PTSD: Symptoms, Trauma Responses and Support Options
People can experience many emotional and physical reactions after a potentially traumatic event, and most do not develop PTSD. Post-traumatic stress disorder involves particular patterns of symptoms that cause significant distress or interfere with everyday life.
This page explains what PTSD is, how it differs from the distress that commonly follows a traumatic event, how it can present, why some people develop it and others do not, how it is professionally assessed, what evidence-supported treatment involves, and how to explore practitioners and book an available online session through LifeHetu. It is general information, not an assessment of you, and nothing here asks you to describe what happened.
What Is Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder?
PTSD is a recognised mental health condition that can develop after exposure to an extremely threatening or horrific event or series of events. The World Health Organization gives war, accidents, natural disasters and sexual violence as examples of the kinds of events involved; the NHS adds serious or life-threatening accidents, physical or sexual assault, abuse including childhood or domestic abuse, some occupations such as emergency and healthcare work, serious health problems, and a difficult birth or the death of a baby.
A person may have experienced the event themselves, witnessed it happening to someone else, or learned that it happened to someone close to them. What counts as extremely threatening is not settled by a list — the same event affects different people differently, and this page cannot tell anyone whether what they went through qualifies.
The WHO describes PTSD as present when someone has symptoms re-experiencing the event, avoids reminders of it, and experiences symptoms of heightened arousal — and when those symptoms cause significant distress and interfere with daily activities and family, social, school or working life. The distress and interference are part of the definition, not an afterthought.
Establishing whether someone has PTSD is a clinical judgement made by an appropriately qualified professional. Nothing on this page can do it, and nothing here is intended to.
Complex PTSD
ICD-11 recognises complex post-traumatic stress disorder as a separate diagnosis. The NHS describes its symptoms as largely the same as PTSD but with different causes — typically prolonged or repeated events from which escape was difficult or impossible, such as childhood abuse or neglect, ongoing domestic violence or abuse, or repeatedly witnessing violence. It is mentioned here because people encounter the term and deserve an accurate account of it. It is not simply "worse PTSD", distinguishing the two is a matter for professional assessment, and this page offers no way to tell them apart.
Experiencing Trauma Does Not Automatically Mean PTSD
The World Health Organization states it plainly: most people exposed to potentially traumatic events do not develop PTSD. Around 70% of people worldwide will experience a potentially traumatic event at some point in their lives, and by the WHO’s account only a minority — around 5.6% — go on to develop PTSD, with an estimated 3.9% of the world population having experienced it at some stage. Those are global figures from the World Mental Health Surveys, not Indian ones, and they describe populations rather than individuals.
Feeling extreme fear during or after a traumatic event is an ordinary human response. The WHO notes that most people exposed to such events will experience distress but will recover naturally with time. Fear, sadness, anger, difficulty sleeping, unwanted memories and being on edge in the days and weeks afterwards are not, by themselves, signs that something has gone wrong with a person.
What distinguishes PTSD is a particular pattern of symptoms, continuing over time, causing significant distress and interfering with everyday life. It is the pattern and the impact together — not the severity of the event, and not how upset someone was at the time.
None of this means distress should be dismissed or endured quietly. Someone struggling after a traumatic event is worth supporting and can find professional help useful whether or not they would ever meet criteria for a diagnosis. The point is the opposite of minimising: it is that having gone through something terrible does not mean a person is now a patient.
A note on the word "trauma"
In everyday and social-media use, "trauma" now covers everything from a genuinely life-threatening event to an unpleasant week. Both matter, but they are not the same thing, and blurring them makes the word useless for the people who need it most. This page uses "traumatic event" in the sense the WHO and the classification systems use it.
You will also see confident claims that trauma is "stored in the body", "trapped in the nervous system", or that it "rewires you permanently" and can be "released". These are popular phrasings rather than established clinical descriptions. The WHO frames PTSD as resulting from interacting social, psychological and biological factors, and this page does not offer neuroscience it cannot stand behind — no shrinking hippocampus, no retrained amygdala, no rewiring, no reset.
How Can PTSD Present?
The WHO groups the core symptoms into three areas, alongside the distress and interference that form part of the definition. What follows describes how these can be experienced. It is not a list to count, and no number of items here means anything on its own.
Re-experiencing the event
Repeated, unwanted memories of what happened
Nightmares, or recurring distressing dreams
Memories that arrive as images, sounds, smells or other sensations
Intense fear or horror accompanying those memories
In more severe cases, flashbacks — momentarily believing and acting as though the event were happening again
Avoiding reminders
Staying away from situations, places or activities connected to what happened
Avoiding thoughts, feelings or conversations about it
Sometimes avoiding discussing it even with family or healthcare providers
Feeling on guard
A heightened sense of danger, even when not actually at risk
Being much more watchful than usual, or scanning surroundings for threats
Being easily startled or jumpy — reacting strongly to sudden movements or loud noises
Difficulty sleeping
Irritability, or difficulty concentrating
Mood, thinking and connection
Negative thoughts or beliefs about oneself
Difficulty remembering parts of what happened
Feeling disconnected from oneself or from the world
Difficulty controlling feelings, or not experiencing emotions at all
Low mood, or more anger or irritability than usual
Losing interest in things that used to matter, or difficulty in relationships
Nobody experiences all of these, and every one of them can occur for reasons other than PTSD. Diagnostic systems organise these symptoms somewhat differently from one another, which is one more reason this cannot be turned into a checklist — assessment is a conversation with a qualified professional, not a tally.
When symptoms start, and how long they last
The WHO notes that PTSD symptoms typically begin immediately after or within one month of a traumatic event. The NHS adds that they can also appear many months or even years later. Duration is part of how PTSD is recognised, but it does not establish a diagnosis on its own — a simple rule such as "if it has lasted more than a month, it is PTSD" is not how this works. Symptom pattern, distress, functional impact and context all matter, and they are weighed together.
The WHO also reports that up to 40% of people with PTSD recover within one year, and that there are many effective treatments. Both are worth knowing. Neither is a prediction about any particular person.
PTSD does not look the same everywhere
The WHO notes that the experience of PTSD varies across cultures. In some, expressing anger about the event may be more acceptable and so becomes more prominent. In others, people more commonly present with physical complaints of unclear cause, such as headaches or gastrointestinal symptoms. Someone whose experience does not match a textbook description has not necessarily got something else.
Why Do Some People Develop PTSD After Trauma?
The WHO describes PTSD, like other mental health conditions, as resulting from interacting social, psychological and biological factors. Anyone can develop it after a potentially traumatic event. The influences below shift likelihood across populations; none of them determines what happens to an individual.
The nature of what happened
The WHO notes that likelihood varies with the type of event — rates are more than three times higher among people exposed to violent conflict or war, and especially high following sexual violence.
Ongoing or repeated events
Experiencing potentially traumatic events that continue or recur, rather than a single event, increases risk.
Previous traumatic experiences
People who have previously experienced traumatic events are more susceptible.
Physical injury, and witnessing harm
Developing a serious physical injury during the event, or witnessing harm to others, can both increase risk.
Support afterwards
The WHO lists this among its key facts: feeling supported by family, friends or other people following a potentially traumatic event can reduce the risk of developing PTSD.
Other factors
A family history of mental health conditions, younger age and lower levels of education can increase likelihood after a potentially traumatic experience. More women are affected by PTSD than men.
One thing this list is emphatically not about is strength of character. PTSD is not a failure of resilience, a sign that someone did not cope well enough, or evidence of a particular personality. It is a condition that develops in some people after certain experiences, and it is not a verdict on the person it develops in.
How PTSD Differs From Anxiety and Depression
They overlap, they frequently occur together, and they are not the same thing. The WHO notes that people with PTSD may also have depressive disorder, anxiety disorders and substance use disorders, as well as suicidal thoughts and behaviours.
PTSD and anxiety
PTSD involves a great deal of fear and a heightened sense of danger, which is why it was long grouped with anxiety disorders and why older material still describes it that way. Current classification separates them: PTSD sits among disorders specifically associated with stress, defined by its relationship to an identifiable traumatic event and by re-experiencing, avoidance and heightened arousal together. Anxiety disorders are defined by their own patterns of fear or anxiety, without requiring that link. PTSD is not simply severe anxiety caused by something bad.
