Delineating Trauma Mechanisms and Interventions: How Psychological Trauma Difficulties Develop and how they can be Treated Effectively

Through conducting a systematic search of the literature and identifying suitable papers, which met pre-defined criteria, a meta-analysis was conducted to examine the effect size of phase-oriented treatment models. Findings indicated a large effect size in the reduction of PTSD symptoms, which was maintained when compared to control groups and when a complex sub-group was isolated.

The findings lend evidence to the efficacy of this treatment approach in working clinically with people with PTSD. In the second piece of research, the study utilised an experimental design which sought to examine how peri-traumatic processing, namely data-driven processing, was both influenced by trait predictors as well as its impact on cognitive functions, specifically free recall and attentional bias. This was delivered through an immersive Virtual Reality video.