ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the different types of traumatic presentations: acute, chronic, prolonged and complicated. It explores common factors and pathways in their aetiology, together with looking at prevalence and incidence rates and at theoretical approaches to understanding trauma. The chapter is concerned with the assessment and treatment of traumatic stress-related problems, both in individual and group formats, paying particular attention to efficacy and to practical considerations before going on to examine any special considerations that might apply in forensic settings. It considers a range of treatment approaches, including Prolonged Exposure (PE), Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (TF-CBT), Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) and Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy, before offering some consideration of forensic populations. An alternative approach, which has been extensively trialled in the emergency services and armed forces, is that of Trauma Risk Management (TRiM). The difference between TRiM and other approaches is that it is delivered by peers rather than by trained professionals.
