r effects on behavior (Bowers & Meichenbaum, 1984). The treatment goal of the cognitive-behavioral therapist is to develop a therapeutic means of accomplishing the above described learning processes in a nondidactic, user-friendly, collaborative, emotionally meaningful, experientially based fashion.In addition to being one of the founders of the cognitive revolution in psychotherapy and a major proponent of the cognitive-behavioral perspective, Meichenbaum devoted seven years to intensive research with clients living with PTSD. According to Meichenbaum (1994), traumatic events can shatter one’s basic assumptions about the world and can violate and invalidate one’s core beliefs. These events also over-sensitize one to trauma-related cues that feeds into, and is in turn, affected by the ruminations, flashbacks, and avoidance behaviors that characterize PTSD. Meichenbaum (1994) was fascinated with how people described their experiences and how their accounts changed over time. This fascination prompted Meichenbaum to publish a clinical handbook for the specific treatment of PTSD, in which he has elaborately described the three phases of therapy for this specific population. The first phase is to establish a therapeutic relationship (as described above in the first task of CBT). During this process, the therapist educates the client about PTSD, validates the client’s experience, and assesses the impact of the trauma. The second phase is to address the target symptoms. At this point, the therapist will identify the stressors, the client’s reactions to the stressors, implement a relaxation training regime, perform systematic desensitization, and assess whether the client is in need of medications. Meichenbaum (1994) describes the four features of relaxation training that are crucial for the implementation of systematic desensitization. First, the client learns to control his/her breathing rate by slowly inhaling, hold...