Read about anxietyPTSD and depression
Low mood, loss of interest, sleep problems, difficulty concentrating and negative beliefs about oneself appear in both, and the two commonly occur together. But depression is defined by a depressed mood or loss of pleasure or interest over long periods affecting all aspects of life, while PTSD is organised around re-experiencing, avoidance and heightened threat connected to a particular event. Having both is common and does not mean one is really the other.
Read about depressionSubstance use can also occur alongside PTSD, sometimes as a way of managing symptoms, and it can complicate both assessment and treatment. It is worth raising with a professional rather than managing alone; this page offers no guidance on reducing or stopping any substance, which needs appropriate medical support.
How Is PTSD Professionally Assessed?
Assessment is a conversation, not a test. The NHS describes a doctor asking about symptoms and referring on to a mental health specialist — a talking therapies service or a psychiatrist — who will ask about mood, behaviour, health and family history.
An assessment will usually cover what a person is experiencing now, when it began, how long it has continued, how much distress it causes, how far it is affecting daily life, previous mental health history, physical health, any medication or substance use that may be relevant, and safety — including whether any threat is still ongoing.
What it does not require is that a person arrive able to narrate what happened to them. Whether, when and how much to say about the event is something a qualified professional will discuss rather than assume, and pacing is part of their work.
Not every practitioner assesses or diagnoses PTSD, and not every counsellor works with trauma. What someone is qualified and trained to do varies considerably, and PTSD is an area where that variation matters more than usual. It is reasonable — and sensible — to ask a practitioner directly about their experience and approach before booking or early in a first session.
You do not need to explain what happened to use this site
Browsing practitioners and booking a session through LifeHetu does not require you to describe a traumatic event, upload anything about it, disclose it in a form, or tell anyone at LifeHetu what you are dealing with. There is no intake questionnaire about your history on this page and no trauma details are collected as part of booking. What you choose to share, and when, is between you and the practitioner you speak with.
What Can Treatment and Support for PTSD Involve?
The World Health Organization states that there are many effective treatments for PTSD, and that evidence-based psychological interventions are the first choice. What is appropriate for a particular person depends on their circumstances, other conditions, safety, preferences and professional assessment.
Trauma-focused psychological therapies
The WHO states that the psychological interventions with the most evidence for effective treatment of PTSD are those based on cognitive behavioural therapy with a trauma focus, and eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing. These can be delivered to individuals or groups, and — the WHO notes — in person or online.
Trauma-focused CBT is not generic CBT applied to a difficult memory, and it is not "changing negative thoughts". It is a structured treatment designed around the specific way traumatic memories and avoidance work, delivered by someone trained in it. A practitioner who offers counselling does not necessarily offer it; individual profiles on LifeHetu describe what each practitioner does, where they have provided that.
What "exposure" means, and why it is not a self-help exercise
The WHO notes that many evidence-supported treatments involve exposure techniques, in which a person is asked to recall, narrate or imagine the traumatic event so that they are exposed to their memories — and the operative phrase is the rest of that sentence: "within a safe and supportive environment". Treatment may also involve real or imagined exposure to triggers that evoke traumatic memories.
This page gives no instructions for doing any of that. Deliberately revisiting a traumatic memory, repeatedly recounting an event, writing out a detailed account of it, seeking out triggering material or pushing yourself into feared situations are components of structured clinical treatment with a trained professional managing pacing, preparation and what happens afterwards. Attempting them alone is not a shortcut to the same thing.
EMDR
Eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing is, alongside trauma-focused CBT, one of the two approaches the WHO identifies as having the most evidence for treating PTSD. The NHS describes it as using eye movements to help process traumatic memories.
It is a structured therapy delivered in a specific way by a practitioner trained in it — not a technique to try from a video, and not a matter of moving your eyes to rewire anything. It does not erase memories. Whether any given practitioner offers EMDR depends on their own training, and that comes from their profile rather than from this page: LifeHetu does not provide EMDR and does not verify EMDR training.
Medication and medical care
Medication can be one part of treatment for some people following appropriate medical assessment — the NHS lists medicines, usually an antidepressant, among the treatments someone may have. Psychological treatment is the first choice.
This page gives no drug names, no doses and no instructions to start, stop or change anything. Those decisions belong to an appropriately qualified prescribing professional who has assessed the individual. LifeHetu does not prescribe, and if you are already taking something, do not change it on the basis of a web page.
