Seeking Safety group intervention for complex post-traumatic stress disorder: a feasibility randomised controlled trial
Chief investigator: Prof. Martin Webber, University of York
Study sponsor: South West Yorkshire Partnership Teaching NHS Foundation Trust
Planned participant recruitment end date: January 2027
What is the study about?
People who have been through a number of traumatic experiences may suffer from long-lasting severe distress and difficulties. Sometimes they try to cope with these by using behaviours that can get in the way of them making progress towards recovery. For example, they may use drugs or alcohol, or show other risky behaviours. Whilst these behaviours may help the person feel better for a short period, they tend to worsen the person’s overall mental health in the long term.
A group programme called Seeking Safety has been developed to help support people in building coping skills to help manage their trauma experiences. It has been piloted in the NHS with some promising outcomes, though has not yet been tested rigorously.
We are running a small, initial study to find out if it is feasible for us to run a larger research trial of Seeking Safety. We will also explore people’s experiences of taking part in the trial. This will give us valuable information to better plan a bigger trial in the future.
What would taking part involve?
Participants will attend the Seeking Safety group programme which is made up of 20 weekly group sessions.
Participants will be randomly chosen to start the Seeking Safety sessions either within the next 6 months or within the next 18 months.
Participants will complete three online questionnaires – at the beginning of the study, six months later and six months after that. They will receive £30 vouchers for each questionnaire complete.
Who can take part?
We are looking for participants who are:
- Over 18 years old
- Have experienced complex trauma
- Are receiving care & support from a community mental health team or are on a waiting list for psychological therapies within South West Yorkshire Partnership Teaching NHS Foundation Trust
Individual eligibility will be reviewed by the research team before participants are enrolled in the study.
How can people get involved
Please contact the research team to register your interest and one of our friendly research staff will get back to you to discuss the study further and answer any questions you may have.
You can reach us:
- via email on research@swyt.nhs.uk
- by telephone on 01924 316 289
You can also find the full information about the study and what in involves in the participant information sheet below.
Link to participant information sheet.
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