Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

This post is for counselors and those in the mental health field who work with children who have experienced some sort of trauma.  While this blog encompasses children in crisis, a trauma may be a long-term type of crisis with lasting effects.  Our roles as counselors is to try and alleviate those long term effects and help the child--and the family--to overcome the crisis.  To be specific, this is not crisis intervention, but more of long-term counseling after the crisis or trauma has initially occurred.

If you have a child who has experienced some type of abuse (physical, emotional, sexual or neglect), or if a child has experienced a traumatic event such as a car accident or natural disaster, this training that I am providing information for may be helpful in treating them or understanding their situation better, especially if you already take a Cognitive Behavioral theoretical perspective.  The training focuses on CBT origins but tailors it to be trauma focused.  The trauma can be a wide variety of different things; it isn't just limited to abuse or disasters.  One module gave an example of a girl who got bit by a dog and put blame on herself for when the dog then got put down. 

If you're not sure where to start, or what types of interventions or techniques to use, I have this training that I completed during my internship that I frequently use in counseling that I would like to share with you.  This training is on Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) and is completely free and completely online; it takes approximately 10 hours to complete but can be paused at any point and picked up again later.  This training does not make you necessarily competent in TF-CBT but does provide you with a Certificate of Completion to state that you completed the online training.  Counselors may also receive ten (10) continuing education units (CEU) by completing this course.  For more information on CEUs you can visit http://tfcbt.musc.edu/ceu_statement.php.

To take the course visit tfcbt.musc.edu.  

You must create a profile and indicate that you are in the mental health field (either a counselor or a student).  The training was organized by the Medical University of South Carolina and includes evidence based practices.  It is divided into 9 different modules:

• Psychoeducation
• Stress Management
• Affect Expression and Modulation
• Cognitive Coping
• Creating the Trauma Narrative
• Cognitive Processing
• Behavior Management Training
• Parent-Child Sessions
• Evaluation

 It takes you step by step, has videos to demonstrate the interventions, and has a pre- and post-test during each module.  You can also print out transcripts of the videos to review later.  There are also print-outs of different homework assignments and behavior charts that you can use in practice.

I have found that this training has significantly increased my confidence as a counselor and knowing the background of these evidence based practices increases the confidence of the parents that I am working with when I provide them the psychoeducation.  I highly recommend this to all counselors who may be working with children.   I hope it is as helpful to you as it has been to me!

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