The Posttraumatic Stress Clinic offers treatment for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and complex PTSD following a range of traumatic events. This includes childhood trauma, exposure to family violence, interpersonal assault including physical assault, sexual assault and/or domestic violence, and single-incident events (eg, motor vehicle and workplace accidents). We also see people who have been exposed to trauma through their occupation (eg, police, ambulance, firefighters, veterans and active service duty personnel).
We offer evidence-based therapies for posttraumatic stress (typically cognitive-behavioural, eg Cognitive Processing Therapy). In accordance with best practice, we conduct a comprehensive assessment to ensure the therapy we offer is appropriate to address an individual’s specific post-trauma needs and monitor progress throughout therapy with brief questionnaires. The therapies are offered in the context of research trials where we investigate how to make existing therapies more effective. For further information about trauma-focussed therapies and trauma treatment, visit these sites: Phoenix Australia, UK Guidelines, USA National PTSD website).
We are currently recruiting for two trials below. Therapy is provided free of charge.
Professor Reg Nixon has conducted PTSD treatment trials at Flinders University since 2004 and has been involved in the research and treatment of PTSD and it’s co-occurring problems for the past 20 years. He regularly provides training and supervision in evidence-based therapies for PTSD. This has included community mental health services and victim agencies, as well as Open Arms (formerly Veterans and Veterans Families Counselling Service) and the Australian Defence Force.
Dr Marja Elizabeth has been a registered psychologist since 2000, with a career working with clients having experienced trauma. She has worked in diverse settings in Australia and internationally including Corrective Services, the Royal Flying Doctor Service, Sexual Assault Services, Tokyo English Lifeline and as the Gender Based Violence Specialist for the Government of Nauru. Since 2016 she has been a therapist on several PTSD treatment trials with Flinders University and completed her PhD that investigated a modified form of CPT.
Priyadharshany Sandanapitchai is a provisional psychologist and Clinical Psychology PhD student interested in trauma and PTSD intervention. Her current research is evaluating a new guided self-help Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT-GSH) program to treat PTSD in adults. This type of intervention could help more people access evidence-based trauma treatment and better match therapy to their level of need using a stepped-care model. Priya’s study will be the first to investigate the effectiveness of stepped-care CPT-GSH as well as the feasibility of providing guided self-help in this fashion.
Larissa Roberts is a provisionally registered psychologist and a PhD candidate at Flinders University. She is investigating methods to improve stepped care approaches in treating PTSD. Larissa has experience working as a crisis support worker at Lifeline Australia and as a therapist using cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) approaches to help adults and children with anxiety.
At various times we will have provisional psychologists undertaking supervised clinical work within the clinic, with the majority undertaking postgraduate clinical psychology training at Flinders University.
This project investigates an online guided self-help intervention using Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT-GSH) in a stepped care model to help people recover from PTSD. The stepped-care approach can involve two stages of help, in which a person receiving therapy is matched to the level of therapy that most suits their current needs. This will be compared to a comparison group who will receive a standard Cognitive Processing Therapy.
To be eligible for the trial, we require you to:
If you are uncertain about being eligible for the trial, please contact us for further information.
What does the CPT-GSH trial involve?
If you choose to take part in the study, you will initially undergo a phone screening to determine your eligibility to participate. Following confirmation of your eligibility, you will be interviewed by a registered or provisional psychologist, and you will also be asked to complete questionnaires about your life experiences and symptoms.
The research study uses a randomised design, meaning that participants will be allocated to one of two treatment groups by chance, like flipping a coin. One group will receive online Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT), which involves receiving one 60-minute session delivered online each week, for up to 18 weeks (if necessary).
The second group will initially receive an online, guided self-help CPT that involves twelve weekly sessions that take approximately 1hr to complete, done in your own time. The therapy has the same content of a standard CPT, but without extensive therapist input. Participants will require to read modules every week sent by the study team and complete worksheets by themselves. A therapist will give you feedback and support via email for a maximum of 15 minutes weekly. For participants in this group, if they do not make significant improvements during or immediately after guided self-help CPT, they will be offered the opportunity to receive the standard CPT.
After therapy you will participate in two more assessments (interview and completing questionnaires). These assessments will occur immediately after therapy and then at 3- after therapy to monitor your progress.
No costs are associated with participating in this trial, nor will you be paid.
