Counseling Goals And Interventions : Child Parent Therapy

Parent-child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) is an interactive therapist-parent, parent-child evidence based treatment originally developed for use in young children (ages 2-7) with disruptive behaviors (Gurwitch 341). Today, PCIT is not only implemented for families with a wide-array of mental health problems including trauma, substance abuse, maltreatment, autism, and anxiety, but also across multiple cultures, with successful implementations in varying ethnic and cultural communities around the world (Lieneman 239). Since it’s development in 1974, both cross-sectional and longitudinal studies have shown significant positive outcomes of PCIT for children and their families including improved child behaviors, reduced parenting stress, and improved parent-child relationships (Gurwitch 341). To date, it is one of the most researched, highly regarded and effective evidence-based treatments in child psychology.

As children our world often revolves around our parents. This is because parents are our source of safety and security, of love and understanding, of nurturance and support. A child experiencing abuse develops strategies that become coping mechanisms. These coping mechanisms enable day-to-day functioning and help the child detach from the emotional and physical pain of events, especially when the abuse continues over a long

Once my client is stabilized from the initial concerns of severe depression and suicide attempts, TF-CBT could be introduced. Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Children Affected by Sexual Abuse or Trauma. (2012) suggests that the following areas be covered psychoeducation and parenting skills, relaxation techniques, affective expressions and regulation, cognitive coping and processing, trauma narrative and processing, in vivo exposure, conjoint parent/child sessions and enhancing personal safety and future

In The Boy Who was Raised as a Dog author Bruce Perry demonstrates how understanding the brain’s inner workings and development can help bring traumatized children from heartbreak to hope, while always balancing that hope with caution. In his book Perry illustrates how empathy is vital to healthy child development. There has been a decrease in the amount of healthy adults involved in a child’s life than in decades before. Families are smaller, teacher to pupil ratio has increased, and so the number of human-to-human interactions where children are being taught and nurtured has suffered. If you are an adult who is involved with children in your daily life, parent, teacher, law enforcement, etc., and you know that a child has been exposed to something that is potentially traumatic the first thing you should be aware of is that not all traumatic events automatically lead to disastrous mental health outcomes. In fact the majority do well, but for these successful outcomes they do need your attention, support, and awareness. What makes children get better following a trauma is connection with other human beings. Connections to people who are kind, patient, present, but not necessarily psychologically insightful, is at the core of a successful therapeutic relationship.

The National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN) was stablished by Congress in 2000 and brings a comprehensive focus to childhood trauma. This network raises the average standard of care and improves access to services for traumatized children, their families and communities throughout the United States. The NCTSN defines trauma‑focused cognitive behavioral therapy (TF‑CBT) as an evidence‑based treatment approach that is shown to help children, adolescents, and their caregivers overcome trauma‑related difficulties. It is designed to reduce negative emotional and behavioral responses following a traumatic event. The treatment addresses distorted beliefs related to the abuse and provides a supportive environment so the individual can talk about their traumatic experience. TF‑CBT also helps parents cope with their own emotional issues and develop skills to support their children.

Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) is a psychotherapeutic approach that involves conjoint therapy sessions of with the child and the parent. This approach is employed among children and/or adolescents that are experiencing emotional and behavioral difficulties that are significant and related to life events that are traumatic (Cohen, Mannarino, & Deblinger, 2012). TF-CBT is a components-based model of treatment that includes intervention that are trauma-sensitive and cognitive behavioral, family and humanistic therapy

Another form of therapy for child abuse is called the Abuse-focused cognitive behavioral therapy ( AF-CBT). It involves the children, those who have been physical abused or had severe physical punishment, as well as the offending parent. It teaches the parents and children emotional control to reduce violent conflict. Understanding of family violence, thought/ feelings of abuse, and how-to manager anger/stress are also part of AF-CBT. Parents also focus on self-regulation, and how to manage feelings and reactions, as well as focusing on the responsibility of the abuse. AF-CBT helps the child and parent solve problems, and communicate effectively. The study suggests that a this therapy causes a decrease in parent-to-child violence, parental distress, and abuse risk. After a year, there is family functioning. As well as children experience less physical discipline and fewer problems (Paul, Gray, Elhai, Massad, & Stamm, 2006).

