Reply to the posts of two peers in this discussion. Share any professional or personal insights you may have that are related to your peer's research problem. Comment on how it might benefit you as a counselor if research on your peer's research problem were conducted.

First Peer's Post

Since, Trauma Focused- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy or TF-CBT has been found to be very successful with children and adolescents why hasn't there been much if any research done to see if it would be effective for adults as well? TF-CBT is an evidence based program that addresses childhood symptoms of PTSD (Sigel, Benton, Lynch, & Kramer, 2013) . Research has shown that TF-CBT it has as "well-established" efficacy and in a recent study it was the only treatment to be given the highest rating in all reviews (Sigel, Benton, Lynch, & Kramer, 2013). Having used the treatment method myself with a client during my internship I've seen the effectiveness first hand on how it can impact a client in a positive manner. While the treatment was made with children in mind, it brings up the question of why it hasn't been tweaked in a way that it might benefit an adult as well.

What's great about TF-CBT is it's almost like a bunch of different treatments all wrapped up into one. Each treatment is essentially put into a unit or section that the counselor and client will work on. Some of the sections include psycho education, stress management, cognitive coping, etc.. Stress management, in my opinion, is probably one of the most important sections to go over with the client. If the client doesn't know how to deal with their stress than the rest of the treatment will be for naught because the client won't be able to control their stress. The stress management section focuses on teaching the cl controlled breathing, thought stopping and relaxation techniques.

A mind-body skills program was made in Gaza to essentially determine how effective these things were for people's overall quality of life in people with PTSD, depression, and anxiety (Gordon, Staples, He, & Atti, 2016). They did a 10 session mind-body skills group that included meditation, guided imagery, breathing techniques, autogenic training, biofeedback, genograms, and self-expression through words, drawings, and movement (Gordon, Staples, He, & Atti, 2016). At the end of the program they found a significant improvement in overall quality of life in the clients that participated in the program, and at a 10 month follow-up the improvements were fully maintained (Gordon, Staples, He, & Atti, 2016). This shows that one of the major parts of treatment in TF-CBT can be effective and makes me wonder even more if more research was done could an adult-version of TF-CBT be made and implemented while still be as effective and successful as the child/adolescent version

Resources:

Gordon, J. S., Staples, J. K., He, D. Y., & Atti, J. A. (2016). Mind-body skills groups for posttraumatic stress disorder in Palestinian adults in Gaza. Traumatology,22(3), 155-164. doi:10.1037/trm0000081

Sigel, B. A., Benton, A. H., Lynch, C. E., & Kramer, T. L. (2013). Characteristics of 17 statewide initiatives to disseminate trauma-focused cognitive-behavioral therapy (TF-CBT). Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy,5(4), 323-333. doi:10.1037/a0029095

2nd Peer's Post

Explain why this is an important problem that deserves study.

The field of play therapy with children has shown to be effective with a range of children who have experienced trauma and are exhibiting disruptive behaviors in their lives (Ritz, Ray, & Schumann, 2016). As someone who is planning to practice trauma-based play therapy with children aged 0-5 upon graduation, this writer has noticed that there is a distinct lack of research on the effectiveness of play therapy techniques on minority children, specifically Native American children, which is the population that this writer works directly with. The cultural differences between Native American children and Caucasian children, who most of the research studies have been focused on, is well-documented and is the basis for this writer's motivation to explore the ways in which play therapy may be modified to be more effective with this particular cultural group. The way that traditional Native American cultures communicate and interact with each other is based more on nonverbal cues and listening skills (Redcloud, 1997), and the relationship between adults and children is vastly different that what is seen in more generalized White societies, so using play therapy techniques with this population may be more effective than previously thought.

Cite two empirical journal articles to demonstrate that you have begun exploring the literature related to your topic.

The two articles that this writer identified for this discussion post are focused more on the effectiveness of play therapy techniques for children, and less on how play therapy can be used effectively with Native American or other minority children, because of the clear lack of articles on this topic. The articles identified are the following:

Ritzi, R. M., Ray, D. C., & Schumann, B. R. (2016). Intensive Short-Term Child-Centered Play Therapy and Externalizing Behaviors in

Children. International Journal Of Play Therapy, doi:10.1037/pla0000035

Jordan, B., Perryman, K., & Anderson, L. (2013). A case for child-centered play therapy with natural disaster and catastrophic event

survivors. International Journal Of Play Therapy, 22(4), 219-230. doi:10.1037/a0034637

These two articles are also helpful because they show that the basis of play therapy is on the universal role that play serves in child development and emphasizes the benefit of training counselors to interpret how the clients are re-enacting trauma, fear, sadness, or anxiety in their play is a valuable therapeutic tool in child counseling.

Cite the course text to demonstrate that you have incorporated an authoritative source on research methods.

The textbook explains that the purpose of research in today's counseling profession is to increase the awareness that counselor's have in the efficacy of their work and to increase the amount of funding and access that they get towards more evidence-based techniques and interventions (Sheperis, Young, & Daniels, 2010). If there is ever going to be a change in the populations that counseling research focuses on, in order to include minority cultures, then counselors and counseling students need to be aware of the lack of articles aimed towards these populations. The textbook also goes on to say that funding and coverage through insurance companies is also increasingly based on "proving" that a specific intervention is effective for a particular client (Sheperis, Young, & Daniels, 2010), and counselors must be able to produce documentation to these companies to ensure that their client's are able to receive continued treatment. With the clear lack of representation of minority populations in research studies, this is increasingly difficult for service providers that work with these clients to get the coverage for services.

How might it benefit you as a counselor if studies addressing this research problem were conducted?

As stated above, as someone who is already working with Native American clients and wants to continue working with this population but in a trauma-based play therapy realm upon graduation, being able to see exactly how effective these play therapy techniques are with this specific clientele is going to be invaluable to being a successful counselor in the future. Increased representation in the effectiveness of therapeutic techniques on minority populations will benefit all counseling clients, as well as ensure that more funding and access is given to the cultural groups overall.

References:

Jordan, B., Perryman, K., & Anderson, L. (2013). A case for child-centered play therapy with natural disaster and catastrophic event

survivors. International Journal Of Play Therapy, 22(4), 219-230. doi:10.1037/a0034637

Red Horse, J. (1997). Traditional American Indian family systems. Families, Systems, & Health, 15(3), 243-250. doi:10.1037/h0089828

Ritzi, R. M., Ray, D. C., & Schumann, B. R. (2016). Intensive Short-Term Child-Centered Play Therapy and Externalizing Behaviors in

Children. International Journal Of Play Therapy, doi:10.1037/pla0000035

Sheperis, C. J., Young, J. S., & Daniels, M. H. (2010). Counseling research: Quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods. Upper Saddle River, NJ: