Trauma Systems Therapy Plan
1. Identify and prioritize problems to address with the client in treatment. This section needs to be developed according to the TST Priority Problem Worksheet tool. See Chapter 10 p.194.
2. Identify potential players on the treatment team and assign roles.
3. Use the trauma assessment tool to identify the appropriate phase of intervention to begin treatment. This section needs to be based on the TST Treatment Planning Grid tool. See Chapter 10 p. 204-205
4. Identify potential solutions to the problem and articulate descriptions for solution planning. Based on the Phase of Intervention for your client, your potential solutions will be based on either Safety-Focused Treatment, Regulation-Focused Treatment, or Beyond Trauma Treatment. See Chapters 12, 13, 14, respectively.
5. Identify and address potential strengths and barriers to solutions . See Chapter 10 p.208 for identifying strengths and p. 209 for identifying potential challenges according to TST.
6. Identify potential traumatic reminders/stressors. Based on the Moment by Moment Assessment, Chapter 9 p. 153.
Trauma Systems Therapy Plan
A Trauma Systems Therapy (TST) priority problem worksheet is a tool used in a team-based treatment approach to help identify and address the core problems of a child who has experienced trauma. It works by linking the child’s emotional and behavioral dysregulation directly to the environmental triggers that cause them, and then creating specific, actionable solutions for the treatment team to implement. This worksheet is a key part of the overall TST process, which assesses the child’s environment and emotional regulation to place them in a treatment phase and develop a targeted treatment plan.
How the worksheet is used
· Team collaboration: A TST treatment team, which includes a clinician, supervisor, home-based provider, and legal advocate, works together to complete the worksheet. The team also includes the child, caregivers, and school personnel.
· Linking trauma to problems: The worksheet helps the team analyze the specific conditions that control the expression of the child’s emotional states (like anxiety, sadness, or rage) and behaviors (like aggression or self-destruction). It connects these behaviors to triggers in the child’s environment.
· Developing solutions: Based on the analysis, the worksheet guides the team in creating specific solutions and a treatment plan to address the priority problem.
· Moving through treatment phases: The problems identified on the worksheet are used to determine the child’s starting phase in the TST model and guide the intervention within that phase. Treatment phases include safety-focused, regulation-focused, and beyond trauma.
· Monitoring progress: Agencies that implement TST often use web-based assessment systems to help monitor both the youth’s progress and organizational outcomes based on the priority problems identified.
Purpose and goal
· Stabilize the environment: The ultimate goal is to stabilize the child’s environment while simultaneously improving their ability to regulate emotions and behaviors.
· Address the core problem: TST aims to directly address the core problem of traumatic stress—the dysregulation of emotional states when a stressor is encountered.
· Foster safety: By neutralizing or reducing environmental triggers, the worksheet and the subsequent treatment plan help foster a sense of safety in the child. This allows them to eventually move on to processing the trauma itself.
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Identify and prioritize problems to address with the client in treatment.,
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Identify potential players on the treatment team and assign roles.,
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Use the trauma assessment tool to identify the appropriate phase of intervention to begin treatment.,
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Identify potential solutions to the problem and articulate descriptions for solution planning.,
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Identify and address potential strengths and barriers to solutions and potential traumatic reminders/stressors.