Other conditions, and practical support
Depression, anxiety and substance use commonly occur alongside PTSD and may need attention in their own right. Where someone is still living with threat, practical safety may be the more immediate concern than any psychological treatment — that is addressed separately below.
Outcomes and timelines vary between people, and no one can promise a particular result in advance. Specific evidence-based protocols have their own structures, but there is no universal number of sessions for PTSD and anyone quoting you one before meeting you is guessing.
What the WHO suggests alongside treatment
The WHO lists self-care that can support treatment: continuing normal daily routines as far as possible; connecting with and talking to trusted people about what happened, but only when the person feels ready to do so; avoiding or cutting down on alcohol and illicit drugs, which can make symptoms worse; exercising regularly, even if it is just a short walk; maintaining or developing healthy sleeping habits; and learning stress management, which may include breathing techniques and progressive muscle relaxation.
That list supports treatment; it is not treatment, and it is not a substitute for professional assessment where PTSD may be present. Note in particular the condition the WHO attaches to talking about what happened — only when ready. Nothing here should be read as saying a person has to talk about it to get better, and no supplement, herbal preparation or wellness practice has a place on this page as a treatment for PTSD.
If the Situation Has Not Ended
Some people with PTSD-like symptoms are not recovering from something that is over. They may still be living with abuse, violence, an unsafe relationship, or another continuing threat. The WHO includes ongoing or repeated potentially traumatic events among the factors that increase risk, and the NHS names ongoing domestic violence or abuse among the causes of complex PTSD.
Where danger is current, safety comes before any psychological treatment, and the need is for appropriate local support — not for a scheduled counselling session to help process memories of something still happening.
This page does not offer safety planning, and it does not suggest confronting, challenging or reasoning with anyone who is a danger to you. If you are at risk, contacting local emergency services or a specialist local organisation, and involving someone you trust, comes first. If you are in immediate danger, go to the nearest hospital or emergency room or contact emergency services.
When Physical Symptoms Need Medical Assessment
Headaches, stomach problems, pain, disturbed sleep and a constant sense of physical tension can all accompany PTSD — the WHO notes that in some cultures physical complaints of unclear cause are among the more common presentations. Trauma is also often accompanied by actual physical injury.
None of that means a physical symptom should be assumed to be PTSD. New, severe, persistent, unexplained or worsening symptoms deserve medical assessment on their own terms. Chest pain, severe breathlessness, fainting or sudden neurological symptoms need urgent medical attention, whatever you think the cause may be.
Supporting Someone After a Traumatic Event
The most useful thing is usually the least dramatic. Support does not require getting someone to tell you what happened.
Let them lead
The WHO’s guidance is that talking to trusted people helps — but only when the person feels ready. Readiness is theirs to judge, not yours.
Listen without pressing
If they do talk, listening is the whole job. There is no need to ask for detail, fill gaps or establish what really happened.
Respect what they avoid
Do not try to talk someone out of avoidance or steer them towards reminders. That is structured clinical work, and doing it informally can set things back.
Offer practical help
Meals, transport, childcare, paperwork, company. Practical support is real support, and it asks nothing of them in return.
Stay around
Support often thins out after the first few weeks, which is frequently when it starts to matter more.
Encourage professional help
Where difficulties persist or are affecting daily life, suggesting professional support — and helping with the practicalities if they want that — is more useful than trying to be the therapist.
One thing to be wary of is the idea that a person has to talk through what happened in order to recover. It is widely repeated and it is not something you should enforce on someone you care about. How and when the event is addressed is a matter for them and a qualified professional.
What LifeHetu Does, and What It Does Not
LifeHetu is a technology platform. It lists independent practitioners, publishes their professional profiles, and enables online session booking and payment. The practitioners listed are not employed by LifeHetu, and the professional relationship in a session is between you and the practitioner.
LifeHetu does not assess trauma, diagnose PTSD, provide therapy, deliver trauma-focused CBT or EMDR, prescribe medication, design treatment plans, clinically match anyone to a practitioner or monitor anyone’s progress. It does not certify anyone as a trauma specialist or as trauma-informed. Where this page describes what treatment involves, it is describing what qualified professionals do — not what LifeHetu does.
It also does not collect any account of what happened to you. There is no trauma intake on this site, and browsing or booking asks nothing about your history.
Where to Find Professional Support
LifeHetu lists independent practitioners and lets you book an online session with one of them. It does not maintain a list of PTSD or trauma specialists — practitioner records carry the services someone offers, not verified clinical specialisms — so any such list would be guesswork, and on this subject guesswork would be worse than none.
How Online Booking Through LifeHetu Works
Explore practitioners
Browse who is listed, with search and filters. Nothing is behind a sign-up, and nothing asks about your history.
Read the profile
Qualifications, years in practice, languages, the services they offer and how they describe their own work are on each profile.
Choose the service
Pick the service you want from the ones that practitioner offers. The current fee is shown for it.
Pick a time
Availability comes live from the practitioner’s own calendar at the moment you book, so the times shown are the ones actually open.
Confirm and pay
Complete the booking, and you receive the details for your session.
Sessions Are Booked Online
Sessions booked through LifeHetu are online. The WHO notes that evidence-based psychological interventions for PTSD can be delivered in person or online — whether online is right for a particular person depends on them, their symptoms, their safety and the treatment involved, and that is a conversation to have with the practitioner. After connecting with one, you may also discuss directly whether an in-person session could be considered in the future. Any such arrangement depends on the practitioner and is not managed by LifeHetu.
If You Need Urgent Support
Booking a session through LifeHetu is a scheduled conversation with a practitioner at a future time. It is not an emergency service, and it is not the right route for something that needs help now.
If you are having thoughts of self-harm or suicide, or someone is in immediate danger, go to the nearest hospital or emergency room, where you can see a psychiatrist, counsellor or therapist in person. Do not wait for a scheduled session. Involving a family member or friend who can be with you helps.
The WHO notes that people with PTSD may also experience depressive disorder, anxiety disorders, substance use disorders, and suicidal thoughts and behaviours. That is not true of everyone with PTSD, and it is not a prediction. It is a reason the guidance above is on this page rather than assumed to be unnecessary.
For severe physical symptoms — chest pain, severe breathlessness, fainting or sudden neurological symptoms — urgent medical care is the right first step, whatever you think the cause may be.
Related Pages
Questions About PTSD
Post-traumatic stress disorder is a recognised mental health condition that can develop after exposure to an extremely threatening or horrific event. The World Health Organization describes it as present when someone re-experiences the event, avoids reminders of it and experiences heightened arousal, and when those symptoms cause significant distress and interfere with daily activities and family, social, school or working life. A person may have experienced the event themselves, witnessed it, or learned it happened to someone close to them.
No, and this is one of the most important things to know. The WHO states that most people exposed to potentially traumatic events do not develop PTSD. Around 70% of people worldwide will experience a potentially traumatic event at some point, and only a minority — around 5.6% — go on to develop PTSD. Most people exposed to such events experience distress but recover naturally with time. Feeling frightened, angry, sad or unable to sleep after something terrible is an ordinary human response, not evidence that something has gone wrong with you.
By pattern, persistence and impact rather than by how upsetting the event was. Distress after a potentially traumatic event is common and usually eases. PTSD involves a particular combination — re-experiencing, avoidance and heightened arousal — continuing over time and causing significant distress or interfering with everyday life. Telling the two apart in a specific person is a professional assessment, not something this page or any quiz can do.
The WHO groups them into re-experiencing the event (unwanted memories, nightmares and, in severe cases, flashbacks), avoiding reminders of it, and a heightened sense of danger — being watchful, easily startled, struggling to sleep or concentrate. The NHS also describes negative beliefs about oneself, difficulty remembering parts of the event, feeling disconnected, difficulty with emotions, low mood or irritability, and difficulties in relationships. Nobody has all of these, and each can occur for other reasons.
The WHO notes that symptoms typically begin immediately after or within one month of a traumatic event, and the NHS adds that they can also appear many months or even years later — delayed onset does not make it less real or less treatable. Duration is one element of how PTSD is recognised, but it does not settle it. The specific pattern of symptoms, the distress they cause, how far they interfere with daily life and the wider context are weighed together. A rule based on time alone does not work in either direction: symptoms lasting more than a month do not establish PTSD, and you do not have to wait any particular period before seeking support.
PTSD involves considerable fear and a heightened sense of danger, which is why older material often classifies it as an anxiety disorder. Current classification separates them: PTSD sits among disorders specifically associated with stress and is defined by its link to an identifiable traumatic event together with re-experiencing, avoidance and heightened arousal. Anxiety disorders are defined by their own patterns of fear or anxiety without requiring that link. PTSD is not simply severe anxiety caused by something bad happening.
Through assessment by an appropriately qualified professional. The NHS describes a doctor asking about symptoms and referring on to a mental health specialist, who will ask about mood, behaviour, health and family history. Assessment usually covers current symptoms, when they began, how long they have continued, distress, effect on daily life, mental health and physical health history, medication and substance use, and safety — including whether any threat is ongoing. Not every practitioner assesses or diagnoses PTSD, and LifeHetu itself does not diagnose anyone.
Not in order to browse practitioners or book a session — LifeHetu asks nothing about your history, and there is no trauma intake on this site. Within treatment, approaches differ. Some evidence-supported therapies do involve recalling or narrating the event, and the WHO describes this as happening within a safe and supportive environment. A qualified practitioner should be able to explain how they work, and to discuss consent, pacing and boundaries with you. What is not true is the common claim that you must relive everything in order to get better.
The WHO states there are many effective treatments and that evidence-based psychological interventions are the first choice. The approaches with the most evidence are those based on cognitive behavioural therapy with a trauma focus, and eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing. These can be delivered individually or in groups, in person or online. Medication — usually an antidepressant, per the NHS — can form part of treatment for some people after appropriate medical assessment. What is appropriate depends on the individual and on professional assessment, and outcomes and timelines vary.
Eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing is, alongside trauma-focused CBT, one of the two approaches the WHO identifies as having the most evidence for treating PTSD. The NHS describes it as using eye movements to help process traumatic memories. It is a structured therapy delivered by a practitioner trained in it — not something to attempt from a video, and not a matter of moving your eyes to rewire your brain. It does not erase memories. Whether any particular practitioner offers EMDR depends on their own training; LifeHetu does not provide EMDR and does not verify EMDR training.
It varies. Specific evidence-based protocols have their own structures, but there is no universal number of sessions that applies to everyone with PTSD, and it depends on the person, the symptoms, what else is going on and the approach used. The WHO does report that up to 40% of people with PTSD recover within one year — a population figure, not a forecast for any individual. Anyone who quotes you a duration before meeting you is guessing.
Read profiles and compare professional role and scope, qualifications, the services offered, any stated trauma-related experience or training, how they describe their approach, languages, the current fee and availability. Where trauma experience is not stated, ask the practitioner directly — that is a reasonable question and a good practitioner will expect it. LifeHetu does not rank practitioners, does not match you to one, and does not certify anyone as a trauma specialist or as trauma-informed.
Do not wait for a scheduled appointment — booking through LifeHetu is a conversation at a future time and is not an emergency service. If you are having thoughts of self-harm or suicide, or someone is in immediate danger, go to the nearest hospital or emergency room, where you can see a psychiatrist, counsellor or therapist in person, and involve a family member or friend who can be with you. If you are still living with abuse, violence or another ongoing threat, safety comes before psychological treatment, and local emergency services or a specialist local organisation are the right first step.
Sources & References
- World Health Organization — Post-traumatic stress disorderThat most people exposed to potentially traumatic events do not develop PTSD; the lifetime exposure and prevalence figures; the definition and the three symptom groups; that flashbacks occur in severe cases; that avoidance may intensify re-experiencing over time; typical onset timing; cultural variation in presentation; the contributing factors listed and that social support reduces risk; that up to 40% recover within one year; that psychological interventions are first-choice and can be delivered in person or online; that trauma-focused CBT and EMDR have the most evidence; the description of exposure techniques within a safe and supportive environment; the self-care suggestions; and the co-occurring conditions named.
- NHS — PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder)The kinds of events described; that symptoms can appear months or years later; the symptoms of mood, thinking and connection listed; that complex PTSD has largely the same symptoms but different causes; the assessment pathway; and that treatment may include trauma-focused CBT, EMDR and medicines, usually an antidepressant.
