The post-traumatic stress disorder is a situation where individual’s natural defenses have been exceeding his resources due to a brief or long exposure to a traumatic event. This is most of the time related to intrusive distressing memories, dreams, dissociative reactions where the individual acts like if the traumatic event was still recurring. This can cause significant impairment in the daily life as the individual is avoiding many situations in order to avoid eventual reminders.
Traumas consequences can take different forms, which are not necessarily a PTSD such as persistent negative beliefs, persistent emotional states and diminished interest or participation in significant activities.
The challenge of the therapy is to create between patient and therapist a trustworthy relationship where the traumatic event can be revisited in a secure environment. This allows the patient to experience the situation without feeling defenceless anymore; the trauma is then revisited with the new resources acquired in the treatment and the traumatic charge will decrease in intensity, which will allow the patient to progressively recover his autonomy.
