Juvenile Justice and Forensic Settings: The TARGET Approach

More than 80% of youth in juvenile justice or forensic settings report a lifetime history of exposure to at least one traumatic stressor, and the majority report multiple types of victimization, which places them at risk for severe and persistent emotional, developmental, behavioral, and legal (e.g., recidivism) problems. Trauma Affect Regulation: Guide for Education and Therapy (TARGET), a trauma-focused self-regulation psychotherapy, has been adapted and evaluated as a one-to-one and group intervention for justice-involved youth and their parents. TARGET provides psychoeducation explaining how traumatic stress reactions shift the brain into a survival mode, and practical skills that reset trauma-related alarm reactions such as anger, anxiety, avoidance, emotional numbing, and hopelessness. TARGET then engages recipients in learning and actively practicing a seven-step skill sequence for self-regulation and an abbreviated four-step version, and applying these to process traumatic stress reactions (including intrusive trauma memories) in therapy and in daily life. Anonymized case examples of TARGET groups with each gender are provided, and the research evidence base, including randomized and field studies, and infrastructure for sustained implementation of TARGET in justice and related programs are summarized.