San Diego PTSD Treatment: How Do I Find It and What Does It Involve?

Summary: San Diego PTSD treatment is available at mental health treatment centers with expert clinicians trained in supporting patients with a history of trauma. In San Diego, the best PTSD treatment involves trauma-informed care, which was developed specifically to help people with PTSD and other trauma-related disorders.

Key Points:

The symptoms of PTSD can be disruptive, impair the ability to participate in typical daily activities, and have a negative impact on overall quality of life.
Many high-quality treatment centers employ providers skilled in supping patients with PTSD.
Trauma-informed care for PTSD typically involves psychotherapy, medication if needed, and various types of complementary support.

How to Find San Diego PTSD Treatment

To find PTSD treatment in San Diego, it’s important to identify which treatment centers meet the following criteria:

The center itself must be fully licensed and accredited by all relevant regulatory organizations.
The center must employ fully licensed and accredited psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, counselors, therapists, and other skilled professionals such as psychiatric and/or mental health nurse practitioners.
Those providers must have extensive experience supporting patients with PTSD.
They must also be current on the latest best practices in trauma-informed care.

When you’re looking for San Diego PTSD treatment, we encourage you not to compromise: you can find a treatment center that meets all the criteria above, with a clinical staff that meets all the criteria above, as well.

What is Trauma-Informed Care for PTSD?

Providers trained in trauma-informed care understand the significant impact PTSD can have on a person, know the signs and symptoms of PTSD, and know how to offer effective support without retraumatizing patients.

In addition, providers trained in trauma-informed care are well-versed in the theory and application of the six principles of trauma informed care defined by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in their publication “Trauma-Informed Care in Behavioral Health Services.”

The Six Principles of Trauma-Informed Care

1. Safety

- Providers must work to create an atmosphere where patients feel safe, secure, and able to talk about things that may be difficult, painful, or frightening.

2. Trustworthiness and Transparency

- Providers must work to create an atmosphere characterized by openness and trust, which promotes the type of positive treatment alliance essential for healing past trauma.

3. Peer Support

- In many cases, a person with a history of trauma can benefit from interacting with people who’ve been through treatment for trauma themselves. Seeing and hearing a healthy survivor can offer a tangible example of healing and engender hope in patients who may doubt they’ll ever learn to manage their PTSD symptoms.

4. Cooperation and Mutuality

- Providers must model equitable power dynamics throughout all phases and aspects of the treatment process and emphasize collaboration and shared decision-making around all components of treatment and support.

5. Empowerment, Voice, and Choice

- Providers must work to give patients ownership over the treatment process, a say in what happens during treatment, and the ability to decide for themselves what’s working and what’s not working.

6. Cultural, Historic, and Gender Issues

- Providers must work to identify and resolve any underlying preconceptions they have about race, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, and/or religion that may subvert the treatment alliance and hinder treatment progress. Providers must also acknowledge the impact historical and institutional trauma on individuals, recognize various needs associated with various cultures and traditions, and value the perspective those cultures and traditions may have on mental health in general, and trauma, specifically.

That’s the theoretical foundation of trauma-informed care for PTSD. If you’re in San Diego and need PTSD treatment, you can find a treatment center that follows these principles. If you find a treatment center online and you’re unsure whether they offer trauma-informed care, the best way to find out is by calling them and talking to the admissions staff: they should know how their clinicians support patients with PTSD, and which therapeutic approaches they use.

What Techniques/Modalities Are Involved in PTSD Treatment?

Treatment programs for PTSD follow a holistic, integrated model similar to treatment programs for other mental health disorders, with the massive, essential caveat that every single aspect of treatment must follow trauma-informed principles and prevent retraumatizing the patient.

Within those parameters, a treatment plan for PTSD will most likely involve:

Psychotherapy, with trauma-informed variations of:
- Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT for trauma)
- Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT for trauma)
- Cognitive processing therapy (CPT)
Trauma and PTSD-specific therapeutic techniques:
- Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR)
- Prolonged exposure therapy (PE)
- Prolonged exposure therapy (PE)
Medication, if needed:
- Antidepressants
- Anxiolytics
Complementary support:
- Exercise, diet, meditation, sleep hygiene
- Group therapy or peer support, if appropriate
New/emerging modalities:
- Brain stimulation techniques, such as transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)

Patients in San Diego who need PTSD treatment can find effective, evidence-based support. If you need support for PTSD or trauma-related mental health issues, please understand that treatment can work. You can learn to manage your symptoms, reclaim your life, and achieve sustainable, lifelong recovery from past trauma.

Angus Whyte

Angus Whyte has an extensive background in neuroscience, behavioral health, adolescent development, and mindfulness, including lab work in behavioral neurobiology and a decade of writing articles on mental health and mental health treatment. In addition, Angus brings twenty years of experience as a yoga teacher and experiential educator to his work for Crownview. He’s an expert at synthesizing complex concepts into accessible content that helps patients, providers, and families understand the nuances of mental health treatment, with the ultimate goal of improving outcomes and quality of life for all stakeholders.