Evidence-Based Treatments for Traumatized Children and Adolescents

This article reviews recent advances in empirically supported psychotherapeutic treatments for children and adolescents experiencing trauma and provides a brief summary of available interventions, as well as a context for their use. We highlight the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry’s recent practice guidelines for trauma treatment and discuss their implications for clinicians, including the benefits of involving caregivers in treatment and the rationale for using practices that are specifically trauma-focused as first-line intervention. Finally, we discuss the status of research on the real-world implementation of these therapies and the need for further research, particularly regarding clinician knowledge and use of empirically supported practices, potential stepped-care approaches to trauma treatment, and the need to reduce attrition in child trauma research and practice.