Training and Consultation

In order to effectively administer TGCTA and customize it for your clinical population, it is recommended that you participate in one of our online or person-to-person trainings. Various options are described below.

Basic TGCTA Training + Supervision (Online and in-person options) During this16-hour interactive training, participants will be furnished with the foundational understanding, knowledge and skills needed to begin offering TGCTA either individually or in groups. Participants will be guided in how to use the manual and accompanying materials, conduct initial intakes, and flexibly tailor treatment according to youths’ specific trauma or grief needs. The training may be spread over 2 or 3 days. Following  the training, participants will be invited to take part in 8 monthly supervision teleconference group meetings in which a master trainer will provide support and guidance in administering the program.

 

Enhanced TGCTA Training + Supervision (Online and in-person options) During this 24-hour training all of the above content and practice will be covered in addition to an introduction to multi-dimensional grief theory, use of cutting-edge trauma and grief assessments, and training in case formulation and treatment planning and monitoring.  

 

Program/Organizational Consultation (Online and in-person options). The authors have extensive experience in risk screening/triage, clinical assessment/diagnosis, case conceptualization, treatment planning, treatment implementation and monitoring, outcome assessment, and program evaluation. We also have experience in working in a diverse array of institutional settings. We can provide training and consultation in methods for:

  • creating trauma- and bereavement-informed risk screening, triage, and referral networks to build local capacity to adopt and sustain TGCTA.
  • Adapting and tailoring TGCTA to a variety of professional settings.
  • implementing TGCTA, monitor fidelity and treatment response, and assessing individual outcomes.
  • evaluating TGCTA on a program effectiveness level.
  • applying principles of evidence-based assessment to customize your assessment procedures to maximize efficiency, accuracy, and effectiveness of your assessment-driven decisions.
  • pairing (a) TGCTA training and implementation with (b) methods for promoting organizational readiness to adopt trauma-informed practices.

Accessing Trainings General trainings will be offered throughout the year (see schedule below). Right now these are limited to online offerings. Individuals may use the system below to reserve a place in a training. Organizations who wish to host their own training may receive a discounted per person cost

 

Certificate of Program Completion. Participants who complete a training and the course of supervision will be entered into the national listing of trained TGCTA providers.

 

 

What Makes TGCTA Unique? Six Strengths:

TGCTA has six strengths that set it apart as a cutting-edge intervention for traumatized, bereaved, and traumatically bereaved adolescents. These include:

 

  1. Specialized focus on older childhood and adolescence. TGCTA addresses the developmental needs, strengths, risks, challenges, tasks, and life circumstances of older children and adolescents. Practitioners can flexibly select from a range of discussion topics, therapeutic activities, and sketches depending on each client’s life stage, developmental tasks, and current life challenges and opportunities.
  2. Capacity to therapeutically address trauma, bereavement, and traumatic bereavement. TGCTA can be tailored to focus on trauma, bereavement, and the interplay between posttraumatic stress and grief reactions that can arise in cases f traumatic bereavement. TGCTA treatment elements align with the latest diagnostic and treatment considerations for trauma and bereavement.
  3. Balanced, wellness-focused approach to bereavement and grief. Based on a balanced, wellness-focused approach (multidimensional grief theory) to conceptualizing and addressing a broad range of grief reactions, TGCTA is uniquely positioned to address Prolonged Grief Disorder as it appears in either DSM-5-TR or ICD-11. The TGCTA grief module (Module 3) contains many different engaging exercises and sketches that allow practitioners to custom-tailor their intervention depending on each youth’s grief assessment profile. These exercises varyingly focus on grief psychoeducation, promoting adaptive grief reactions, allowing maladaptive grief reactions to recede, and helping bereaved youth to move forward with their lives while retaining a sense of connection to the deceased.
  4. Individual or group-based format. Evidence from multiple evaluation studies indicate that TGCTA is effective when delivered in either an individual or group-based format. In contrast to other treatments that originated as individual or classroom-based modalities and were later adapted for group settings, TGCTA was originally designed for use with teens in a school-based group setting. There is strong evidence that groups are generally as effective as, and more efficient than, individual treatment for many problems, and that groups offer additional therapeutic tools not found in individual treatment. These tools include positive group norms and expectations, group cohesion, and member to member sharing (Davies, Burlingame, & Layne, 2006).
  5. Multi-tiered intervention. TGCTA’s flexibly-tailored format allows it to support multi-tiered mental health and wellness interventions. These include Tier 1 (basic classroom-based intervention, such as psychoeducation and coping skills training), Tier 2 (specialized therapeutic services delivered at school by trained school professionals), and Tier 3 (referral of severe cases to community-based mental health organizations for specialized therapeutic services). Multi-tiered interventions are especially valuable in high-risk, high-need, low-resource settings because they help service providers to create a continuum of care that can assist many youth and families while reserving specialized services for those at highest risk.
  6. Modularized, assessment-driven, custom-tailored intervention. TGCTA’s modularized format supports assessment-driven, flexibly-tailored intervention. TGCTA’s four modules can be used in flexible ways to match the needs of the particular population and setting, clients’ presenting problems, and time available. These modules and their potential applications include:

 

Module Module Title Potential Applications and Recommendations
1.         Building Cohesion and Coping Skills TGCTA intervention should always begin with Module 1, either used alone or in combination with other modules (e.g., 1 and 4; 1, 2, and 4; 1, 3, and 4, etc.).
2. Trauma Processing Designed for youth with significant trauma histories who are experiencing significant current trauma-related distress.
3. Grief Processing Designed for youth with significant bereavement histories who are experiencing loss-related distress (e.g., Prolonged Grief Disorder reactions). Module 3 components focus on both facilitating adaptive grief reactions and helping maladaptive grief reactions to recede.
4. Promoting Adaptive Developmental Progression Designed for youth with significant trauma or loss histories who are experiencing significant difficulties with functional impairment, risky behavior, and/or developmental disruption. Although brief, Module 4 is powerful and rewarding to implement and should not be overlooked.

A field evaluation (Davies et al., 2007) and a randomized controlled trial (Layne et al., 2008) found significant improvements in youth outcomes among youth who received Module 1 and 4 components alone (psychoeducation, cognitive restructuring, and coping skills training) in a classroom setting as implemented by trained school counselors. The randomized controlled trial also found that youth who received a full course of TGCTA (Modules 1, 2, 3, and 4) in a small group treatment setting showed significantly more therapeutic benefit than their peers who participated in classroom-based Module 1 and 4 elements alone. These findings suggest that Modules 1 and 4 can be implemented in a classroom-based setting with moderate staff training and support while producing significant benefit. However, to produce maximum therapeutic benefit, a full course of TGCTA (Modules 1, 2, and 4 for traumatized youth; Modules 1, 3, and 4 for bereaved youth; and Modules 1, 2, 3, 4 for traumatized and bereaved or traumatically bereaved youth) is recommended.