Trauma-Focused Therapy is a specific approach to therapy that recognizes and emphasizes understanding how the traumatic experience impacts a child’s mental, behavioral, emotional, physical, and spiritual well-being. This type of therapy is rooted in understanding the connection between the trauma experience and the child’s emotional and behavioral responses. The purpose of trauma-focused therapy is to offer skills and strategies to assist your child in better understanding, coping with,  processing emotions and memories tied to traumatic experiences, with the end goal of enabling your child to create a healthier and more adaptive meaning of the experience that took place in his/her life. What It Is: Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is a special type of CBT used for people who have experienced trauma. It's especially-formulated to address the thoughts associated with the traumatic experience. Typically used for children and adolescents, along with their parents, as well as adult survivors of trauma, TFCBT has been consistently proven effective at meeting the needs of people who have faced trauma. It is a short-term type of therapy that typically lasts between 8 and 25 sessions, although further therapy may be needed afterward to address secondary problems resulting from the trauma symptoms.

How It Works: In TFCBT, the trauma sufferer learns about trauma and its effects. If the person who has had a traumatic experience is a child or adolescent, their parent is also educated on trauma and taught parenting skills that can help them understand and interact in healthy ways with their child. Sessions may be held with the child alone, the parents alone, and the child and parents together. The counselor teaches you relaxation techniques you can use during the therapeutic process as well as later on. The counselor prompts you to talk about the experience to help you develop a trauma narrative that organizes your thoughts about the experience. You learn how to express your feelings appropriately. The cognitive component of the treatment involves examining thoughts related to the traumatic experience and learning to adopt more helpful thought patterns.