Adapted from Cognitive Behavioral Theory, Exposure Therapy, and work with adult PTSD survivors and child survivors of trauma.
Thought Replacement - After stopping the cycle of intrusive thoughts, the survivor of trauma can then replace the negative emotions with a positive memory of some other pleasant event.
For more information on Exposure Therapy, click here.
After a year, a variety of measures showed a significant improvement of PTSD symptoms (1.85), as well as a continued improvement over time (1.61).
Non-Directive Supportive Treatment for 12 sessions.
The same variety of measures showed slightly less initial improvement of symptoms (.91), and significantly lowered improvement over time (.32).
203 children ages 8-14 and 189 of their primary caregivers, randomly assigned to the following two groups. 89% of the children met the DSM-IV diagnosis for PTSD, and over 90% had experienced severe trauma.
At completion of the 12-session treatment, 21% of the children met the PTSD diagnostic requirements.
At the end of the 12 session treatment, 46% of the children met the PTSD diagnostic requirements.
When working with children who have been victims of trauma, an additional portion is added that works with the parents' guilt and self-blame, and education about how the trauma may effect their child.
In the case of childhood victims of trauma, educate parents on how to maintain the benefits of the intervention and heal themselves.
Success of Trauma-Focused Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy is tracked mostly through survivor self-report and observations of family members. Various measures can be used to track a survivors progress, including self-report scaling (1-10) and the variety of tests available (for example, the Sprint-4).
Research that evaluates the efficacy of specific portions of the TF-CBT treatment, separately and together.
Research that determines what type of populations respond best to TF-CBT, controlling for age, gender, ethnicity, race, type of trauma, etc.
Research that evaluates TF-CBT as compared to other types of treatments, such as psychosocial, psychodynamic, pharmacological, and their combinations.