For too many traumatized children and their families, chronic stressors such as poverty, substance abuse, and family or community violence -- coupled with an overburdened care system -- pose seemingly insurmountable barriers to treatment. This empowering book provides a user-friendly blueprint for making the most of limited resources to help those considered the "toughest cases." Evidence-based strategies are presented for effectively integrating individualized treatment with services at the home, school, and community levels. Written in an accessible, modular format with reproducible forms and step-by-step guidelines for assessment and intervention, the approach is grounded in the latest knowledge about child traumatic stress. It has been recognized as a treatment of choice by state mental health agencies nationwide.
Table of Contents:
Introduction: Trauma Systems Therapy for Child Traumatic Stress. Part I: Foundations. Survival Circuits: How Traumatic Stress Is about Survival-in-the-Moment. The Regulation of Emotional States: How Child Traumatic Stress Is a Disorder of the Regulation of Emotional States. The Social Environment and System of Care: Traumatic Stress Responses Are Embedded in a Social Context. Signals of Care: The Importance of Caring Relationships for Traumatized Children. Part II: Getting Started. Ten Treatment Principles: The Principles That Guide TST. Assessment: How to Assess Child Traumatic Stress. Treatment Planning: How to Plan for Child Traumatic Stress Interventions. The Treatment Team: How to Build a Multidisciplinary Treatment Team (and Keep It Going!)Part III: Doing Trauma Systems Therapy. Ready-set-go: How to Engage a Family in TST. Stabilization on Site: Community-Based Care to Help Kids Stay in Their Homes and Schools. Systems Advocacy: Integrating Advocacy into Critical Treatment. Psychopharmacology: How Psychopharmacology Is Integrated within TST. Emotion Regulation Skills: How to Help Children Regulate Emotional States. Cognitive Processing Skills: How to Help Children Think and Talk about Their Traumatic Experiences. Meaning-making Skills: How to Help Children Make Meaning Out of Their Traumatic Experiences and Move On with Their Lives. Conclusions: Leaving a Better System. Appendix. TST Treatment Planning Form. Weekly TST Check-in. TST Treatment Fidelity Form. Emotional Regulation Guide. Cognitive Coping Log. Systems Advocacy Screener. Goal-setting Guide.
About the Author :
Glenn N. Saxe, MD, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Boston Medical Center and Boston University School of Medicine, USA; B. Heidi Ellis, PhD, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Boston Medical Center and Boston University School of Medicine, and Department of Psychology, Boston University, USA; and Julie B. Kaplow, PhD, Department of Psychiatry, New Jersey Medical School, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, Newark, NJ, USA
Review :
"Trauma Systems Therapy (TST) provides a theoretical rationale for integrating various systems and providing case management and advocacy services when needed. The treatment model covers a wide therapeutic scope: from primary safety issues to innovative ideas for working with highly traumatized children. The authors clearly demonstrate their in-depth understanding of the community mental health setting and the types of barriers clinicians face. Presenting a wealth of information on how to implement the model, this book is an excellent training tool for graduate students, interns, and seasoned clinicians." - Lisa Amaya-Jackson, UCLA–Duke National Center for Child Traumatic Stress, USA
"This impressive work, representing a collaboration of child psychiatry and psychology, exemplifies the next generation of treatment manuals. The authors' approach goes beyond a narrow focus on psychopathology to encompass the social, interpersonal, and environmental contexts in which it occurs. The book incorporates the latest thinking on everything from the neurobiological effects of trauma to the disorganized social systems that may exacerbate these effects. This clearly outlined, step-by-step treatment approach will be invaluable for all clinicians dealing with trauma in the difficult social contexts where it most often occurs. Every child clinician will want to be familiar with this approach." - David H. Barlow, Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders, Boston University, USA
"A valuable resource that strikes the balance well between just the right amount of jargon-free theory and maintaining its focus on practical issues. The book is friendly and easy to read....Here is a book that offers a model that moves theory to practice in order to help all of us who endeavour to treat, support, and care for traumatised children and adolescents." - Counselling Children and Young People
"I am quite pleased to see the publication of this book. The Trauma Systems Therapy model fits very closely with how we at the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors (NASMHPD) believe traumatized children can and should be treated by providers of mental health services. Glenn Saxe and his colleagues have translated complicated concepts into a brilliant, user-friendly approach that is understandable to clinicians and applicable in most systems. This important work should have a positive impact on the lives of thousands of children and families." - Kevin Ann Huckshorn, Director, Office of Technical Assistance, National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors, USA
"This is an outstanding text that provides, for the first time, an integrative model of mental health care for children and adolescents exposed to traumatic life events, abuse, and community violence." - Terence M. Keane, National Center for PTSD, VA Boston Healthcare System and Boston University, USA
"Trauma Systems Therapy provides an elegant way to systematize intervention planning for complex trauma cases, whose multiplicity of problems can often overwhelm the clinician's ability to think clearly and set priorities. Anyone working with families with difficult, unstable lives will appreciate the lucid, clear approach contained in this valuable manual. The curricula of all social work and clinical psychology training programs should include Trauma Systems Therapy." - Robert Abramovitz, Center for Trauma Program Innovation, Jewish Board of Family and Children's Services, New York, New York, USA
"Trauma Systems Therapy (TST) provides a theoretical rationale for integrating various systems and providing case management and advocacy services when needed. The treatment model covers a wide therapeutic scope: from primary safety issues to innovative ideas for working with highly traumatized children. The authors clearly demonstrate their in-depth understanding of the community mental health setting and the types of barriers clinicians face. Presenting a wealth of information on how to implement the model, this book is an excellent training tool for graduate students, interns, and seasoned clinicians." - Lisa Amaya-Jackson, UCLA-Duke National Center for Child Traumatic Stress, USA
"This impressive work, representing a collaboration of child psychiatry and psychology, exemplifies the next generation of treatment manuals. The authors' approach goes beyond a narrow focus on psychopathology to encompass the social, interpersonal, and environmental contexts in which it occurs. The book incorporates the latest thinking on everything from the neurobiological effects of trauma to the disorganized social systems that may exacerbate these effects. This clearly outlined, step-by-step treatment approach will be invaluable for all clinicians dealing with trauma in the difficult social contexts where it most often occurs. Every child clinician will want to be familiar with this approach." - David H. Barlow, Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders, Boston University, USA
"A valuable resource that strikes the balance well between just the right amount of jargon-free theory and maintaining its focus on practical issues. The book is friendly and easy to read... Here is a book that offers a model that moves theory to practice in order to help all of us who endeavour to treat, support, and care for traumatised children and adolescents." - Counselling Children and Young People
