ABSTRACT
Dealing with safety and trust issues by building secure therapeutic relationships, and working with partners and family members of survivors are also addressed in this chapter. In preparation for reading this chapter and working with survivors and their family members in therapy, tune in to the therapeutic process. Survivors need flexibility in therapy, including using an eclectic mix of approaches, individualized for each situation and survivor. Emotion-focused therapy, a type of couples therapy that focuses on creating secure attachment, works well with distressed couples when one or both partners have experienced trauma. The treatment enhances couples' emotional responsiveness so that they form secure bonds. Therefore, it is crucial to assess survivors periodically for symptoms and risk factors. Individual and family trauma treatments utilized and investigated for efficacy by experts include supportive care and case management, psychodynamic therapy, psychopharmacology, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and psychological debriefing. Other effective CBT techniques, such as cognitive restructuring and cognitive processing therapy, address beliefs that result from trauma.
