Alternatives for Families - A Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (AF-CBT)

Training Features

  • Target treatment population: children/adolescents (ages 5-17) and caregivers in families involved in arguments/conflict, physical force/discipline/aggression, child physical abuse, or child behavior problems.
  • 12 twice-monthly small group consultation calls (up to 12 attendees per group)
  • Materials translated into Spanish, Korean, and Japanese
  • Virtual format

Quick Description:

Training is a trauma-informed evidence-based treatment (EBT) designed to improve the relationships between children and caregivers in families involved in arguments/conflict, physical force/discipline/aggression, child physical abuse, or child behavior problems. 

Includes individual child, individual caregiver, parent-child, and family sessions. Any adult caregiver (biological, foster, adoptive, etc.) can participate with at least one child. 

Full Description

Alternatives for Families: A Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (AF-CBT) is a trauma-informed, evidence-based treatment designed to help families who struggle with anger, conflict, and aggression. It can also help families concerned about their use of harsh or abusive behavior; some children exhibit common behavior problems, and some children or caregivers may experience traumatic reactions. AF-CBT promotes the use of positive coping and self-control skills, effective and safe discipline strategies, and useful family problem solving and communication skills that can improve child behavior and well-being, help families get along better, and maintain a safe and secure home environment.

See video for a full description.

Who is appropriate for AF-CBT?

  • A family or a caregiver and child who experience frequent conflicts, arguments, or angry feelings.
  • A caregiver with concerns about their use of physical force or discipline, or who worries about doing something that could injure/hurt a child, or who has a history of physical or emotional abuse.
  • A child (5-17 years old) who exhibits challenging behaviors (e.g., not listening, fighting, hard to manage) or shows trauma symptoms (e.g., post-traumatic stress) related to #1 or #2 above.

Many eligible families who receive AF-CBT also experience other challenges such as living in different residences, domestic disputes, substance use, incarceration, and/or prior traumatic experiences.

How can AF-CBT help?

It can be challenging to care for a child who struggles with defiance, aggression, or other problem behaviors. Family conflict can easily lead to caregiver frustration and the use of harsh, but ineffective, discipline.

AF-CBT helps families learn new, safe, and more effective ways to overcome or prevent these struggles. That’s why AF-CBT includes specialized content and skills that are delivered in three phases:

  1. Engagement and education, 
  2. Individual skill building, and 
  3. Family applications.

Families in AF-CBT can receive several important services from one provider (“one stop shop”). This eliminates the need to send the family to several different providers for parenting classes, anger management, family therapy, individual therapy, and trauma treatment. All of these services are offered in AF-CBT.

Goals of AF-CBT:

  • Support children and caregivers who are under stress and/or exposed to trauma
  • Improve child behavior and well-being
  • Enhance child and family safety
  • Strengthen family relationships, skills, and routines
  • Reduce the risk for high conflict interactions
  • Help caregiver and children to find effective ways to manage their emotions and be
  • flexible in their thinking
  • Promote effective use of positive discipline strategies

Important Skills That Caregivers and Children Learn

  • How to maintain a safe, stable environment
  • Strategies for managing angry outbursts
  • Skills for calming children when they are out of control
  • Methods for solving problems together
  • Communication skills that will help caregivers and children express what they want
  • Social skills that children can use to make appropriate requests

How do Families Benefit from AF-CBT?

  • Improved caregiver-child relationships
  • Healthy parenting practices
  • Enhanced children’s coping and social skills
  • Reduced behavioral problems in children
  • Better, healthier reactions to stressful or traumatic situations
  • Feeling safe and secure at home

General Eligibility Requirements:

  1. Applicant must be fully trained in TF-CBT, meaning: applicant can provide verifiable documentation that they have attended a TF-CBT training with a certified trainer and have completed the associated consultation calls to a satisfactory degree OR if the applicant has passed the TF-CBT exam, they can present a copy of their TF-CBT certification.   
    1. NOTE: If your TF-CBT training was completed through either the Fairfax or Northern Virginia Regional Consortia for Evidence-Based Practice, we already have your training records.  If we need additional information from you, we will let you know. 
  2. Applicant must currently be providing treatment services to families who would be eligible to receive AF-CBT Treatment (as outlined above) and who are residing in Fairfax County/City, Virginia. 
  3. Applicant must have a master’s degree or higher in a mental health-related field. 
  4. Applicant must be licensed by their state (or license-eligible meaning they are approved by their Boards to undergo clinical supervision for licensure) to provide clinical mental health treatment to families. 
    1. NOTE: state registrations or other non-license credentials - in the absence of a State license - are not sufficient to attend this training. 
  5. Applicant must be available to attend BOTH days of training without interruption. 
  6. Applicant must join the training from a device that allows for both audio and visual transmission.  
  7. Applicant must remain visible on screen and engaged for the full duration of the training (excluding planned breaks). 
  8. If accepted to the training, participant must identify their AF-CBT-appropriate cases by the date of their first consultation call, then implement AF-CBT with at least 2 of those identified cases during the 6-8 month consultation call period. 
  9. If accepted to the training, participant must commit to participating in a minimum of 9 out of 12 semi-monthly 1-hour consultation calls that will be completed over the course of 6-8 months, and deliver a case presentation(s) during the course of the calls.   
    1. NOTE: Attendance at consultation calls is mandatory for this training program.  If a participant misses more than 3 calls, they will be ineligible to attain certification in AF-CBT AND their eligibility for future FC-EBP trainings will be affected.  Please keep this requirement in mind when applying for this training.  
  10. Applicant must agree to complete brief surveys used to evaluate the training by their stated deadlines, including: 
    1. One pre-training survey (before first training day) 
    2. One post-training survey (at the conclusion of the last training prior to logging off); and
    3. One – Two follow-up surveys during the 12 months following the training. 

Email CEBBH@gmu.edu for further information and eligibility requirements.