Psychotherapeutic interventions for personal injury: What are the benefits?

Clinical psychotherapeutic intervention can be of significant benefit for those who have suffered adverse experiences, such as traumatising accidents and other injurious events. Even where the most significant harm for the victim appears physical, emotional wounds accompany any such occurrence and can cause or exacerbate a host of mental health issues in the months and years that follow what may otherwise seem like a neatly resolved process of legal compensation.

This is particularly significant in the field of personal injury, when considering what services may be most valuable for a client seeking recompense for traumatic circumstances. Much of the work we do to assist clients suffering the mental health conditions that stem from trauma is solicited under the catchment of personal injury, and we have a consistent record of observing substantial growth and recovery for those clients in terms of emotional wellbeing and peace of mind.

If appropriate help is not provided, unresolved trauma typically leads to additional problems in daily life. For example, symptoms of anxiety and depression can manifest as an inability to adequately manage the stress of work, leading to the affected individual taking long term sick leave and entering a more severe state of financial vulnerability, despite receiving monetary compensation to account for their initial crisis.

When assessing a victim of a potentially traumatic incident to formulate a plan of appropriate compensation, it is important to consider the impact of the adversity they have experienced. Intensive, targeted therapy will most likely be necessary for victims who have sustained significant changes to their quality of life, or for survivors and witnesses of traumatic incidents to name a few. In some cases, it may be that the issue being resolved is one of prior clinical negligence, where medical care has not been issued appropriately.

In short, therapy would be essential when a client’s confidence and emotional wellbeing are in clear decline. An evaluation performed by a psychologist or, more frequently, a psychiatrist can determine with certainty what mental health needs have arisen.

In this scenario, psychotherapy can be instrumental in assisting the process of adjustment to serious incidents such as bereavement or life-changing injury. In particular, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) can be a regrettably common result of adverse life events like these, from accidental injury to sexual abuse. Once compensatory funds are secured for the victim, these resources have the potential to attain not only short-term relief from financial pressure, or the treatment of bodily harm, but also to mitigate negative changes to their quality of life for years to come.

Psychotherapy directly address the array of life problems that these mental illnesses are responsible for. The longer that trauma is left unresolved, the greater opportunity it has to develop complex and far reaching psychological consequences. If intervention is sourced in good time after the event, it can serve as a preventative measure against future issues by bolstering emotional resilience and confidence.

The therapeutic models that we typically employ for treating clients that come to us for trauma recovery as part of a personal injury package are Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT). The latter often takes the form of the more targeted model known as Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (TF-CBT). Please follow the enclosed links in this article to our main website for disambiguation of the terms used. Alternatively, if you would like to inquire further about the utilisation of psychotherapy in personal injury cases, feel free to contact us at office@jsapsychotherapy.com or on 01282 685345