Stress inoculation therapy (SIT) is a form of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). It intends to help patients prepare in advance to handle stressful events. SIT helps people to recognize and change incorrect and/or negative thoughts that have been influencing your behavior. This form of therapy prepares people to defend against PTSD-related fear and anxiety when exposed to reminders, or cues, that trigger these symptoms. This approach believes that exposing milder forms of stress helps individuals to boost confidence and enable them to respond effectively when trauma-related cues occur. SIT runs in 90-minute sessions several weeks. It is effective for managing PTSD in individuals and groups.

SIT has three phases, the initial conceptualization, skills acquisition and rehearsal, and the application and follow through. initial conceptualization involves educating patients on the general nature of stress and important concepts  that play a key role in shaping stress reactions

There are various Stress inoculation therapy strategies. The first one is deep breathing from your diaphragm. Thi stechnique trains patients how to breath deeply and then practicing it between therapy sessions so it becomes a healthy habit. The other technique is learning to silently talk to self, which helps patients learn to focus on their internal talks on quickly recognizing negative, down-putting thoughts about yourself, stopping them, and changing them to positive, encouraging statements. The other technique is muscle relaxation training, which trains people how to relax major muscle groups by tensing and releasing them in the correct way. Also, role-playing is a technique where individuals start to practice the coping techniques they have learned. The role-play coping effectively is done using specific anxiety management strategies. The last strategy is thinking about and changing negative behaviors, where people learn to use their imagination to practice coping.