Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT)

Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is a treatment for children and adolescents who have experienced traumatic life events and are having emotional or behavioral problems related to the trauma. TF-CBT teaches them new skills to process and manage thoughts, feelings, and behaviors related to traumatic life events. Parents and caregivers are taught skills to support their child or adolescent who has experienced trauma and to learn new parenting skills and communication strategies. TF-CBT treatment includes:

• Psychoeducation for patients and their caregivers. You and your child will learn about traumatic stress; common reactions and why they happen; connecting thoughts, feelings and behaviors; and how to advocate for your child.
• Emotional regulation skills. Your child will learn to identify trauma-related emotions such as fear, anxiety, sadness, shame, and anger; and skills to handle these emotions in more useful ways.
• Correcting unhelpful beliefs. Your child will learn to identify beliefs from the trauma like self-blame, lack of trust or seeing the world as more dangerous than it is. Your child will learn new, more helpful ways to think about their experience.
• Creating a story about the trauma. Your child will learn to remember and talk about what happened without becoming upset and avoiding the memories. They can learn how to cope with reminders of the trauma without feeling overwhelmed.
• Positive parenting skills. You will learn how to handle behaviors that your youth shows that are difficult or get in the way of family relationships.

TF-CBT is beneficial for children and adolescents ages 3 to 18, who have emotional or behavioral problems related to traumatic life events, including sexual abuse, traumatic grief, domestic violence, disasters and single or multiple traumatic events. TF-CBT can be helpful for children and adolescents who show increased anxiety, depression, disruptive or disobedient behavior, or post-traumatic stress symptoms a month or more after the traumatic event.

TF-CBT can be helpful for children living in many settings including parental homes, foster care, kinship care, group care, or residential treatment settings.

TF-CBT is a fairly short-term treatment that typically lasts from 12 to 20 sessions. Therapy sessions are usually held once a week for 45 to 50 minutes. Treatment may be provided for longer periods of time based on the child or adolescent’s needs. Studies have shown that 8 out of 10 traumatized children will have major improvement with 12 to 16 weeks of treatment.