This project is based on the idea that TF-CBT is more beneficial and has a greater outcome for short-term to long-term benefits than regular therapy sessions and interventions alone. Is a psychosocial treatment model designed to treat posttraumatic stress along with other related emotional and behavioral difficulties in children and adolescents, the concept was originally developed to begin to address the psychological trauma associated with child sexual abuse, but it has since been adapted for use with children who have a wide array of traumatic experiences, including community violence, traumatic loss, and the often multiple psychological traumas experienced by children in foster care placement. (Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy,

In this day and age, multiple interventions are being implemented in order to address the various attachment-related problems that infants and young children experience due to the separation from their caregivers. It was previously mentioned that there was a new area of speciality called infant mental health which has a particular take on attachment between a caregiver and child. They mainly focus on analyzing the support that these children have available to them such as family, social, and emotional. One of their primary focuses for intervention is infant-parent psychotherapy in which the emotional exploration of the parent toward the child is done in the room with the child (Weatherston 2000, 4). Infant mental health specialist might be useful to both foster parents and the children, however, it is mainly aimed at women who are having either postpartum depression, an emotional reaction due to previous pregnancy trauma, or even premature children. There are only a few micro related interventions, therapy is the most popular form. Children develop trauma and PTSD like symptoms due to the separation(s) they experience at a young age. There is a big emphasis put on caregivers being aware of PTSD symptoms so that the child can be linked to the appropriate treatment resources which are the first steps in helping the child to manage and cope with their symptoms (Hieger 2012, 3). In therapy there are two main evidence base treatments that are useful for traumatized children.

There are many intervention programs and practices related to child welfare. One of these intervention models is Child and Family Traumatic Stress Intervention or CFTSI. This intervention program addresses the challenge of children who have suffered from posttraumatic stress disorder caused by a variety of things such as physical and sexual abuse (The California Evidence-Based Clearinghouse for Child Welfare). This intervention practice came to be because of the multitude of children who are suffering from this challenge. Just in 2011 alone, child protective services reported that 6.2 million children had been reported due to traumatic events. This does not include all of the children that experienced traumatic events that were not reported (Hamblen, J., & Barnett, E.). Children who have experienced traumatic events are more likely to have posttraumatic stress disorder. Since there are so many children in the United States that are at risk or do have PTSD, this intervention practice became a vital tool in prevention and treatment.

In conclusion in this study it is evident that TF-CBT is extremely effective in treating children and adolescents suffering from PTSD, one reason in part is the fact of parental and often times community involvement. The participant feels connected to other outside members and is more willing to accept treatment. Increasing community involvement can be done through the encouragement of the local government, social services, family, and other sources of support in the Memphis area. A lot of this is starting to be implemented through the many non-profit therapeutic foster care services and clinics in and around the Memphis area. At this point, it is presumed the question is what is the next step in research regarding TF-CBT? It is said that identification

This report endeavours to provide a Developmental Psychopathological Approach of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Developmental Psychopathology is broadly conceptualised as depicting the dynamic processes underlying ‘typical’ child development (Campbell, Cummings & Patrick,2003). An awareness of ‘typical’ and ‘atypical’ developmental characteristics at varied ages and developmental stages is crucial for parents and health professionals. Through the use of developmental psychopathology, clinicians and parents are able to gain an insight into children’s behaviour, as well as acknowledge assessments, therapeutic planning and treatments

I found a book called, “cognitive behavioral therapy for child trauma and abuse: a step-by-step approach”, and it went through the phases of the cognitive behavioral therapy for children who are abused or traumatized. The first phase is Psychosocial Strengthening which is to “provide an orientation to therapy, build rapport, elicit hope and active participation, gain information about the child’s world and view of himself, explore family relationships and identify social supports; to begin to identify the child’s history of trauma and current trauma symptoms, normalise reactions by providing psychoeducation about the effects of trauma on children, and introduce a coping model (25).” The second phase is coping skills “which encourage children to cope directly with their anxiety and trauma symptoms, rather than relying on avoidance behaviours to reduce personal distress(45).” The third phase is Trauma Processing which is that if, “associations that continue to exist between anxiety and fear and the situations or thoughts which produce these sensations need to be processed. This is accomplished by gradually exposing the child to the upsetting situations until anxiety decreases (habituation)(71).” The fourth and final phase is special issues and completion of therapy which includes discussing accomplishments the child has made and

The interventions are developed by the therapist and are based on the therapist’s interpretation of the child’s understanding of the current environment as well as historical traumatic events (Foa, 2009). One of the main goals of psychodynamic therapy is to strengthen and support the parent-child relationship. The caregiver is helped to gain insight into his/her own illogical self-thoughts and behaviours, which creates a healthier environment for the child (Foa, 2009). Parker and Turner (2013) describe the therapeutic process as an exploration of early experiences and their effect on current thoughts, feelings, behaviours and relationships. They reiterate the importance of play, talking and the therapeutic relationship when treating children. As traumatized children express their internal conflicts through play and art, they begin to develop a new understanding of self which becomes internalized resulting in modifications to neural networks (Parker & Turner,

This article is written by Myles Blank, there are minimal studies regarding the occurrence of post traumatic stress disorder in young children. Children of the ages 0-6 months have been seen with the symptoms of hypervigilance, exaggerated startle response, withdrawal and irritability. By the ages of 24-36 month, infants have had symptoms of increased anxiety, sleep disorders, angry reactions, nightmares as well as symptoms seen in older children as described in the DSM. This article states the different treatments to help