5 Therapy Worksheets for Adults With PTSD

Understand and Process PTSD Through Writing Exercises

Did you know that about 11 million American adults struggle with post-traumatic stress disorder in any given year? Worse, that number skyrockets to as high as 23% among military veterans. The chances are high that you are reading this article because you or someone you love is among these statistics. It’s excellent that you are seeking help.

Carrying unresolved traumatic memories without the proper treatments can cause unnecessary stress and anxiety. Our therapy worksheets for adults with PTSD can be quite helpful; however, they are not a substitute for professional PTSD treatment.

Icarus Behavioral Health in Nevada offers evidence-based trauma treatment to help minimize the chances of worsening risk factors. Our clinicians have helped many clients and their families process their traumatic experiences and overcome PTSD symptoms.

We invite you to continue reading and download our therapy worksheets and learn more about PTSD symptoms and therapy techniques.

5 Trauma-Focused CBT Worksheets for Traumatic Stress

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT, is proven psychotherapy that helps people change negative thoughts and behaviors, restoring balance to their lives. Its goal is to help develop healthy thought patterns, leading people back to healthier emotional processing and better well-being.

Trauma-focused CBT (TF-CBT) is a subset of cognitive behavioral therapy. It was developed in the early 1990s by psychology researchers and practitioners. It has a sharper focus, specifically on trauma survivors. Initially developed for children, it’s often adapted to help adults who have experienced trauma.

NOTE: Our Worksheets Don’t Replace Therapy

These worksheets can help anyone having difficulties related to trauma. However, they do not take the place of receiving professional help, especially in the most challenging PTSD cases. Therapists guide clients through challenging work and help restore more positive feelings.

Unresolved PTSD requires qualified care to resolve. If you do not seek the assistance of a skilled therapist, you place yourself at a high risk for related complications. These can include depression, anxiety or panic disorder, or substance use disorder. They can also include chronic physical ailments that develop from the stress.

As you complete each of these sheets, feel free to call us if you need to talk with a professional or just want to check in with us to receive more information. These TF-CBT worksheets are not diagnostic tools or formal therapies and are intended for adults, not children.

1 – Write Your Trauma Narrative

Writing your trauma narrative means telling the story of your trauma. This activity helps you process the traumatic event from a birds-eye view. Writing about the trauma and related symptoms allows you to confront the memory safely and reframes your thoughts about the event.

You start by setting the context of the event, including details like where and when the trauma occurred. What did you hear, smell, or see? These vivid details help clients understand what may bring certain emotions to the surface.

You’ll also dig deeply to explain your thoughts and feelings about the event. Reflect on how this trauma has impacted you. That includes changes in your relationships, behaviors, or feelings.

Many people internalize their trauma and understandably don’t feel like discussing it. The trauma narrative exercise turns it around and externalizes the pain, which helps to disarm it.

2 – Letting Go of Self-Blame

People struggling with a traumatic memory sometimes blame themselves for the traumatic stress. That happens for many reasons, often because it gives them a way to make sense of the trauma – even if that’s unfair to them.

Ending the cycle of self-shame and blame can be challenging. However, doing so decreases negative or guilty feelings and makes space for positive thinking and self-respect.

Our letting go of the blame worksheet can help any person struggling with trauma to recognize these thoughts. It also encourages them to challenge their thoughts and look inward with more self-compassion.

3 – Changing Intrusive Memories

Past memories can intrude on your life and hold you trapped in the trauma. Holding onto these can lead to fear, depression, and negative self-talk. Without a therapist/guide through these thoughts, the brain begins to accept those intrusions as acceptable, even when they upend your relationships or make you barely able to function. Shifting how you process these memories can help you regain healthier emotions and is a key part of TF-CBT.

This worksheet and the trauma journal prompt worksheet Icarus offers can help you remember what memory specifically bothers you and asks you to consider why. It also guides you as you challenge the negative thoughts with evidence, then think about the memories and reframe them with a better sense of balance.

4 – Disarming Anxiety and Hypervigilance

Learning to reduce your anxiety can help you ease hypervigilant behaviors associated with traumatic stress and PTSD. This worksheet helps you recognize the symptoms of anxiety and asks you to consider adopting coping strategies like mindfulness meditation, journal writing, or breathing exercises so you can clear your brain and relax.

This exercise is necessary because constantly feeling on edge or always expecting the worst to happen can erode your productivity and effectiveness in all facets of life. Every slight creak or noise can feel like a hair-raising disturbance, even when it turns out to be nothing at all. The traumatic stress is bad for your brain, body, and emotions. It blocks your progress as you try to move away from your trauma triggers and PTSD.

The worksheet aids clients in describing the anxiety symptoms related to PTSD and promotes trying new ways of coping with it. It’s empowering to know that you can regain control over hypervigilant behaviors and anxiety by mastering a few tools.

