A CPT-Trained Trauma Clinician
Cognitive Processing Therapy in Houston for PTSD, complex trauma, and the stuck beliefs trauma leaves behind. A clinician with specialized CPT training delivers this structured, evidence-based protocol inside your broader treatment plan at Heights Behavioral Health.
01Specialized CPT Training
02Structured, Evidence-Based Protocol
03PTSD and Complex Trauma
04Private Pay · Superbills
What It Is
Trauma does not just leave memories. It leaves conclusions. Beliefs like the world is never safe, I cannot trust my own judgment, or it was my fault get written during the worst moments of your life and then quietly become the rules you live by. Clinicians call these stuck points.
Cognitive Processing Therapy is a structured, short-term treatment built to find those stuck points and examine them honestly. You learn how trauma affects thinking, look closely at what the event has come to mean about you, and work through targeted written exercises that test each belief against the evidence of your actual life.
CPT does not require reliving the event over and over. A written account of the trauma is used in some versions of the protocol and skipped in others, and your clinician will choose the format that fits you. The work centers on what the trauma taught you to believe, because that is what keeps the past in charge of the present.
The Evidence
CPT is one of the most strongly supported PTSD treatments in existence. It is recommended at the highest level by the American Psychological Association and by the Department of Veterans Affairs and Department of Defense clinical practice guidelines, with decades of controlled research behind it, including studies with survivors of assault, combat, and childhood trauma.
What the research does not support is a promise. CPT is often described as a twelve-session protocol, but real courses run shorter or longer depending on the person and the history. We will not quote you a session count before an assessment, because an honest number requires knowing you first.
Who It Helps
CPT was developed with survivors of sexual assault and has some of its strongest evidence there.
The VA uses CPT as a first-line PTSD treatment. It suits people who want a clear, structured method.
When the loudest symptom is a verdict you handed yourself, CPT works directly on that verdict.
Beliefs written by trauma often drive the drinking or the using. CPT addresses the driver while the addiction is treated.
CPT has a defined arc, written practice, and visible progress, which suits people who want a map.
Years of discussing the event without relief usually means the beliefs underneath it were never directly tested.
The Method
01
The beliefs trauma wrote about safety, trust, control, esteem, and intimacy.
02
Structured worksheets that test each belief against what is actually true.
03
Impact statements that give the experience language on your terms.
04
Balanced beliefs applied to real situations between sessions until they hold.
What To Expect
Early sessions are orientation, not exposure. You and your clinician map how the trauma has shaped your thinking and identify the first stuck points to work on.
A working CPT session is active. You bring completed practice sheets, walk through a belief together, and test it with structured questions: what is the evidence, what would you tell a friend in your position, what else could be true. Between sessions there is short written practice, and it matters. The change happens as much on paper during the week as it does in the room.
Expect the work to be uncomfortable before it is freeing. Examining a belief you have carried since the worst day of your life is real work. Your clinician paces it deliberately, and because CPT here runs inside a program, someone is tracking how your week is actually going.
Where It Fits
CPT is available across our levels of care. In Individualized Intensive Programming, sessions can be scheduled at higher frequency so momentum builds quickly. In PHP and IOP, CPT runs alongside group and skills work so the beliefs you are dismantling get replaced by something sturdier in real time.
CPT is one of several trauma therapies here. Some people process the memory itself first with EMDR and use CPT for the beliefs built on top of it; others need to start with the body through Somatic Experiencing. This page sits alongside our trauma and PTSD treatment program.
Who Delivers It
CPT at Heights Behavioral Health is delivered by a clinician with specialized training in the protocol, working within a trauma team that also includes three EMDR-trained clinicians and a clinician trained in Somatic Experiencing. All therapy here is delivered by licensed clinicians at the master level or above.
Clinical care is led by Joni Ogle, LCSW, CSAT, who has been licensed for more than 37 years and specializes in trauma and co-occurring conditions.
Guides and Resources
Plain-language articles from our clinical team on trauma, stuck points, and what Cognitive Processing Therapy looks like week to week.
Equine-Assisted Psychotherapy: What Actually Happens at the Ranch
Internal Family Systems: Why Therapists Keep Talking About Parts
Somatic Experiencing: Trauma Treatment That Starts in the Body
Ready When You Are
Speak confidentially with admissions about CPT and whether this structured protocol fits your next step.
Start Confidentially
Tell us a little about what is going on and the best way to reach you. A member of our admissions team will follow up personally and walk you through next steps. Please do not include sensitive medical details in the form.
Common Questions
If you do not see your question here, call our admissions team at (877) 549-5102 and we will walk you through it.
Heights Behavioral Health is a private-pay, out-of-network practice. We provide superbills so you can pursue out-of-network reimbursement if your plan offers it, and we can verify your benefits before you commit. See our admissions page.
EMDR works on the stored memory itself. CPT works on the beliefs the trauma created. Both are strongly supported for PTSD, and they answer different questions: EMDR addresses what happened in your nervous system, CPT addresses what you concluded about yourself and the world. Many people here use them in sequence.
Sometimes. The original protocol includes a written account of the event, and a well-studied version skips the account entirely and focuses on stuck points. Your clinician recommends the format that fits your history and your stability, and nothing is sprung on you.
CPT is often described as a twelve-session treatment, and real courses run shorter or longer. Complex or repeated trauma usually needs more time and more preparation. We will not quote you a number before an assessment.
PTSD is where the evidence is deepest, but the method, finding the beliefs an experience wrote and testing them honestly, also helps with guilt, moral injury, and the self-blame that follows trauma even when the full diagnosis is not present.
Often yes. Trauma-shaped beliefs are a common driver of substance use, and treating both together is frequently the point. Your clinicians coordinate the sequence so trauma work supports recovery rather than destabilizing it.
Yes. CPT targets the beliefs a trauma left behind, and those stuck points can shape daily life for decades regardless of when the event occurred. Treatment works with the meaning you carry today, so time since the trauma does not disqualify you. An assessment will give you an honest read on fit.
Our admissions team answers seven days a week, from 8:00 am to 7:30 pm Central Time. Call (877) 549-5102 to talk with a real person about what is going on, your schedule, and whether our programs are the right fit. If you reach out after hours, leave a message or send the consultation form and we will return your call as soon as we open. If this is an emergency, call 911. If you or someone you love is in a mental health crisis, call or text 988.
Clinical Review
Written by Joni Ogle, LCSW, CSAT, CEO of Heights Behavioral Health, and clinically reviewed by Deborah Darnell-Drake, LCSW-S, ACSW, LMFT, Chief Clinical Officer. Heights Behavioral Health provides licensed outpatient behavioral health care for adults in Houston, Texas, delivered by master’s-level clinicians and licensed professionals. This page is intended to explain HBH services and does not replace an individualized clinical assessment. Last reviewed October 2026.
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