood or cognition. For example, feelings of detachment, inability to feel positive emotions, overwhelming anger, fear, shame, or guilt. Distressing beliefs or generalizations about yourself, others, or the world.Â
​
-Changes in arousal or reactivity. For example, irritable or reckless behavior, hyper vigilance (e.g., "back to the wall everywhere I go", "head on a swivel"), being easily startled, or having problems with sleep (e.g., nightmares, acting out stressful dreams, insomnia).Â
​
Many individuals live with some or all of these symptoms for years or decades. We can get really good at holding it together for our friends, our families, our co-workers. We want to be present for the other people in our lives, and importantly, we just want life to feel normal. We want to heal from that horrific time in our lives, but we can feel really stuck, as if the past is right here with us, or as if it's right around the corner and we don't know when it's going to show up.Â
​
You are not broken. You adapted to survive.Â
Â
Dr. Kelemen provides effective, evidence-based treatment that brings you clarity, and gets you from surviving, back to living your life on your terms. Dr. Kelemen currently offers PTSD treatment throughout NH and MA via telehealth for your convenience.Â
Â
​
Dr. Kelemen is a VA-trained psychologist who has helped many veterans and non-veterans reclaim their lives after years of PTSD symptoms.
Evidence-Based Therapy for PTSD
Post-traumatic stress disorder is very treatable and responds especially well to cognitive-behavioral and exposure-based therapies. Depending on your preferences and the ways in which your symptoms are showing up in your life, you and Dr. Kelemen will collaboratively decide which direction(s) could work best for you. First and foremost, when it comes to therapy, Dr. Kelemen meets you where you are at. For those who prefer a structured approach during therapy for PTSD, Dr. Kelemen offers (and often recommends) Cognitive Processing Therapy, one of the most effective evidence-based treatments we have for PTSD.
Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT)
Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) is a specific type of cognitive behavioral therapy that addresses the way trauma has shifted how we think about our experiences, the world we live in, and the trauma itself. When we go through a traumatic event, it often changes how we view ourselves, the people around us, and the world.Â
Your brain is wired to keep you alive, and after a traumatic event, it does everything it can to make sense of what happened, and how to move forward. You may find yourself in a thought-loop of alternate scenarios in which the trauma "could have" been prevented, or perhaps feeling as though your "head is on a swivel" everywhere you go and you tell yourself "nowhere is safe" or "nobody can be trusted", or perhaps feeling intense guilt, blame, or shame. In an attempt to keep us safe and make sense of our trauma, the mind can overcompensate, and thats where we get stuck.Â
Â
In CPT, we work together to identify the "stuck points"—those trauma-related thoughts and narratives that keep you from healing, and keep you from feeling relief from your symptoms. By addressing these stuck points, you can reduce intense feelings such as fear, shame, and guilt, and move toward a balanced, compassionate perspective. This approach empowers you to regain your sense of safety, and control over your life and your future, while deeply honoring your story and what it has been like for you to walk through life after all you've been through.Â
From the greater Boston area to remote regions of New Hampshire and Massachusetts, we've got you covered.
All PTSD treatments are offered online via telehealth for your convenience.Â