My experience is the opposite. I have seen a lot of really, really unpleasant things and I find that if I sit down with a close person and describe exactly what I saw and how it made me feel and what parts of it were troubling to me, I am much better able to release the hold these troubling images have on my brain.
If I do things to mask the feelings or try to distract myself, it can just make it worse. I just jump in with both feet and really assess what I saw, what the image means to me, and then I can start to let it go.