01/02/2022
Getting access to the right treatment is part of a lot (not all) of people's journeys. There are two therapies which are recommended for post natal PTSD, trauma-focused cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) and eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing (EMDR).
Psychotherapies help people process their memories in a way that they move to long term memory so are less easily triggered and cause less distress. CBT and EMDR do this in different ways but both therapies are effective in helping people recover from the effects of trauma.
CBT is a structured therapy where you go over the traumatic events, look at your perceptions and thought processes, and use relaxation techniques to try to create a safe environment in which you can consider and process particularly difficult or traumatic aspects of your birth. It usually involves six to 10 sessions of up to an hour over the course of two or three months.
EMDR involves thinking about the trauma while following a moving object, such as a finger, with your eye. Alternatively, you can listen to taps and tones through headphones, played alternately in each ear, whilst thinking about the trauma. The treatment follows a set structure, and a typical course consists of six to 10 one-hour sessions.
Please take a look at our website if you would like more information about accessing therapy for birth trauma. ๐
