What Does A Therapirst Do for PTSD Patients

The First Time, the therapist will try to get to know you and your background. Some people are disappointed if the first session is only about that. Nothing scary happens, not that I've ever heard about anyway.

Family Medical Chart: I usually bring a simple family medical chart to a therapist. It's not as complicated as it may sound. It saves time with the therapist and since they charge by the hour, it might be worth doing.

Therapy/Counseling for PTSD (psychologist and/or therapist)

Making a Family Medical Chart
Grandparents
Parents
Self
Siblings
Children
Then I go back and for each, put the name, dates of birth and death (if applicable), and health highlights (see below).

Health highlights might be heart trouble, diabetes, cataracts, Down's, Asperger's, whatever. It might be useful to note other diseases, such as alcohol and gambling. Don't spend forever on it - it's not a research project, just a little summary to save time on your first meeting with a therapist. There is such a thing as researching your own family, but that's a huge exercise that you'd get guidance for. The kind of thing that I'm talking about would take only one line per relative.

Give to Therapist?There seems to be some importance (but I don't know why) attached to whether you give the chart to the therapist to keep, or to read and give right back to you, or for you to read it to therapist. Give it some thought before you go, decide which is best for you.