cognitive processing therapy


cognitive processing therapy

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CPT

A treatment for victims of sexual assault who have post-traumatic stress disorder. The victim is taught to identify how his or her attitudes and beliefs before the sexual assault (e.g., of safety or invulnerability) have changed because of the assault, and how the dissonance between the victim's former world and the present one creates fear, anxiety, depression, and avoidance. The victim next writes a detailed account of the sexual assault and, through repeated rereading of the event aloud to others and while alone, learns to desensitize herself or himself to the psychological impact of the assault.