Treating PTSD with Cognitive-Behavioral Therapies

Backed by decades of research, cognitive behavioral therapy is the intervention of choice for clients with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) regardless of their age, gender, ethnicity, or source of symptoms. This compact, clinician-friendly resource walks readers through cognitive behavioral techniques and treatment packages for PTSD, using case studies to illustrate how to troubleshoot common problems.

Explaining each approach's theoretical underpinnings as well as its step-by-step implementation, the authors cover both trauma-focused techniques such as prolonged exposure, cognitive processing therapy, and stress inoculation training, and non-trauma-focused or present-centered techniques such as breathing training, relaxation training, and positive self-talk. The book also addresses depression and social isolation, symptoms that often accompany PTSD.

Candice M. Monson, PhD, is a professor of psychology and director of clinical training at Ryerson University in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. She is also an Affiliate of the Women's Health Sciences Division of the U.S. VA National Center for PTSD, where she previously served as deputy director.

Dr. Monson is one of the foremost experts on traumatic stress and the use of individual and conjoint therapies to treat PTSD. She has published extensively on the development, evaluation, and dissemination of PTSD treatments more generally, as well as gender differences in violence perpetration and victimization.

She has been funded by the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs, National Institute of Mental Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Department of Defense, and Canadian Institutes of Health for her research on interpersonal factors in traumatization and couple-based interventions for PTSD. She is a Fellow of the Canadian Psychological Association.

She co-authored Cognitive Processing Therapy: Veteran/Military Version and is the original developer of cognitive-behavioral conjoint therapy for PTSD. Dr. Monson is well-known for her efforts in training clinicians in evidence-based interventions for PTSD.

Philippe Shnaider, MA, is a graduate student in the department of psychology at Ryerson University, Canada. His research focuses on examining the associations between PTSD, intimate relationships, and partners' psychological functioning, as well as how these factors change in individual- and couple-based interventions. Additionally, his research examines the associations between impairments in specific domains of psychosocial functioning and PTSD symptom clusters, with a focus on how changes in these variables occur with treatment.

His clinical interests include the treatment of PTSD and anxiety disorders, as well using couple-based interventions to treat individual mental health conditions. He is also involved in efforts to disseminate empirically based treatments for PTSD among front-line clinicians.