Attention A T users. To access the menus on this page please perform the following steps. 1. Please switch auto forms mode to off. 2. Hit enter to expand a main menu option (Health, Benefits, etc). 3. To enter and activate the submenu links, hit the down arrow. You will now be able to tab or arrow up or down through the submenu options to access/activate the submenu links.

PTSD: National Center for PTSD

Menu
Menu
Quick Links
Veterans Crisis Line Badge
My healthevet badge
 

Avoiding Avoidance in PTSD Treatment: How to Stop Colluding and Promote New Learning with Compassion

   

Continuing Education

This section brings together free in-depth Continuing Education resources for the Professional community concerned with trauma.

Avoiding Avoidance in PTSD Treatment: How to Stop Colluding and Promote New Learning with Compassion

  • Date Created: 07/03/2025
  • Time to Complete: 1 hour
  • Credits: ANCC, APA, ASWB, ACCME, NBCC, Other Orgs
  • Skill Level: Intermediate
  • Course Series: PTSD 101, PTSD Consultation Lecture Series

Start Learning

Credit

VA Only: Go to TMSright arrow icon

Take the Coursedown arrow icon

Go to TRAIN websiteLink will take you outside the VA website. VA is not responsible for the content of the linked site.

Earn CE/CME Credits

See How to Get Credits.

Avoiding Avoidance in PTSD Treatment: How to Stop Colluding and Promote New Learning with Compassion Author(s):

Andrew Sherrill, PhD

Description

Avoidance plays a critical role in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), highlighting the importance of addressing this maintenance mechanism within psychotherapy. Additionally, it may be plausible that problematic avoidance is not only evident at the patient level but can also occur within systems, interpersonal relationships, and therapeutic contexts.

This online course provides an overview of PTSD symptom clusters, with particular emphasis on the centrality of avoidance behaviors and the Prolonged Exposure (PE) perspective, which views avoidance as an impediment to new adaptive learning and recovery. The author describes how avoidance can manifest in both passive and active forms, using examples, and explores how complicity with avoidance can hinder recovery and perpetuate avoidance patterns, even among well-intentioned therapists.

Goals and Objectives

  • Describe the role of avoidance in the maintenance of PTSD
  • Differentiate between patient-level avoidance and therapy-level avoidance
  • Identify compassionate strategies to address collusion with avoidance in PTSD treatment

PTSD Information Voice Mail: (802) 296-6300
Email: ncptsd@va.gov
Also see: VA Mental Health

Facebook Twitter YouTube

Site Map

return to top go