CALPCC is pleased to offer another live webinar from the Early Life Stress and Resilience Program, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford Medicine. Ryan Matlow, Ph.D., will present on chronic traumatic stress in youth, describing the rationale and application of one intervention. We hope you will join us! Details below.

Addressing Youth Chronic Traumatic Stress: Cue-Centered Therapy

Trauma isn’t a rare event—it’s an everyday reality for many children. Studies show that one in four kids will experience at least one significant traumatic event by age 16, and for some groups, that number rises to two out of three. Further, trauma rarely happens in isolation. For countless kids, trauma and adversity compound over time, creating layers of stress that may go unaddressed by traditional treatment models that do not target traumatic stress or that focus exclusively on single, circumscribed events.

Cue-Centered Therapy (CCT) places emphasis on experiences of chronic traumatic stress—the repeated exposure to adversity that disrupts a child’s sense of safety, their well-being, and their functioning. CCT helps youth and their caregivers navigate the cumulative impact of childhood adversity and chronic trauma. CCT is a multimodal approach that offers a structured yet flexible framework wherein both children and therapists are encouraged to incorporate their existing strengths, skillsets, and experiences into the therapy process.

This presentation will provide an overview of CCT, including the rationale, key concepts, and core components of the intervention.  We will review the application of CCT with a specific case example, and we discuss the therapeutic outcomes for those who engage with CCT. 

About the presenter: 

Ryan Matlow, Ph.D.

Ryan Matlow, Ph.D., is a child clinical psychologist who serves as Director of Community Programs for Stanford’s Early Life Stress and Resilience Program, and is a faculty member in Stanford's Human Rights and Trauma Mental Health Program. His clinical and research efforts focus on understanding and addressing the impact of stress, adversity, and trauma in children, families, and communities. In particular, Dr. Matlow seeks to apply current scientific knowledge of the neurobiological and developmental impact of stress, trauma, and adversity in shaping interventions and systems of care. Dr. Matlow is focused on engaging diverse populations and providing evidence-based individual, family, and systems interventions for posttraumatic stress following interpersonal trauma, with an emphasis on efforts in school, community, and integrated care settings. He is engaged in clinical service, program development, and interdisciplinary collaboration efforts that address childhood trauma exposure in communities that have been historically marginalized, under-resourced, and/or experienced human rights violations. He has worked extensively in providing trauma-focused psychological evaluation, treatment, and advocacy services with immigrant youth and families, with a focus on immigrants from Latin American countries. Dr. Matlow is involved in the training and dissemination of Stanford's Cue-Centered Therapy (Carrión, 2015), a flexible, manualized intervention addressing childhood experiences of chronic trauma.