Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Children and Adolescents

Abstract

This article reviews the four major components of trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for children and adolescents: exposure, cognitive processing and reframing, stress management, and parental treatment. For each component, background, description, and the current empirical support for including each of these components in the treatment of traumatized children is presented. Although there is growing empirical support for the efficacy of traumafocused CBT in decreasing psychological symptomatology, there are inadequate data to indicate the relative contribution of the individual CBT components. Suggestions for future clinical and research directions are also discussed.