Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavior Therapy (TF-CBT)
Unfortunately, stressful events are not an unusual occurrence in child and adolescent development. Parents divorce, grandparents die, children and others in their lives get injured. These may not be considered extreme trauma, however. According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-Fourth Edition, Text Revision (DSM-IV-TR; American Psychiatric Association; APA, 2000), an extreme traumatic stressor is one that involves “direct personal experience of an event that involves actual or threatened death or serious injury, or other threat to one’s physical integrity; or witnessing an event that involves death, injury, or threat to the physical integrity of another person; or learning about unexpected or violent death, serious harm, or threat of death or injury experienced by a family member or other close associate (p. 463). Examples include sexual or physical abuse, severe accidents, cancer or other life threatening illness, natural or man-made disasters, war, terrorism, or the sudden death of a parent, sibling, or peer (Cohen, Mannarino, & Deblinger, 2006). However, it should also be noted that not every child exposed to a traumatic event will develop trauma symptoms. Many children demonstrate resiliency, the ability to thrive and excel even when exposed to severe stressors (Leckman & Mayes, 2007).
Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavior Therapy (TF-CBT) is a short-term treatment that involves individual sessions with both children and parents as well as joint parent-child sessions. It has been empirically validated for children ages 4 to 18 who have behavioral and emotional problems related to traumatic life events. The main components of TF-CBT include psychoeducation, parenting skills, relaxation, affective modulation, cognitive coping and processing, trauma narrative, in vivo mastery of trauma reminders, conjoint child-parent sessions, and enhancing future safety and development.
Both Dr. Akin-Little and Dr. Little have training in TF-CBT.