Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Traumatized Children and Families

Course overview

This course is based upon material published in the Evidence-Based Psychotherapies for Children and Adolescents and is available as an open access article. Child trauma is a serious societal problem. At least one trauma is reported by two-thirds of American children and adolescents (hereafter referred to as children); 33 percent of children experience multiple traumas before reaching adulthood. Although most children are resilient, trauma exposure is associated with increased risk for medical and mental health problems including Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), depression, anxiety, substance abuse, and attempted and completed suicide. Early identification and treatment of traumatized children can prevent these potentially serious and long-term negative outcomes. Parents can have a significant impact on childrens trauma responses. For example, lower levels of parental distress about the childs trauma and greater parental support predict more positive outcomes after child trauma exposure whereas greater parental PTSD symptoms predicts more negative child outcomes. Involving parents in the traumatized childs treatment can effectively address these factors and thus positively impact the childs outcome. Non-offending parents are typically childrens primary source of safety, support, and guidance. (It should be noted that TF-CBT does not include offending parents, that is, parents who perpetrated the trauma for which the child is receiving treatment such as a parent who perpetrated the childs sexual abuse or domestic violence.) However, trauma experiences teach children that the world is dangerous and that adults may not protect them. Such children often become angry at and stop trusting their parents, leading parents to become confused and upset. Trauma-focused therapy can help parents recognize and respond appropriately to their childrens trauma responses while setting appropriate behavioral limits. This enables parents to provide the traumatized child with ongoing opportunities to relearn (or learn for the first time) that people can be safe and trustworthy. Thus, there are many reasons to suggest that family-focused treatment that integrally includes parents will significantly enhance outcomes for traumatized children. This course on family focused PTSD treatment for children is designed for social workers, professional counselors, psychologists, nurses, and substance abuse counselors, who do clinical work. This course is appropriate for intermediate and advanced level practitioners who wish increase their knowledge of family focused PTSD treatment for children. The course material includes a literature review of interventions. It may also be useful for licensed clinicians who require clinical continuing education courses for license renewal. The course is based on a journal article which includes research. It contains statistical analysis and data that some clinicians enjoy reading and others do not. A major benefit of reading research based articles for continuing education is they provide practitioners with the latest findings in their field. Authors: Cohen, Mannarino Learning Objectives: This course will provide the practitioner with detailed information regarding family focused PTSD treatment for children. Specifically, a professional will: Identify the benefits of family focused treatment for PTSD for children Distinguish key factors in parents that make them a better fit for family treatment as opposed to others Summarize trauma-focused CBT for PTSD and what it entails Citation: Cohen, J. A., Mannarino, A. P., & Deblinger, E. (2010). Trauma-focused cognitive-behavioral therapy for traumatized children. Evidence-based psychotherapies for children and adolescents, 2, 295-311.