The Cognitive Behavioral Intervention for Trauma in Schools (CBITS) program is a school-based, group and individual intervention. It is designed to reduce symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and behavioral problems, and to improve functioning, grades and attendance, peer and parent support, and coping skills. CBITS has been used with students from 5th grade through 12th grade who have witnessed or experienced traumatic life events such as community and school violence, accidents and injuries, physical abuse and domestic violence, and natural and human-made disasters. CBITS uses cognitive-behavioral techniques (e.g., psychoeducation, relaxation, social problem solving, cognitive restructuring, and exposure).
Category Archives: Schools
Healthy Environments and Response to Trauma in Schools (HEARTS)
The UCSF HEARTS project is a comprehensive, multilevel school-based prevention and intervention program for children who have experienced trauma. The goal of UCSF HEARTS is to create school environments that are more trauma-sensitive and supportive of the needs of traumatized children. A main objective of this project is to work collaboratively with a School District to promote school success by decreasing trauma-related difficulties and increasing healthy functioning in students within the school district who have experienced complex trauma. Trauma-sensitive school environments will likely benefit not only traumatized children, but also those who are affected by these children, including child peers and school personnel. Founders of UCSF HEARTS: Joyce Dorado, Ph.D. Project Director, Assistant Clinical Professor, UCSF-SFUSD HEARTS, and Lynn Dolce, MFT, and Miriam Martinez, PhD.
Trauma Recovery and Empowerment Profile (TREP)
TREM is a fully manualized 24- to 29-session group intervention for women who survived trauma and have substance use and/or mental health conditions. This model draws on cognitive–behavioral, skills training, and psychoeducational techniques to address recovery and healing from sexual, physical, and emotional abuse. TREM consists of three major parts. The first section, on empowerment, helps group members learn strategies for self-comfort and accurate self-monitoring as well as ways to establish safe physical and emotional boundaries. The second component of TREM focuses more directly on trauma experience and its consequences. In the third section, focus shifts explicitly to skills building. These sessions include emphases on communication style, decision-making, regulating overwhelming feelings, and establishing safer, more reciprocal relationships.
Adult women with histories of trauma.
Trauma and Grief Component Therapy (TGCT)
Ages 10–18; impacted by community violence, traumatic bereavement, natural and human-made disasters, war/ethnic cleansing, domestic violence, witnessing interpersonal violence, medical trauma, serious accidents, physical assaults, gang violence, and terrorist events; designed to identify/effectively treat youth who are moderately to severely distressed.
Muslim, Croatian, and Serbian youths, multi-racial, multi-ethnic middle and high school students exposed to community violence and school shootings.
http://www.nctsn.org/sites/default/files/assets/pdfs/tcgt_a_general.pdf
The Associative Skills Model: Taking Charge of Change; The Trouble with Feelings; and Boundaries, Precious Boundaries
This three-module model, which can be taught on a flexible time and content-specific basis, teaches a basic trauma informed cognitive framework with accompanying skills. The premise is that the developmental disruptions of childhood trauma often prevent the development of a coherent frame of reference for three major areas impacted by trauma: the ability to cope with change in constructive ways; to identify, respond to and modulate affect, and the ability to identify, explore, set and change basic boundaries. Each module can be presented in a four-hour or one day format. An overview of all three, without skill development, is available as a one day program.
Safety, Mentoring, Advocacy, Recovery and Treatment (SMART)
The Safety, Mentoring, Advocacy, Recovery, and Treatment (SMART) model developed by a team of clinicians at the Kennedy Krieger Institute Family Center is a structured, phase-based, abuse-focused, treatment approach to address the emotional and behavioral needs of young children with a history of sexual abuse exhibiting problematic sexual behavior (PSB). A major premise of the model is that the PSB stems from emotional responses to the prior child sexual abuse causing the child to form cognitive distortions about themselves, others, and the world around them. A unique feature of the model is the formation of parallel narratives of the child’s experiences as a victim and as one who victimizes others. Children are supported to examine their roles and perceptions associated with each of these experiences. Clinicians guide children and their families through this process and provide the context for comparison leading to the integration of these experiences into a single narrative. The SMART model consists of three clinically essential phases: Safety and Stabilization, Triggers/Integration, and Re-Socialization. The SMART model utilizes individual, family, and group therapy simultaneously.
Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT)
PCIT is effective with single parents, cognitively limited parents, court-ordered parents, two-parent families, and foster parents. Cultural adaptations have been effective with Latino/Hispanic families, African American Families, and Native American families. PCIT has been disseminated internationally (e.g. Hong Kong, Norway, The Netherlands) and has been translated into different languages (e.g. Spanish and Mandarin). PCIT has been adapted for: Head Start classrooms;Group treatment; Home rather than office based sessions; Domestic violence shelters; Residential treatment centers.
Alternatives to Seclusion and Restraint
Seclusion and restraint were once perceived as therapeutic practices in the treatment of people with mental and/or substance use disorders. Today, these methods are viewed as traumatizing practices and are only to be used as a last resort when less-restrictive measures have failed and safety is at severe risk.
For more information on alternatives to seclusion and restraint:
Managing Traumatic Stress Through Art
Three art therapists have collaborated to produce this unique workbook. Designed especially for trauma survivors, Managing Traumatic Stress Through Art introduces inventive ways to understand, manage, and transform the after effects of trauma. This dynamic workbook consists of carefully structured step-by-step art projects, augmented by tear out images, and writing experiences. The book’s first section, Developing Basic Tools For Managing Stress, is devoted to establishing a safe framework for trauma resolution. The second section, Acknowledging and Regulating Your Emotions, helps the trauma survivor to make sense of overwhelming emotional experiences. The final section, Being and Functioning in the World, focuses on self and relational development, leading into the future.
No specific age/population. Can be used in individual or group therapy. The art experiences are broad enough to be of value to survivors of a wide variety of traumatic experiences, ranging from childhood abuse to accidents to disabling mental illness.
International Family Adult and Child Enhancement Services (FACES)
International Family, Adult, and Child Enhancement Services (FACES) provides comprehensive, community-based mental health services for refugee, asylee and asylum-seeking children, adults, and families suffering from trauma or emotional disorders. Services include individual and family counseling, assistance accessing benefits and entitlements, expressive therapies, linkages to primary and dental health care, and case management. International FACES staff respect each culture’s definition of family roles and recognize the importance of working with and strengthening the family structure. Services are offered in a linguistically and culturally appropriate manner, often conducted by staff from the same culture as the family or with trained interpreters. Outreach and engagement strategies help educate participants about the value of mental health services, as well as providing linkages to other specialized services.
Used often with refugee families.