Feasibility Trial of Narrative Exposure Therapy (NET) for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) During Pregnancy

"NET involves: 1) diagnostic interview and psychoeducation, 2) laying out the Lifeline, 3) NET therapy sessions (constructing the trauma narrative in context of the life course), 4) final session rituals. Laying out the Lifeline (using rope or string) allows participants to take a bird's eye view of the events of their life using simple items such as flowers to represent positive events and stones to represent traumatic events. The focus of NET sessions is to encourage participants to describe the details of traumas and integrating the cold memories (i.e., facts) with the hot memories (e.g., cognitions, emotions, physiological feelings, and sensory information). The therapist makes notes after each session narrating the details of the traumas (stones) and reads this at the beginning of each subsequent session. Final session rituals involve re-reading the trauma narrative, hopes for the future, and laying out the final Lifeline placing flowers for hopes and wishes for the future."