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Exhausting, but necessary: The lived experience of participants in an intensive inpatient trauma treatment program (Frontiers in Psychology)

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Home / Resources / PTSD / Exhausting, but necessary: The lived experience of participants in an intensive inpatient trauma treatment program (Frontiers in Psychology)

Exhausting, but necessary: The lived experience of participants in an intensive inpatient trauma treatment program

This article explores the patient experience of intensive trauma-focused treatment, including EMDR therapy in an intensive inpatient program.


Article Abstract

“Background: Intensive inpatient treatment programs have shown robust results in the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). How patients experience this treatment program and what changes they experience as a result of the treatment have, however, only scarcely been explored through qualitative studies.

Objective: This study aimed to explore the lived experience of participants in an intensive inpatient trauma treatment program. Our research questions were as follows: how do patients experience intensive trauma-focused treatment? How do they experience possible changes related to participating in the treatment program?

Methods: Six patients diagnosed with PTSD with significant comorbidities, who recently participated in an intensive 2-week (4 + 4 days) inpatient trauma treatment program with prolonged exposure (PE), eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR), and therapist rotation (TR), were interviewed with a semi-structured qualitative interview. Transcripts were analyzed using a thematic analysis approach.

Results: Our analysis resulted in five main themes: (1) the need to feel safe; (2) the benefits of many and different therapeutic encounters; (3) variable experience with elements of treatment; (4) intensity; and (5) experienced change. Our results suggest that feeling safe within the framework of the treatment program facilitated the treatment process. Many and different therapeutic encounters, both through TR and with ward staff, contributed to experienced change. All participants described the intensity as facilitative to trauma processing. However, most participants also describe often feeling too overwhelmed to benefit from all elements of the treatment program.

Conclusions: Our findings suggest that participants experience the overall treatment program as beneficial and contributing to experienced change. Participants described the intensity of the program as exhausting, but necessary. Most did, however, report at times of being too overwhelmed to benefit from elements of the program. Consequently, our results prompt us to question the optimal level of intensity.”

—Description from publisher

Article Access

Open Access

Vaage-Kowalzik, V., Engeset, J., Jakobsen, M., Andreassen, W., & Evensen, J. H. (2024). Exhausting, but necessary: The lived experience of participants in an intensive inpatient trauma treatment program. Frontiers in Psychology, 15:1341716. Open access: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1341716

About the Journal

“Frontiers in Psychology is a multidisciplinary journal that publishes advances in psychological research.”

—Description from publisher

View the Resource
Basic Info Collapse

Date
June 14, 2024

Creator(s)
Veronica Vaage-Kowalzik, Jeanette Engeset, Marianne Jakobsen

Contributor(s)
Wenche Andreassen, Julie Horgen Evensen

Topics
PTSD

Practice & Methods
Inpatient/Residential

More Info Collapse

Extent
13 pages

Publisher
Frontiers

Rights
© 2024 Vaage-Kowalzik, Engeset, Jakobsen, Andreassen and Evensen. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

APA Citation
Vaage-Kowalzik, V., Engeset, J., Jakobsen, M., Andreassen, W., & Evensen, J. H. (2024). Exhausting, but necessary: The lived experience of participants in an intensive inpatient trauma treatment program. Frontiers in Psychology, 15:1341716. Open access: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1341716

Audience
EMDR Therapists, Other Mental Health Professionals

Language
English

Content Type
Article, Peer-Reviewed

Access Type
External Resource, Open Access

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