Leah*, a 20-year-old student, was experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms after going through a traumatic experience of a family member’s sudden drug-related death.
After that trauma, Leah often relived those distressing experiences and found it hard to regulate her emotions, leading her to isolate herself from social situations.
Wanting to process those traumatic experiences, Leah referred herself to Talking Therapies through the Leeds Mental Wellbeing Service portal.
Once referred to us, Leah worked with our high intensity CBT therapist Chris, who together were able to identify what she wanted to get out of time with us and her support needs.
Over the course of 15 face-to-face cognitive behavioral therapy sessions, Leah engaged in different treatments from psychoeducation to cognitive restructuring to help process her trauma.
During her treatment, Leah said she felt more relaxed and found that she was less tearful when thinking about her family member’s traumatic death, sharing that it felt like it was more in the past.
She also became less reactive to discussions about drugs, learning to manage her emotional responses and avoid overreacting when the topic came up.
The work that Leah and Chris undertook helped her build the tools she needed to become more social again, allowing her to build confidence and independence. She was able to reengage with activities she enjoyed like walking her dogs with her mum and other dog-walkers. She also was able to plan to go abroad with her friends, something that her PTSD had previously made difficult.
Although revisiting her experiences in therapy felt difficult, the processing work supported by Chris ultimately underpinned much of the progress she made.
When reflecting on the sessions, Leah shared that without the sessions and the interventions, her PTSD symptoms would have continued to impact her daily.
Find out more about our adult services here.
*Names have been anonymised for confidentiality
