Posttraumatic Relationship Syndrome

Abstract

This case study describes the treatment of an individual with Posttraumatic Relationship Syndrome (PTRS), a newly proposed mental health syndrome that occurs subsequent to the experience of trauma in an intimate relationship. It includes the intrusive and arousal symptoms of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) but lacks the avoidance symptoms required for a diagnosis of PTSD due to a very different mode of coping with the traumatized state from that which is characteristic of individuals with PTSD. It also includes a category of relational symptoms that, of course, are not part of PTSD because the trauma it addresses does not have to occur in the context of an emotionally intimate relationship, as in PTRS. The treatment model developed and successfully implemented by the authors is described along with the posttraumatic growth the client achieved.