What Is Trauma-Focused Therapy?
Trauma-focused therapy is a therapy modality that is designed to reduce symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), other anxiety disorders, or any symptoms associated with past traumatic events. This might be an appropriate treatment if you, or a loved one, have experienced, witnessed, or heard about an extremely difficult or scary event. This might include abuse, death, violence, serious injury, or natural disasters among many other things. Symptoms that commonly occur after an individual has experienced trauma include re-experiencing the terrifying event, frequent nightmares, and flashbacks. In children these symptoms may also be expressed through themes in their play. Avoidance of people, places, or things that are reminders of the event can be another sign that someone is being impacted by trauma symptoms.
For children and adolescents, a research-based approach for trauma treatment is Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavior Therapy (TF-CBT). TF-CBT is a type of therapy that focuses on helping young people learn specific coping skills, process traumatic events and share their experiences with loved ones in a safe and controlled environment. It also allows for familiarizing kids with trauma to help normalize their experience and reduce stigma that can be associated with whatever experience they had. This process can be specifically beneficial for individuals experiencing guilt or shame connected to a traumatic experience.
This treatment lasts a minimum of eight weeks but typically takes longer depending on the coping skills an individual possesses before beginning treatment and the intensity of their trauma symptoms along with the complexity of their trauma history. Components of TF-CBT include supporting clients in sharing their experience and everything they learned, from their perspective, with a loved one or caregiver as part of the treatment modality. It also incorporates parent training to help caregivers learn more about the trauma experience, how it can impact young people, and how to best support their child(ren) while they learn to cope with and process the event.
For adults, there are several approaches for treating trauma symptoms. Prolonged Exposure, Cognitive Processing, or Psychodynamic therapies are all evidence-based approaches for treating trauma in adults. They have different approaches but share a similar goal, which is guiding an individual in confronting memories and emotions associated with traumatic events and processing them in a healthy way that allows them to move on with life without the significant impact of trauma symptoms.
If you feel that you, or a loved one, might be experiencing trauma symptoms and could benefit from a trauma-oriented therapy, please complete a therapy inquiry form to start the healing process with one of our compassionate therapists.