Brief eclectic psychotherapy for PTSD (BEPP)

Brief eclectic psychotherapy (BEP) has been developed as a 16-session treatment manual for PTSD (www.traumatreatment.eu) when CST and EMDR were not available. BEP consists of (1) psychoeducation, together with a partner or close friend; (2) imaginal exposure preceded by relaxation exercises, focused on catharsis of emotions of grief and helplessness; (3) writing tasks to express aggressive feelings and use of mementos; (4) domain of meaning, focused on learning from the trauma, oneself and the world; (5) farewell ritual, to end treatment.The SEP-protocol has shown to be effective in RCT 's for police officers and other traumatized patients as well. Also psychobiological recovery has been proofed. BEP is equal effective as CBT and EMDR. In the Master Clinician Workshop the different elements of BEP will be shown on DVD and the essentials of every element will be highlighted and discussed will be similarities and differences with CBT and EMDR. To summarize, CBT, EMDR and BEP are equal effective in reducing PTSD by different forms of exposure. BEP also offers essential learning from the traumatizing events and stimulates posttraumatic growth. Cases of participants will be discussed.

Conference

English

Berthold Gersons

Gersons, B. (2010, June). Brief eclectic psychotherapy for PTSD (BEPP). Presentation at the 26th EMDR Europe Association Conference, Montreal, ON