When you’ve experienced trauma, it can feel like your world has permanently changed. You may look functional on the outside — working, caregiving, showing up for others — but inside, you might feel overwhelmed, disconnected, or stuck in survival mode.
Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) is a structured, evidence-based approach designed to help you understand how trauma has impacted your beliefs, emotions, and sense of self. While CPT includes structured reflection on a traumatic memory, the focus is less on recounting every detail and more on understanding how the trauma has shaped your beliefs — and how those beliefs may be keeping you stuck — and how to begin shifting those patterns in a safe, supportive way.
Many of my clients come to therapy feeling exhausted by self-blame, shame, or the internal tug-of-war between “knowing it’s in the past” and still feeling like it’s happening in the present. In CPT, we explore these painful beliefs and gently challenge the stories that trauma may have imprinted on your sense of worth, trust, or identity.
- Ongoing guilt or shame related to a traumatic experience
- Feeling numb or emotionally disconnected from others
- Intrusive memories, flashbacks, or nightmares
- Avoiding reminders of what happened
- Believing the trauma was your fault
- Struggling to feel safe, even in secure environments
CPT doesn’t require you to relive your trauma in detail. Instead, it focuses on identifying “stuck points” — rigid or unhelpful beliefs that formed after trauma. These often show up in areas like safety, trust, control, esteem, and intimacy. For example, you might hold beliefs like, “I should have stopped it,” or “I can’t trust anyone.”
Through our work together, we bring these beliefs into the open and examine them with care. We’ll look at where they came from, how they served you at the time, and how they may be affecting your present-day relationships, mood, or sense of identity. CPT creates space for more balanced, compassionate perspectives to emerge.
- Identifying stuck points: These are beliefs or interpretations formed after trauma that keep you feeling trapped, such as “I’m to blame” or “I can’t trust anyone.” We start by naming these thoughts so we can understand how they show up in your daily life.
- Challenging cognitive distortions: Once stuck points are identified, we gently examine them for accuracy and impact. This includes exploring cognitive distortions like black-and-white thinking, catastrophizing, or taking on blame that isn’t yours.
- Building new perspectives: As we work through these patterns, we develop more flexible, compassionate perspectives that are rooted in your current reality. This helps reduce emotional suffering and rebuilds trust in yourself and others.
CPT is often delivered in a structured, time-limited format (typically around 12-18 sessions), but in my practice, we can integrate it into longer-term work. This allows time to build safety and trust, and to incorporate other approaches as needed to support deeper healing.
The goal isn’t to forget what happened—but to shift how you carry it, so it no longer defines your relationship with yourself or your life.
- Survivors of interpersonal violence, including sexual trauma and domestic abuse
- Individuals with complex trauma or childhood trauma
- People struggling with moral injury or self-blame after trauma
- First responders or those exposed to repeated trauma in their work
- Individuals whose trauma has impacted their sense of identity or relationships
- Those who feel “stuck” in their trauma recovery process
While CPT is structured, I tailor the process to your pace and needs. Some clients move through the full protocol in one phase of therapy; others pause and revisit components as part of a broader healing journey. Your voice and nervous system set the pace.
Clients often say CPT helped them “see the story differently.” That doesn’t mean minimizing what happened — it means reclaiming agency, self-worth, and clarity within your story.
- A clearer understanding of how trauma has shaped your beliefs
- Relief from shame, guilt, or self-blame
- Improved ability to manage triggers and regulate your emotions
- Greater self-compassion and connection to others
- Increased clarity about your values and identity
- Tools you can use for the rest of your life to challenge harmful thought patterns
As your therapist, I provide the structure and support for CPT, but always honor your intuition and experience. The beliefs we examine were often formed to protect you. Our goal is not to discard them but to honor their role and gently release what no longer serves you.
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📩 Email me: tilly.counseling@protonmail.com
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