Category Archives: Sexual Abuse

Seeking Safety

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The Seeking Safety model, developed by Lisa M Najavits, Ph.D., at Harvard Medical/McLean Hospital, is a manualized, 25-topic, flexible integrated treatment that offers coping skills to help clients attain greater safety in their lives. It is present focused and designed to be inspiring and hopeful. Originally designed to address PTSD and substance abuse, it since has been implemented with diverse traumatized clients who may not necessarily meet criteria for these disorders. Used widely with adults, it has been implemented with adolescents (both boys and girls), and a published randomized controlled trial is available on adolescent girls.

Dual diagnosis of substance abuse and trauma/ PTSD, group and individual, male and female, outpatient and inpatient residential.

Safety, Mentoring, Advocacy, Recovery and Treatment (SMART)

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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.

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Risking Connection

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Risking Connection® teaches a relational framework and skills for working with survivors of traumatic experiences. The focus is on relationship as healing, and on self-care for service providers. It provides a comprehensive training curriculum for working with survivors of childhood abuse specially designed for staff in all mental health settings, including public systems. Risking Connection® emphasizes the concepts of empowerment and collaboration, three major goals serve as the main focus: (1) a theoretical framework to guide work with survivors of traumatic abuse, (2) specific intervention techniques to use with survivor clients, and (3) attention to the internal needs of trauma workers as well as clients. In addition, common concerns and skepticism about trauma treatment are addressed. Interspersed in this curriculum are client/clinician worksheets as well as assessment, self-reflection, group discussion, and clinical practice exercises.

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Prolonged Exposure Therapy for Adolescents with PTSD (PE-A)

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The treatment is designed for male and female adolescents aged 13-17 but has also been implemented with younger children. The pilot data were collected in a Philadelphia urban rape crisis center specializing in the treatment of adults and children who have been sexually assaulted, and in a hospital based clinic in Israel where patients experienced a variety of traumatic events including sexual assault and abuse, motor vehicle accidents, and terror attacks. Clients were predominantly African American and White in the American sample, and White in the Israeli sample. The manual is in English and has been translated into Hebrew.

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Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT)

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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.

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Alternatives to Seclusion and Restraint

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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:

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Managing Traumatic Stress Through Art

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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.

Managing-Traumatic-Stress-Through-Art

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Integrative Treatment of Complex Trauma (ITCT)

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Integrative Treatment of Complex Trauma (ITCT) was originally developed for use in school and clinic settings with culturally diverse clients, ages 3 to 21, and their families. Specific cultural groups include ethnic minorities (African American, Latino American, Asian American, and Pacific Islander American), low socioeconomic status, gender-specific child and adolescent groups, and immigrants from Mexico, Central America, Pacific Islands, and Southeast Asia. ITCT has also been adapted for use in urban schools in economically impoverished areas.

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Helping Women Recover

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Since it was first published in 1999, Helping Women Recover has set the standard for best practice in the field of women’s treatment. Helping Women Recover is based on Dr. Covington’s Women’s Integrated Treatment (WIT) model. It offers a program specifically designed to meet the unique needs of women who are addicted to alcohol and other drugs or have co-occurring disorders. The Helping Women Recover program offers counselors, mental health professionals, and program administrators the tools they need to implement a gender-responsive, trauma-informed treatment program in group therapy settings or with individual clients.

Women, addiction, can also be used in jails, developing a model to be used with adolescent girls.

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Healing the Trauma of Abuse: A Woman’s Workbook

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Mary Ellen Copeland co-authored the book Healing the Trauma of Abuse: A Gentle Woman’s Guide with Maxine Harris of Community Connections in Washington, DC. This important self-help book describes a weekly lesson process that women can use to relieve the effects of trauma in their lives, either when working in a group, with a counselor, or when, as many women must do, working on their own. It rebuilds self-esteem and gives back the personal power, trust and sense of connection that are taken away by a traumatic experience.

This book is based on the findings of an intensive study of strategies that help women who have been traumatized to heal from the effects of this trauma and make their lives the way they want them to be.

Individuals that want to work through trauma more informally. People that want to start a group, or work with a close friend.