ABSTRACT
This chapter covers the cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) approach to trauma, especially exposure approaches. Research has established that re-living and re-scripting are both successful CBT techniques for working with trauma. The most up-to-date research and clinical expertise suggest that re-living and re-scripting are equally effective. It has been received clinical wisdom that people with psychosis and those who lack social support, for example, may be destabilised by these approaches. Re-living techniques involve a re-living (the trauma) session or sessions, followed by debriefing. The whole process of orienting, informed consent, agreeing a signal, teaching the breath and the exposure itself should be done in a single session. There is increasing interest in imagery re-scripting approaches to trauma.
