Frequently Asked Questions
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1. What is the name of the model?
2. What is TARGET?
3. Who developed TARGET?
4. Where is TARGET being used?
5. What Makes TARGET unique among traumatic stress interventions?
6. Who is the intended audience?
7. Is this model best used with organizations that have basic, intermediate, or expert level of knowledge on trauma, or is this not relevant?
8. What does the research on TARGET tell us?
9. Does Advanced Trauma Solutions provide training and implementation support?
10. Who should be contacted for more information about TARGET and my agency?

1.What is the name of the model?

   TARGET- Trauma Affect Regulation: Guide for Education and Therapy

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2.What is TARGET?

TARGET is an educational and therapeutic approach for the prevention and treatment of complex Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).  TARGET provides a practical skill set that can be used by trauma survivors and family members to de-escalate and regulate extreme emotion states, to manage intrusive trauma memories in daily life, and to restore the capacity for information processing and autobiographical memory. TARGET explains post-traumatic symptoms in laypersons’ language and graphics as the product of an ingrained, but reversible, biological change in the brain’s alarm and information processing systems and the body’s stress response systems.  TARGET teaches a 7-step “FREEDOM” skill set designed to be strength-based and empowerment-focused.

For more information, please visit ‘The TARGET Treatment Model’

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3. Who Developed TARGET?

TARGET was developed by Julian Ford, Ph.D., at the University of Connecticut Health Center. Dr. Ford has been asked to prepare expert white papers on trauma and mental health by the National Child Traumatic Stress Network, the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, the National Center for Mental Health and Juvenile Justice, and the Child Health and Development Institute.

Dr. Ford serves as an expert consultant on traumatic stress to the World Health Organization, the U. S. Department of Veterans Affairs, and the American Institute of Biological Sciences (contractor for the Department of Defense). He is an Editorial Board member of the scientific and professional journals, Clinical Psychology: Science & Practice, Journal of Trauma and Dissociation, Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment, and Trauma, and American Journal of Health Behavior. He serves as a member of the Presidential Task Force on Complex Trauma for the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, and of the Practice Committee for the American Psychological Association’s Division of Psychological Trauma.

Dr. Ford developed TARGET with research funding from the Connecticut Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services (1999) and Department of Children and Families (2002-04), SAMHSA (2000-02), the National Institute of Mental Health (2001-06), and the National Institute of Justice and Department of Justice (2003-08).

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4. Where is TARGET Being Used?

TARGET is being implemented in the juvenile justice system in the states of Connecticut, Florida, and Ohio.

Over 60 adult and children’s mental health and addiction agencies have been trained to use TARGET nationally. It has been field-tested in mental health and addiction agencies, domestic violence shelters and programs, child guidance clinics, children’s psychiatric hospitals, juvenile justice detention centers and probation offices, women’s prisons, and group homes. TARGET has been used in all levels of care for adults and children and has been piloted in schools.

TARGET was designated as the first promising practice model for traumatized youths in the juvenile justice system by the National Child Traumatic Stress Network and is endorsed by the California Evidence-Based Clearinghouse for Child Welfare, the RAND Corporation Gulf States Policy Institute, and NREPP: SAMHSA’s National Registry of Evidence-based Programs and Practices.

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5. What makes TARGET unique among traumatic stress interventions?

• TARGET is the only psychological treatment that explains in laypersons’ terms the biological as well as psychological changes caused by trauma.
• TARGET provides the unique “FREEDOM” self-regulation skill set, and uses this to involve survivors as equal partners in recovery.
• TARGET does not require “exposure” (trauma memory recall) therapy but can serve as a preparation for safe and therapeutic trauma memory work.
• TARGET is designed to be readily integrated with other evidence-based interventions for traumatized adults, adolescents, and children.
• TARGET is being tested in randomized clinical trials with adults with severe mental illness and addictions, at-risk mothers, and adolescents.

For more information on the uniqueness of the TARGET Program, please visit ‘What Makes TARGET Different?’

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6. Who is the intended audience?

TARGET was originally developed as a trauma treatment for adults struggling with severe mental illness, addiction, and co-occurring mental illness and addiction.  TARGET subsequently has been adapted for (1) mothers with young children, (2) incarcerated women, and (3) adolescents and pre-adolescents.  It has been field-tested in mental health and addiction agencies, domestic violence shelters and programs, child guidance clinics, children’s psychiatric hospitals, juvenile justice detention centers and probation offices, women’s prisons, and group homes.  TARGET has been used in all levels of care for adults and adolescents and has been piloted in schools.

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7. Is this model best used with organizations that have basic, intermediate, or expert level of knowledge on trauma, or is this not relevant?

TARGET is being used by organizations with all levels of knowledge of trauma. TARGET is designed for professionals who have a wide range of knowledge and skills.  TARGET training and consultation is done on three levels: 1) as a therapeutic program to be used by therapists and mental health and addiction professionals for adults and children in outpatient, inpatient, and residential treatment programs; 2) as a milieu program to be used by staff and clinicians who provide healthcare, custody, and rehabilitation services in residential treatment, prison/jail or juvenile detention/probation, and hospitals; and, 3) as an educational program to be used by educators, advocates, healthcare professionals, and social/human service case managers who teach or provide support services to adults and children in schools and the community.

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8. What does the research on TARGET tell us?

• A randomized effectiveness study was conducted comparing 9-session TARGET groups versus trauma-informed substance abuse groups (TSU) in three adult substance abuse treatment programs. TARGET was superior to TSU in maintaining self-efficacy related to sobriety.
• A three-year randomized clinical trial study funded by the Department of Justice of TARGET delivered as a 12-session individual therapy for PTSD was conducted with 147 low-income urban mothers. Findings are under review for publication and were presented at the Annual Conventions of the American Psychological Associations and the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies in 2007. TARGET was superior to a comparison social problem solving therapy (Present Centered Therapy; PCT) on improved emotion regulation and post-traumatic beliefs at posttest and follow-up, and led to additional improvements in dissociation and affectively-modulated coping and relational involvement.
• A three-year randomized clinical trial study funded by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Programs of TARGET delivered as a 12-session individual therapy for PTSD compared to a relational therapy (Enhanced Treatment as Usual, ETAU) with 61 girls involved in delinquency was completed in Fall 2008. TARGET was associated with greater improvement than ETAU on PTSD symptoms and remission from PTSD (77% versus 53%) at the conclusion of therapy.
• A two-year field trial funded by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Programs of TARGET delivered as a group and milieu intervention in every Juvenile Detention Center in Connecticut will be completed in Fall 2008.  Juvenile Justice data and admission/discharge questionnaire data are being collected in this quasi-experimental study of the impact of the sequential introduction of TARGET into mixed-gender and gender-specific (girls only) detention centers.

For more information, please visit ‘TARGET Research Summary’

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9. Does Advanced Trauma Solutions provide training and implementation support?

Advanced Trauma Solutions, Inc. (ATS) disseminates TARGET through intensive training and consultation services to health care, mental health, juvenile justice, family services, military, and educational systems interested in addressing the long-term effects of psychological trauma such as abuse, violence, combat, terrorism, and disaster. ATS is the sole licensed provider of TARGET, and is uniquely positioned to prepare agencies and systems to implement TARGET in a competent and cost-effective way.

For more information, please visit ‘Implementing TARGET’

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10. Who should be contacted for more information about TARGET and my agency?

The Director of Operations, Shelly Ford-Grotkopf, can be reached at (860) 751-9072 or use the Contact tab to send Shelly an e-mail

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