What is Expected of Practitioners?

These are the general skills and approaches expected of practitioners when employing AF-CBT techniques.

In implementing AF-CBT, practitioners are expected to:

• Develop a strong therapeutic relationship. This is a critical element of the AF-CBT model
• Incorporate the unique needs and characteristics of each child, parent, and family into each topic and skill presented
• Enlist the client as a full partner in setting treatment goals
• Apply AF-CBT flexibly to permit individualized clinical adaptations
• Adapt the duration of AF-CBT treatment to meet families’ needs
• Address crises that arise during treatment, while maintaining an appropriate focus on children’s abuse-related symptoms
• Integrate AF-CBT into other long-term treatments for children who have been abused
• Consider applying AF-CBT techniques and concepts to target the problems of unsupportive, overwhelmed and multi-problem families

When preparing for a session using AF-CBT techniques, practitioners typically:

1. Determine the session topic
2. Read over the few pages in the Session Guide for the chosen topic
3. Copy any Supplemental Handouts that are appropriate

During an AF-CBT session, practitioners typically:

1. Build on existing client relationships
2. Keep in mind long-term goals while addressing weekly crises
3. Work in partnership with the client
4. When helpful, provide clients with worksheets or handouts
5. Determine with the clients what work the clients can do in between sessions to strengthen their targeted skills

Criteria for Certification as an AF-CBT Clinician

Mental health professionals who complete the AF-CBT training may be eligible for certification in AF-CBT if they meet the criteria listed below:

1. Attend all scheduled days of an approved AF-CBT training program or, if only one day was missed, request/complete an option to meet this requirement as approved by the faculty.
2. Attend >75% of all scheduled monthly consultation calls.
3. Present twice on the consult calls.
4. Submit at least 2 audio files for fidelity monitoring.
5. Achieve 80% fidelity based on the content and process of AF-CBT on the 2 audio files.
6. Demonstrate understanding of AF-CBT model/principles (80%) on a knowledge questionnaire.
7. Complete at least 2 AF-CBT cases, which may be different than the ones in the audio files: