Cognitive Processing Therapy: Change How Trauma Shapes Your Thoughts
Develop skills to identify and challenge trauma-related thought patterns that keep you stuck.
What CPT Offers
Cognitive Processing Therapy provides a structured path to healing after trauma. This evidence-based approach helps you identify and modify unhelpful beliefs that developed following difficult experiences. CPT focuses on how you’ve made sense of traumatic events and gives you practical tools to challenge thoughts that limit your life.
Clients who complete CPT report reduced PTSD symptoms, decreased depression, improved sleep, healthier relationships, and greater confidence in managing difficult emotions. This approach creates lasting change by addressing the core beliefs that maintain trauma symptoms rather than just managing them.
My CPT Approach
As a certified CPT practitioner, I guide you through this focused treatment with compassion and cultural sensitivity. We work together to identify how trauma has affected your thoughts about safety, trust, power, control, self-esteem, and intimacy.
Throughout treatment, I incorporate cultural context and first-generation experiences that shape how you process trauma. For Spanish-speaking clients, working in your primary language allows for deeper exploration of culturally-influenced beliefs. My warm, direct style creates a balance of challenge and support as you develop new skills.
CPT combines education about trauma with specific skills for identifying and challenging unhelpful thinking patterns. Through structured worksheets and guided practice, you learn to recognize “stuck points” in your thinking and develop more balanced perspectives. The approach includes a written trauma account that serves as a tool for identifying beliefs rather than exposure therapy. Many clients find this controlled writing exercise extremely valuable for healing.
Who Benefits from CPT
CPT effectively addresses:
- PTSD from various types of trauma
- Trauma-related depression and anxiety
- Guilt and shame connected to past experiences
- Self-blame and responsibility struggles
- Trust issues following betrayal or harm
- Cultural trauma and immigration experiences
- Perinatal trauma
- Military and first responder trauma
This approach works particularly well for people who value understanding the “why” behind their reactions and want concrete skills to manage difficult thoughts.
Online CPT Therapy in Minnesota & California
Virtual CPT sessions provide effective trauma treatment throughout Minnesota and California. In-person CPT sessions offered in Woodbury, Minnesota. The structured nature of CPT translates seamlessly to online therapy, allowing you to access quality care from your secure space. As a bilingual therapist (English/Spanish) licensed in both states, I ensure language and location never limit your access to this powerful treatment approach.
