SFCR

Strengthening Family Coping Resources (SFCR) is a clinic and community-based intervention providing accepted, empirically supported trauma treatment within a family format typically delivered in 10 or 15-week multi-family groups.  SFCR is designed for families living in traumatic contexts with the goals of reducing the symptoms of traumatic stress disorders and other trauma-related disorders in children and adult caregivers.  Since most families living in traumatic contexts contend with on-going stressors and threats, SFCR is also designed to increase coping resources in children, adult caregivers, and in the family system to prevent relapse and re-exposure.  Specifically, SFCR builds the coping resources necessary to help families boost their sense of safety, function with stability, regulate their stress reactions, emotions and behaviors, and make use of support resources. SFCR includes work on family storytelling, which builds to a family trauma narrative, providing families with an opportunity to improve communication about and understanding of the traumas they have experienced.  Results from open trials with a low-income, African American sample suggest SFCR is a feasible intervention with positive effects on children's symptoms of trauma-related distress. Clinical outcomes include improved engagement, greater parent-child attunement, better regulated affective dialogue and more discussion of difficult issues, increased social interactions, and more predictable, satisfying routines.