Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT)

Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) is an evidence-based, cognitive-behavioral treatment for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and related trauma responses. Developed by Patricia Resick and colleagues in the late 1980s, CPT helps clients identify and challenge unhelpful trauma-related beliefs—called “stuck points”—that maintain distress and interfere with recovery.

CPT is structured, time-limited (usually 12 sessions), and highly collaborative. It guides clients in examining the meanings they’ve made about the trauma, shifting from self-blame or distorted beliefs (“It was my fault,” “I can’t trust anyone”) toward more balanced and functional appraisals. The therapy focuses less on reliving the trauma and more on how clients interpret and assimilate it into their worldview.