What are the benefits?
Although we cannot predict whether you will benefit from the treatment offered to you in this trial, people who have received similar therapies in the past have reported to have gained at least some benefit. It is hoped that the information gathered in this research will help increase understanding of the best ways to offer treatment to individuals who have been traumatised.
Why is the CPT-GSH trial important?
The aim of this study is to assess the effectiveness of a guided self-help intervention using Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT), which can be very helpful for many people with PTSD by reducing the severity of their PTSD reactions/symptoms. It is also helpful for what is now described as Complex PTSD. It is a therapy approach that helps clients to challenge and modify their distressing thoughts relating to the traumatic event. Although guided self-help approaches have been researched for PTSD and other problems such as anxiety and depression, the use of CPT in such trauma studies has not been extensively researched. Therefore, this study will fill this gap by using guided self-help (GSH) with CPT components in a stepped care way to provide appropriate care for those with PTSD.
Who is conducting the CPT-GSH trial?
The study is being conducted by Professor Reg Nixon and Ms Priyadharshany Sandanapitchai (provisional psychologist and PhD student) from Flinders University. It is funded in part by the College of Education, Psychology and Social Work at Flinders University.
PEREI was designed to assist first responders to build skills, boost support, and help look after themselves early in their early careers. It aims to improve resilience to the potentially negative effects of stressors, whether that’s exposure to traumatic events or organisational and operational challenges.
PEREI goes above and beyond existing wellbeing programs by using a three-pronged approach, offering a wellbeing and resilience program for first responders; extending support to families and significant others; and providing training to supervisors.
This study aims to investigate whether increasing awareness of unwanted trauma related thoughts (intrusions) can benefit PTSD treatment outcomes. This research is being conducted because the current assessment of intrusions relies solely on self-reporting and an increased awareness could contribute to these thoughts being assessed more frequently.
To be eligible for the Stepped trial, we require you to:
If you are uncertain about being eligible for the trial, please contact us for further information.
This study looks to investigate the effect of cognitively demanding tasks on the occurrence of trauma-related thoughts. Participants will be asked to think about a traumatic event (e.g. motor vehicle accident, industrial accidents, interpersonal assault etc.)
experienced directly or indirectly (witnessed). Participants will also be asked to complete a series of relevant questionnaires, take part in a reading task, and complete a short interview. Participants should NOT participate in this study if they feel uncomfortable thinking of their traumatic event. If you are interested in participating, please email Yu-Tung Sun at jennifer.sun@flinders.edu.au.
The face-to-face experiment will take an hour to complete. A reimbursement of $20 AUD will be given as an appreciation for you time and effort in our project.
This study is conducted by Jennifer (Yu-Tung) Sun under the supervision of Professor Reg Nixon. This research is funded by the College of Education, Psychology and Social Work at Flinders University.
This project aims to investigate how different people think, feel, and behave following potentially traumatic experiences. The online diary briefly captures peoples’ days to improve our understanding of small changes in posttraumatic thought processes.
To be eligible for the Daily Diary Trauma Study, we require you to:
If you are uncertain about being eligible for the trial, please contact us for further information.
Participants will receive a $35.00 Coles-Myer gift card in recognition of their time and contribution to research.
If you believe that thinking about a negative or traumatic past event will be overly distressing for you, we recommend that you do not participate in this study.
Most Australian adults will experience at least one traumatic event in their lifetime. This project is about improving our understanding of peoples’ reactions and perceptions following traumatic experiences and how this may impact the development of PTSD. The findings of this study can be used to improve current PTSD treatments and preventative strategies.
This study is conducted by Alexandra Canty under the supervision of Professor Reg Nixon. This research is funded by the College of Education, Psychology and Social Work at Flinders University.
Sturt Rd, Bedford Park
South Australia 5042
South Australia | Northern Territory
Global | Online
CRICOS Provider: 00114A TEQSA Provider ID: PRV12097 TEQSA category: Australian University
Flinders University uses cookies to ensure website functionality, personalisation and a variety of purposes as set out in its website privacy statement. This statement explains cookies and their use by Flinders.
If you consent to the use of our cookies then please click the button below:
If you do not consent to the use of all our cookies then please click the button below. Clicking this button will result in all cookies being rejected except for those that are required for essential functionality on our website.