Brief eclectic psychotherapy for PTSD

Domain VI · Brief, integrative, trauma, hypnosis & coaching · Berthold Gersons · 1980 · Amsterdam

What it is

Brief Eclectic Psychotherapy for PTSD (BEPP) is a protocolised, trauma-focused individual therapy for adults with PTSD. Gersons developed it in the 1980s, first for Dutch police officers after shooting incidents, and it is now used with a wide range of trauma populations. It is "eclectic" because…

Format

• Format: 16 individual sessions, 45–60 minutes, weekly (about 16 weeks). A partner or trusted person attends session 1 and the farewell ritual, and in the APA summary also the session-7 review. The Nijdam trial allowed the number of sessions to vary with recovery. Gersons stresses keeping to 16…
• Session sequence. Three published descriptions differ slightly, so all three are shown.

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• Therapist requirements: licensed psychologist or psychiatrist trained in BEPP. CEBC lists 2.5-day training and supervision of the first 8 cases. Arq Academy runs a 2-day online course and recommends supervision afterwards. Gersons lists as competences: training in at least two evidence-based trauma treatments, compassionate listening that uses silence as an invitation, teaching about PTSD, tolerating harrowing…

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Does it involve any substance, plant preparation, remedy or supplement? Has your doctor or prescriber been told, especially about any medication you take?
• Does it involve intense or unusual breathing? Have you been told about the medical conditions for which that is not advised?
• Is it a group, retreat or community? How do they respond if someone wants to leave or raises a concern?
• How do you and the practitioner understand what is happening, in spiritual or cultural terms? Is that a source of comfort, worry, or both?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• the partner's view often shows avoidance the client minimises.
• a temporary rise in intrusions after early exposure. Normalise it, and use it to decide the next segment.
• current threat or ongoing abuse, high dissociation, active suicidal intent. These need stabilisation or safety planning first.
• relaxation-induced anxiety, or drifting into sleep or numbness. If either happens, keep the eyes open and shorten the exercise.
• grief that remains intense and preoccupying beyond the trauma symptoms. The authors' traumatic-grief variant, BEP-TG (Smid et al. 2015), addresses this, but the paper could not be opened.

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.