Trauma Focused Coping (TFC) is a group cognitive behavioral therapy treatment program for children and adolescents with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and collateral symptoms of depression, anxiety, anger, and external locus of control originating from single-incident trauma. Based on social learning theory, TFC uses a group skills-oriented cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) approach and involves 14 weekly sessions in which the first few sessions lay the groundwork for the child to think differently about PTSD. The treatment model is one of graded exposure, and begins with psychoeducation and cognitive therapy before moving to more exposure-based activities. TFC has two overall goals: 1) to help the child organize an accurate trauma narrative that places the trauma in the past and is without cognitive distortions, and 2) to promote behavior consistent with the view that the world is no longer dangerous when threat is truly absent. Each child completes a narrative Chapter Book that tells his or her story, including an accurate telling of the trauma history, its effects on the child's life, and successes in overcoming that history so that the child can live as comfortably as possible in the present. Session components include: psychoeducation, cognitive therapy, exposure-based behavior therapy, generalization training, and relapse prevention. TFC also offers developmentally appropriate treatment adaptations for elementary school-age children and junior high school adolescents including therapeutic modalities such as storybooks, narrative exposure, cognitive games, and peer modeling. Click here to view more detailed information on this program.