Trauma Comparisons

Comparing EMDR, Prolonged Exposure, CPT, Brainspotting, Somatic Experiencing and the wider trauma field.

Trauma treatment is where the gap between evidence and practice is widest, and where clinicians most often have to choose between approaches that make incompatible claims about what a traumatic memory is. Some hold that the memory must be told and re-told until the fear structure updates. Some hold that telling it is beside the point and the work is in the body. Some hold that the memory should not be approached at all until the person can survive approaching it. These are not stylistic differences.

These comparisons put the mechanisms side by side without flattening them into a ranking. Where one approach is guideline-recommended and the other is not, the pages say so plainly; where popularity has run well ahead of the trial evidence, they say that too. Phase and sequencing questions get their own attention, because with complex trauma the decision is usually not which treatment but in what order, and how much stabilization comes first.

84 comparisons · 32 within the same tradition · 52 across traditions