Skills Training in Affective and Interpersonal Regulation plus Modified Prolonged Exposure (STAIR/MPE)
Problems addressed
Post-traumatic stress
Internalizing behaviors/problems
Effectiveness

Promising

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Promising

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Life periods served
Adults (18 to 59 years)
Where the program was applied
Ambulatory - Health service centers
Country of application
United States
Description

This is a sequential treatment for victims of chronic violence occurring throughout life or in childhood. The goal is to develop emotional self-regulation and social interaction skills, promote trauma processing, and reduce psychological symptoms and disorders.
The program consists of two phases:
1) Patient-therapist bonding and training in emotional self-regulation and social interaction skills; and
2) An adapted version of the prolonged exposure strategy in order to analyze the trauma narrative and interventions on personal schemes of rejection, shame, betrayal, failure, and abandonment.

Impact evaluations

Impact evaluation studies show that program participants had a statistically significant reduction in emotional regulation problems, interpersonal skill deficits, post-traumatic stress symptoms, and depression [1] [2] [3].

Bibliographic reference

[1] Cloitre, M., Koenen, K. C., Cohen, L. R. & Han, H. (2002). Skills training in affective and interpersonal regulation followed by exposure: A phase-based treatment for PTSD related to childhood abuse. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 70(5), 1067–1074. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-006X.70.5.1067

[2] Cloitre, M., Stovall-McClough, K. C., Miranda, R. & Chemtob, C. M. (2004). Therapeutic alliance, negative mood regulation, and treatment outcome in child abuse-related posttraumatic stress disorder. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 72(3), 411–416. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-006X.72.3.411

[3] Levitt, J. T., Malta, L. S., Martin, A., Davis, L. & Cloitre, M. (2007). The flexible application of a manualized treatment for PTSD symptoms and functional impairment related to the 9/11 World Trade Center attack. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 45(7), 1419–1433. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2007.01.004

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