We’ve learned so much about the trauma experienced by children who’ve been abused. We know about their clinical symptoms. We know how these affect their functioning at home and at school. And we know about the lifelong impacts of leaving these trauma symptoms untreated. We’re grateful that not only child abuse professionals but your average citizen is now aware that victims of child abuse can develop PTSD at rates and severity to those of soldiers who’ve been to war.

But is that cycle of abuse, trauma symptoms, and PTSD development inevitable? Is it possible to interrupt that cycle in such a way that symptoms reduce and PTSD never develops in the first place? CFTSI—the Child and Family Traumatic Stress Intervention—is an evidence-based intervention that can do just that for some kids. We speak with Carrie Epstein, co-director of the Yale Center for Traumatic Stress and Recovery and co-developer of CFTSI about how this brief, early intervention can help reduce symptoms in children and caregivers.

Topics in this episode:

• Origin story (1:30)
• The development of CFTSI (5:42)
• What is CFTSI? (12:25)
• Different perceptions of symptoms: child and caregiver (19:18)
• The benefit to caregivers (21:40)
• Really? A short-term treatment? (29:15)
• Recent study of how CFTSI helps different groups (40:31)
• What’s up next in research (47:30)
• For more information (53:33)

Links:

Carrie Epstein, LCSW-R, is the co-director of the Yale Center for Traumatic Stress and Recovery, an assistant professor at the Yale Child Study Center, and co-developer of the Child and Family Traumatic Stress Intervention (CFTSI)

Safe Horizon (NY)

Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT)

National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN)

Steven Marans, MSW, Ph.D., is the co-developer of CFTSI with Epstein

“Child and Family Traumatic Stress Intervention (CFTSI) reduces parental posttraumatic stress symptoms: A multi-site meta-analysis; Hilary Hahn, Karen Putnam, Carrie Epstein, Steven Marans, and Frank Putnam; Child Abuse & Neglect, June 2019; doi: 10.1016/j.chiabu.2019.03.010

“The Child and Family Traumatic Stress Intervention: Factors associated with symptom reduction for children receiving treatment”; Carla Smith Stover, Hilary Hahn, Kaitlin R. Maciejewski, Carrie Epstein, Steven Marans; Child Abuse & Neglect, December 2022; doi: 10.1016/j.chiabu.2022.105886

Youth mental health: Current priorities of the U.S. Surgeon General

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