Changing Beliefs about Trauma: A Qualitative Study of Cognitive Processing Therapy.

BACKGROUND Controlled qualitative methods complement quantitative treatment outcome research and enable a more thorough understanding of the effects of therapy and the suspected mechanisms of action. AIMS Thematic analyses were used to examine outcomes of cognitive processing therapy (CPT) for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in a randomized controlled trial of individuals diagnosed with military-related PTSD (n = 15). METHOD After sessions 1 and 11, participants wrote "impact statements" describing their appraisals of their trauma and beliefs potentially impacted by traumatic events. Trained raters coded each of these statements using a thematic coding scheme. RESULTS An analysis of thematic coding revealed positive changes over the course of therapy in participants' perspective on their trauma and their future, supporting the purported mechanisms of CPT. CONCLUSION Implications of this research for theory and clinical practice are discussed.