Treatment of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Substance Abuse

This article describes clinical guidelines for implementing the Seeking Safety therapy for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and substance abuse. The rationale for the treatment, key features, empirical evidence, and implementation suggestions are offered. The latter include how to select clients and clinicians for the treatment, application to a variety of treatment formats, how to make the skills most useful to clients, typical difficulties of clinicians, diversity issues, group modality suggestions, and how to involve staff who are not directly conducting the treatment. A website, http://www.seekingsafety.org, provides additional information.