About Journey to Trauma Recovery

Journey to Trauma Recovery is a free, self-help service designed to help survivors of recent trauma learn more about post-traumatic stress and cope more effectively with the effects of trauma.

Not a Replacement for Counseling! This educational self-help website is not intended to replace face-to-face counseling. If you continue to experience significant distress beyond the first weeks after your trauma, please talk to your doctor and consider seeking counseling from a traumatic stress specialist. You can use the site to help you learn more about traumatic stress and decide whether to seek counseling.

How to Use the Site. You can use the site as often as you want. Some trauma survivors may visit it only once, but we think it is more useful to visit the site regularly while you are working on your recovery.

After you complete the Self-Test (see below), you’ll receive suggestions about which “Destinations of Recovery” may be most useful for you. We recommend that you visit these sections of the site first. But explore all the sections of the site and see what they have to offer.

Who is Journey to Trauma Recovery for? It is intended to assist anyone who has experienced a trauma in the last few weeks or months, including:

• Motor vehicle accident survivors

• Physical assault survivors

• Sexual assault survivors

• Survivors of combat and other war trauma

• Industrial accident survivors

• Survivors of disaster and terrorist attack

• Loved ones of a trauma survivor, who are experiencing traumatic stress reactions themselves

This Site is Not-for-Profit. The materials are a public health service, and are not part of a commercial organization or business. There is no charge for using the site. You will not be contacted by site developers by email unless you give permission; even then we would only contact you if you have forgotten your password and want to know what it is, or if you’d like email reminders when it’s time to visit the site again.

Getting a Password and Logging In. In order to use the services here, you’ll need to select a confidential password, one that is known only to you. The site is designed to be used regularly, and lets you keep track of what sections of the site you have visited. If you keep completing the Self-Test (see below) when you log in, the site also lets you track your recovery progress (you can see a graph of how your reactions are changing over time). The site is interactive in these ways, and your confidential password helps make this happen. You can sign up here.

The Self-Test. When you first begin using the service, you’ll be asked to complete a Self-Test. This questionnaire is anonymous, because you will use your personal password. Your answers are used to:

• Let you know how you’re doing.

• Help educate you about traumatic stress reactions.

• Direct you to which services on the site may be most useful for you.

• Start a graph of your stress reactions and coping confidence, to help you chart your recovery progress. The graph is updated every time you visit the site and complete the Self-Test.

• Help us evaluate and improve the service.

Your Personal “Home Page” – My Recovery Log. When you visit the site for the second time (and every time afterward), start with your Recovery Log. This is your personal “home page” where you can:

• Find where you left off during your last visit (This helps you pick up where you left off if you want to do so).

• See how much of each Destination of Recovery (see below) you have completed.

• See a graph of how your stress reactions are changing (You can track your recovery progress and see if your post-traumatic stress reactions are reducing over time).

• See a graph of your confidence in your ability to cope (You can see if your confidence is growing).

• Remember which services were recommended for you.

“Destinations” of Recovery. Each of the destinations focuses on a different educational topic that may help with your recovery. Each one helps you learn something important that may give you more control. The destinations focus on helping you:

• Reduce Your Physical Tension and Anxiety. Learn and practice 3 kinds of relaxation exercises that can help you lower your tension and anxiety.

• Get Support from Others. Learn about how support can help, consider who might be a good support person, and think about how to deal with unhelpful people.

• Reduce Your Worry and Negative Thinking. Negative thinking can slow down your recovery. Use this destination to identify your personal negative thoughts, learn about how to worry less, and reduce your negative self-talk.

• Cope with Memories, Triggers, and Reminders. After a trauma, lots of things trigger distressing memories and physical reactions. Learn about how reminders trigger your memories and how to manage your triggers more effectively.

• Reduce Bad Coping Habits. Find out what kinds of coping can make things worse, and focus on reducing or avoiding bad coping habits.

• Consider Whether to Seek Face-To-Face Counseling. Many individuals recover more rapidly if they go for counseling from a traumatic stress specialist. Learn what happens in counseling and consider some “pro’s” and “con’s” of talking to a trauma counselor.

Before and after each destination, you’ll be asked to answer 3-5 questions. They are designed to help you notice if you’re benefiting from the destination and to assist us in finding out which destinations are useful to our visitors.

Help Us Improve Care for Trauma Survivors. Journey to Trauma Recovery is a “work in progress.” We’ll be working to improve it by adding more content and changing what can be improved. Every time you visit the site and complete the Self-Test, this will help us study how it can be improved. It would also help us if, after you use the site for a while, you would complete our Survivor Survey and tell us how it’s working for you and how we can improve the service.

Credits. Development of the Journey To Trauma Recovery website was supported through a grant from the Network Information and Space Security Center and the Center for Homeland Security at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs.