1 - (3MIN 3) Beyond Symptom Reduction: A Meaning-centered CBT Group for Loneliness After Trauma

Evidence-based psychotherapies for PTSD, including Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) and Prolonged Exposure (PE), reliably reduce PTSD symptoms, and large clinical trials demonstrate meaningful improvement following both approaches (Schnurr et al., 2022). Yet in routine clinical practice, many trauma survivors continue to report a different and long-lasting challenge even after symptom reduction: loneliness, social withdrawal, and difficulty rebuilding social connection. Social connection is not merely a “nice-to-have” outcome; it is a robust determinant of mental and physical health and a critical pathway for recovery across mental health conditions (Holt-Lunstad, 2024). At the same time, a growing literature highlights that loneliness is closely linked with posttraumatic stress and related distress, yet it is not routinely targeted within standard PTSD treatment protocols (Palmer et al., 2022).
To address this gap, we developed a meaning-centered, CBT-informed group intervention designed to complement trauma-focused treatment by directly targeting social disconnection. This pragmatic clinical practice innovation is not intended to replace CPT or PE, but rather to serve as a structured, scalable, and dissemination-ready “next step” that helps patients rebuild a sense of belonging, purpose, and supportive routines following trauma-focused work.
The group focuses on multiple sources of meaning that naturally pull individuals back into life, including mindfulness, creativity, relationships, community engagement, flexible thinking, and purposeful action. Each week, participants select a source of meaning to practice new skills and begin rewriting their life narratives following trauma by engaging with core questions such as: Who am I? What do I care about? Where am I going? Each skills-based session is followed by a process-oriented session designed to promote peer support, collaborative problem-solving, and enhanced engagement with homework. CBT strategies are used throughout to support behavior change and to foster meaning-making through group participation itself, with an emphasis on feasibility and implementation within routine care settings.
In our initial implementation, patients report high engagement and strong perceived relevance. Qualitative feedback suggests that participants experience the group as both enjoyable and practically useful, particularly in redefining how they approach daily life as an opportunity for meaningful, active living. Early clinical signals suggest that this intervention may strengthen post-treatment recovery by targeting a residual domain that frequently persists following PTSD treatment: loneliness and disrupted social connection.
As a promising adjunct to evidence-based PTSD care, this presentation will describe the group structure, initial outcomes, and both quantitative and qualitative feedback, with the goal of informing the dissemination and implementation of scalable clinical interventions that enhance functional recovery and quality of life alongside symptom reduction.