I have specialist training in treating post traumatic stress disorder. This is a unique treatment that can be incorporated into other therapy or as a stand alone treatment. This treatment helps the brain to process traumatic memories so that the symptoms of PTSD go away.

 

Your child may have PTSD if:

• They have experienced or witnessed a traumatic event such as a serious injury, threat of death or sexual violence.
• They are now experiencing nightmares, flashbacks and unwanted upsetting memories.
• They avoid any reminders after the event (they can't talk about it, reminders are very upsetting, they feel like they are re-living the event).
• An increase in negative emotions (anxiety, low mood, lack of interest in usual activities, blame of self or others).
• An increase in reactivity (irritable, aggressive, hypervigilant, difficulty concentrating, easily startled).

 

For a PTSD diagnosis, these symptoms should have lasted for at least a month and be causing distress and impairment in everyday functioning.

 

Please reach out to me if your child is experiencing these symptoms. They can be helped!

 

CATT helps to move the traumatic memories from the amygdala (where they have remained in an effort to help the child react quickly to similar threats) to the part of the brain where they are stored in the long term memory. This then stops the PTSD symptoms, so the nightmares, flashbacks, triggers and emotional distress should all go away.

 

CATT is recommended to last between 8 to 12 weeks, but this depends on if the trauma was a one-off event or if there has been several incidents. How quickly I can do the treatment really depends on how quickly your child feels safe with me. For one-off incidents, the usual 10 week programme should be enough.