5 – Explore Daily Gratitude in Your Journal

The concept of journal writing might be uncomfortable at first. However, keeping a journal is a common practice in TF-CBT. It is helpful as clients track their thoughts and share information about their PTSD with their therapists effectively.

Expressing gratitude when you have PTSD can feel like a long stretch. But identifying even one reason to be grateful can move your thought patterns from negative to positive, a small but notable victory during recovery from PTSD symptoms.

The daily gratitude journal exercise prompts clients to write down any reason they have to be grateful and reflect on it. It also encourages the client to express their gratitude out loud, as a type of affirmation. If you say it enough, you will finally believe it, giving you a glimmer of hope for a better life.

What Are the Four Categories of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms?

Psychology professionals break post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms into four main categories. Regardless of classification, PTSD symptoms can impact all five senses and create treat disruption to a person’s life.

Intrusion Symptoms of PTSD

These symptoms explain some of the unwanted, distressing memories of a traumatic event. They include:

• Flashbacks
• Nightmares
• Disturbing or disruptive thoughts, images, and memories

A therapist guides each client through specific TF CBT exercises to minimize these symptoms.

Avoidance Symptoms of Trauma

Trauma survivors will often go to extreme lengths to avoid unwanted memories of the trauma. Some of the associated symptoms are:

• Avoidance of people or places that are triggers of a negative memory
• Refusing to process the thoughts or feelings about the event

Therapists can assist each client using specialized trauma treatment techniques,

Negative Alterations in Cognition and Mood

This category refers to the negative changes to someone’s thoughts or emotions as they struggle after a traumatic event. They include:

• Negative beliefs about oneself or others
• Dissociation or inability to connect
• Depersonalization or detachment; feeling like an onlooker in one’s life
• Unable to feel optimistic about the world or their relationships

Addressing these with a professional therapist is the most effective way to bring meaning back to the lives of people who experience these PTSD symptoms.

Alterations in Arousal and Reactivity

These PTSD symptoms address the changes in physical or emotional reactions to different events, places, or people. Some of these PTSD symptoms are:

• Fear behaviors, i.e., easily startled
• Hypervigilant behavior
• Unexplainable irritability
• Angry outbursts
• Sleep interruptions or inability to fall asleep

These PTSD symptoms are very intrusive on the person’s well-being. If you experience these as part of your post-traumatic stress disorder, you should consider getting professional therapy.

Tools a Therapist Uses to Address Triggers and PTSD Symptoms

Have you wondered how therapists reduce the impact of PTSD symptoms after identifying them? Here are some of the tools they often find helpful besides TF-CBT:

• Gradual or prolonged exposure therapy. It helps the client face any disturbing memory associated with trauma through controlled exposure to the traumatic thoughts. Prolonged or gradual exposure therapy can help clients overcome intrusion and avoidance symptoms like flashbacks.
• Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR). which increases distress tolerance so clients can better avoid triggers. EMDR can help reduce the impact of PTSD symptoms in the intrusion and alterations in arousal and reactivity categories.
• Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR). a treatment that teaches clients to become aware of their behaviors and manage triggers. It can help with avoidance symptoms and alterations in arousal and reactivity.
• Interpersonal Therapy. treatment can help someone improve their relationships and address negative thoughts. It’s beneficial for breaking through dissociation.

TF CBT is a primary therapy method for PTSD, but it is just one therapy. Therapists will custom-tailor therapy to suit each person and address their unique needs.

Icarus Nevada Provides Expert Trauma Treatment

Do you need more help than you can get by filling in some worksheets? Please consider Icarus Behavioral Health in Las Vegas for professional therapy for your PTSD. Each client in our care receives evidence-based treatment and holistic care that addresses your mental, emotional, and physical well-being.

We offer a full continuum of care, including inpatient and outpatient services. We are well-equipped to treat PTSD and any co-occurring disorders you may have. Each person will receive individualized, quality care from our staff.

Enjoy a Boutique Mental Health and Rehab Setting

Icarus Nevada provides a more boutique setting than most might imagine. On the inside, you can expect warm, comfortable private and public spaces that support recovery from PTSD. Outdoors, you can have daily exposure to sunshine, fresh air, and light exercise. Our fenced yard provides privacy. You will have no fear of prying eyes.

We Accept Insurance and Self-Pay Clients

Icarus Nevada accepts most major insurance plans, including group and individual policies and many forms of Nevada Medicaid. We understand that sorting out your insurance details while dealing with PTSD may feel practically impossible.

We offer new clients a dedicated insurance coordinator to take your insurance information, call your plan administrators, and obtain any required pre-approvals.

We take the fear of high costs out of your treatment. If you need assistance, please feel free to call our insurance team today. We’re here and ready to help you understand your insurance program without triggering your PTSD.

Icarus Nevada also accepts self-pay clients.

Are You Ready for Proven PTSD Treatment?

If you are ready for more information – or to receive treatment for your PTSD – give us a call today.

We will gladly reserve your spot and guide you through the next steps. Help is just a quick phone call away. Call our admissions team today.