July 6, 2021
If you live with complex post-traumatic stress disorder or love someone who does, you are aware of how difficult it is to find a therapist who understands the disorder. While there are tons of clinicians who received training in post-traumatic stress disorder, few have even heard of CPTSD, and some do not believe it exists.
This article will examine where to look and give you some names of clinicians who do treat complex post-traumatic stress disorder so that you might contact them for a referral. Also, at the end of this piece, CPTSD Foundation will have a special announcement.
Frustration on Steroids
The American Psychological Association states that approximately 5.2 million people living in the United States between the ages of 18-54 have post-traumatic stress disorder. Among those, millions of people are a large number of folks who have CPTSD.
However, trying to find a mental health professional who handles the complex nature of CPTSD is not just tricky; for many, it seems impossible. This lack of available care ties down many people and leaves the suffering alone or with confused and hurt family members.
It may be that the problem with finding care for CPTSD is that it is not listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Edition five (DSM-5). Instead, currently, only PTSD appears in the DSM-5, leaving providers of mental health care without any guidance on how to diagnose the disorder. Also, without a diagnosis code from the DSM-5, providers cannot bill insurance companies, including Medicare and Medicaid, if they do treat it.
This lack of funding to treat CPTSD is only one of the obstacles to getting effective treatment. The frustration of looking and looking and looking online and finally asking therapists if they treat complex post-traumatic stress disorder is frustrating. It is also disappointing to learn from that therapist that they do not treat the disorder.
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