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Structured Psychotherapy for Adolescents Responding to Chronic Stress

SPARCS is a manually-guided and empirically-supported group treatment designed to improve the emotional, social, academic, and behavioral functioning of adolescents exposed to chronic interpersonal trauma and/or separate types of trauma. It was designed to address the needs of adolescents who may still be living with ongoing stress and experiencing problems in several areas of functioning including difficulties with affect regulation and impulsivity, self-perception, relationships, somatization, dissociation, numbing and avoidance, and struggles with their own purpose and meaning in life as well as worldviews that make it difficult for them to see a future for themselves. SPARCS has been successfully implemented with at-risk youth in various service systems in over a dozen states.

Acronym: 
SPARCS
Targeted Populations: 
12-21; both males and females; for adolescents with Complex Trauma, e.g. adolescents exposed to chronic interpersonal trauma (such as ongoing physical abuse) and/or separate types of trauma (e.g. community violence, sexual assault).
Published in 2008