How to Stop Nightmares in Adults w/ PTSD - Rescripting Nightmares with CBT for Nightmares Protocol

Therapy in a Nutshell

Therapy in a Nutshell -Emma McAdam

Mental Health, Health & Fitness, Education, Health & Fitness:mental Health, Self-improvement

4.8 • 657 Ratings

🗓️ 21 April 2025

⏱️ 37 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Learn the skills to Regulate your Emotions, join the membership: https://courses.therapyinanutshell.com/membership Nightmares are a common symptom of PTSD and can impact sleep, mood, energy, and contribute to more PTSD symptoms. Today I'm speaking with Dr. Joanne Davis, Clinical Psychologist on how to treat nightmares in adults with or without PTSD. You can find her nightmare training for clinicians here: https://cbtnightmares.org And her book on nightmare treatment here: https://a.co/d/9FLv4C9 Looking for affordable online counseling? My sponsor, BetterHelp, connects you to a licensed professional from the comfort of your own home. Try it now for 10% off your first month: https://betterhelp.com/therapyinanutshell Learn more in one of my in-depth mental health courses: https://courses.therapyinanutshell.com Support my mission on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/therapyinanutshell Sign up for my newsletter: https://www.therapyinanutshell.com Check out my favorite self-help books: https://kit.co/TherapyinaNutshell/best-self-help-books Therapy in a Nutshell and the information provided by Emma McAdam are solely intended for informational and entertainment purposes and are not a substitute for advice, diagnosis, or treatment regarding medical or mental health conditions. Although Emma McAdam is a licensed marriage and family therapist, the views expressed on this site or any related content should not be taken for medical or psychiatric advice. Always consult your physician before making any decisions related to your physical or mental health. In therapy I use a combination of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Systems Theory, positive psychology, and a bio-psycho-social approach to treating mental illness and other challenges we all face in life. The ideas from my videos are frequently adapted from multiple sources. Many of them come from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, especially the work of Steven Hayes, Jason Luoma, and Russ Harris. The sections on stress and the mind-body connection derive from the work of Stephen Porges (the Polyvagal theory), Peter Levine (Somatic Experiencing) Francine Shapiro (EMDR), and Bessel Van Der Kolk. I also rely heavily on the work of the Arbinger Institute for my overall understanding of our ability to choose our life's direction. And deeper than all of that, the Gospel of Jesus Christ orients my personal worldview and sense of security, peace, hope, and love https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/comeuntochrist/believe If you are in crisis, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org or 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or your local emergency services. Copyright Therapy in a Nutshell, LLC

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome back to another episode of the Therapy in a nutshell podcast.
0:05.0	I'm Emma McAdam and I'm a licensed marriage and family therapist.
0:08.0	And this podcast is all about taking the life-changing, but usually kind of complicated topics of therapy
0:14.0	and boiling them down into simple, easy-to-understand concepts that you can use in your daily life.
0:20.0	If you find today's episode is helpful to you,
0:22.2	please pass it on to someone else who could benefit from it as well.
0:24.9	Each podcast episode comes from a corresponding video you can find
0:27.9	on the Therapy and a Notchial YouTube channel.
0:30.3	Also, these podcasts are educational and don't replace the advice
0:33.6	or direction you may be receiving from a therapist or other health professionals.
0:39.3	Now please, enjoy the episode. One of the things that we found in our research is that by treating the nightmares,
0:44.3	not only do the nightmares and frequency and severity decline, sleep improves,
0:50.3	but we also see a pretty significant impact on PTSD symptoms, like without even doing the trauma work.
0:57.4	Okay, everyone, today we have a great guest.
0:59.3	We're going to be talking about treatment for nightmares, especially when those nightmares occur in the context of PTSD.
1:05.0	And I've got a great guest.
1:06.0	Her name is Joanne Davis.
1:07.2	She's a professor at the University of Tulsa.
1:09.1	And she's a clinical psychologist who specializes in nightmare treatment, and she's developed a very brief protocol with like five
1:15.6	or six therapy sessions that helps people stop having nightmares, decrease the frequency of
1:20.6	nightmares, and improve their sleep, which is shown to have a really massive impact on PTSD.
1:24.8	Really excited to have her on, so let's jump in.
	...

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