Treating Complex Trauma in Adolescents: A Phase-Based, Integrative Approach for Play Therapists

Understanding the unique effects of complex trauma on adolescents, as well as identifying effective mental health treatment protocols, are critical for trauma-informed play therapists to practice competently. Recently in the literature, phase-based treatment has been one such protocol applied successfully to adolescents who experienced complex trauma (Cohen, Mannarino, & Deblinger, 2006). Furthermore, play-based approaches (integrating complex-trauma concepts, play, and empirically designed treatment protocols) have been asserted as a potentially beneficial paradigm (Drewes, 2011; Green, 2012). Therefore, the authors of this article present an original model—one that is integrative, play-based, and delineated in 3 phases—while remaining sensitive to the most current clinical implications in the trauma treatment outcome literature.