Supportive counselling
What is supportive counselling for PTSD?
Supportive counselling is a broad term for interventions that aim to relieve the intensity of symptoms, distress, and disability. It is designed to allow a person to voice their concerns and receive encouragement and help in finding practical solutions. In most clinical trials, supportive counselling is used as a control condition.
What is the evidence for supportive counselling?
Moderate quality evidence found a medium-sized improvement in PTSD symptoms with supportive counselling compared to waitlist/no treatment. However, supportive counselling was less effective for symptoms than cognitive therapies, exposure therapies, cognitive behavioural therapies, and eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing. There were no differences in symptoms when supportive counselling was compared to stress management interventions.
August 2021
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Last updated at: 2:45 am, 12th October 2021
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Incidence and prevalence
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Prevalence
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Red - Topic summary has no current systematic review available.