Interpersonal Psychotherapy defines an interpersonal crisis and helps the patient to resolve it. For PTSD, IPT reviews the following problem areas: grief (mourning the death of a significant other),
role dispute (a struggle with a significant other, which the patient is inevitably losing), or
role transition (any major life change, including having suffered a traumatic event or events) (Markowitz, et al, 2009).
In a role transition, a life change costs the patient an old role and substitutes a new, unwanted one. Treatment helps the patient mourn the loss of the former and develop skills, interpersonal opportunities, and confidence in the latter, new role. Even an interpersonal trauma may have a silver lining.
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