- World Health Organization — ICD-11 classificationThat PTSD is classified among disorders specifically associated with stress rather than among anxiety or fear-related disorders, and that complex post-traumatic stress disorder is recognised as a separate diagnosis.
- World Health Organization — mhGAP ProgrammeThat PTSD is among the WHO priority conditions with published guidance for management in non-specialised settings.
- World Health Organization — Anxiety disordersThe description of anxiety disorders used in the comparison with PTSD.
- World Health Organization — Depressive disorder (depression)The description of depression used in the comparison with PTSD.
- NIMHANS — National Institute of Mental Health and NeurosciencesIndian context for mental health services and where in-person clinical care is accessed.
Explore Practitioners Offering Adult Counselling
PTSD and trauma-related concerns can require particular professional experience and approaches. The practitioners below currently offer Adult Counselling through LifeHetu; this listing does not mean every practitioner specialises in PTSD. Review each practitioner’s professional background, qualifications and listed services carefully before deciding who you would like to speak with.
This list is based on who currently offers Adult Counselling, not on any assessment of trauma experience. LifeHetu does not certify anyone as a PTSD specialist, a trauma therapist or trauma-informed, does not rank practitioners and does not match you to one. Where a profile does not state trauma-related experience or training, it is worth asking the practitioner directly about their experience and approach before going ahead.
9 practitioners offering Adult Counselling
Mr Abhishek Faria
6 years in practice
Doctoral Candidate at California Southern University
Online session: Video · Phone Call · Chat
Languages: English, Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati
Fee: ₹1800 per session
Ms Priya Parwani
6 years in practice
Bachelor's in Psychology Master's in Psychology PG Diploma in Counselling Psychology
Online session: Video
Languages: English, Hindi
Fee: ₹1000 per session
Mrs Mahalakshmi Rajagopal
28 years in practice
MSW, MSc
Online session: Video
Languages: English, Hindi, Tamil, Kannada, Telugu, Malayalam
Fee: ₹1800 per session
Ms Sonali Sikdar
16 years in practice
Online session: Video
Languages: English, Hindi, Marathi
Fee: ₹1500 per session
Dr. S.S. Saini
10 years in practice
M.Phil (Clinical Psychology), Ph.D (Clinical Psychology),PGDCBM with 10 years experience
Online session: Video · Phone Call
Languages: English, Hindi, Punjabi
Fee: ₹1500 per session
Dr Jignesh Ahir
11 years in practice
Masters in Applied Psychology, M.Phil. Ph.D in Psychology Research Gold Medalist
Online session: Video · Call · Chat
Languages: English, Hindi, Gujrati
Fee: ₹2000 per session
Ms Parinaaz Irani
8 years in practice
Online session: Video
Languages: English, Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati
Fee: ₹1500 per session
Irshad Md
5 years in practice
Online session: Video
Languages: English, Hindi, Telugu, Urdu
Fee: ₹2000 per session
Dr Rainy Bhuyan
12 years in practice
MPT Neurosciences and Psychosomatic Disorders, Internationally Certified Aura Reader
Online session: Video
Languages: English, Hindi, Gujarati
Fee: ₹1000 per session
Fees and availability shown come from each practitioner’s own current settings. Read more about Adult Counselling.
What to Consider When Choosing a Practitioner
Professional role and scope
What a practitioner is qualified to do differs, and PTSD is an area where that matters. If assessment, diagnosis or medication may be relevant, that shapes who is appropriate.
Trauma-related experience
Where a profile states experience or training relevant to trauma, that is worth weighing. Where it does not, ask rather than assume — LifeHetu has not verified it either way.
Approach
Where a practitioner lists the approaches they work with, including any trauma-focused training, that comes from them rather than from this page.
Qualifications and services
The degree or training they hold, the institution that issued it, and what you can actually book with them.
Years in practice
Calculated from the year they started. Longer is not the same as better suited to you.
Languages, fee and availability
The languages they offer sessions in, the current fee, and when they have time open.
It is entirely reasonable to ask a practitioner about their experience with trauma before committing, and to ask how they work and at what pace. A good practitioner will expect that question. This listing is not ranked or scored, and no one on it has been assessed by LifeHetu for PTSD in particular.
Explore Professional Support Options
Review practitioners offering Adult Counselling through LifeHetu, their professional backgrounds and current online booking options.