For several years, I worked in a large public high school in an alternative program for teenagers with behavioral and emotional difficulties. While the program itself was relatively small [less than 50 students], I often had only fifteen minutes or less to sit down with each adolescent and attempt to address their ongoing challenges. My supervisor, a school psychologist well-versed in work with adolescents, was even more frustrated than me; she very rarely had adequate time to spend with any one teenager because so many students needed assistance each day.
Sound familiar? If you are a school counselor who has literally hundreds of students in your charge or a social worker with an ever-increasing caseload at a mental health clinic or community agency, you know exactly what I am talking about. If you work as a therapist or counselor in a hospital or shelter, you may also encounter similar challenges—how to work quickly at bedside with a child in a matter of minutes or with the individual who may have a limited attention span because of trauma reactions or cognitive problems.
Caelan Kuban, LMSW and TLC Program Director and Clinical Consultant, offers two great examples of “one minute interventions” from the publication, One Minute Trauma Interventions, by Kuban and William Steele. Both activities address the critical issue of “worry,” a universal trauma reaction in most children and adolescents experiencing a trauma or loss, including those exposed to a single event. The first intervention can be used with school-age children and the second, with teenagers:
Activity Example #1: Worry Activity for Children (6 to 12 years)– Worry Beads
Large round beaded “necklace” graphic [included in the publication]
Directions: Ask the child to list one of his or her worries on each bead. Then, ask the child to color in the beads that represent the biggest worries.
Suggested Response from Helping Professional: Now that your worries are listed 
on the bead, you can keep this paper in a private place. I could even keep this here in my office. Instead of keeping all of those worries in your mind, they are right here on this paper. If one of your worries lessens or goes away you can “X” out that bead or even cut that bead and worry right off of this paper.
Activity Example #2: Worry Activity for Adolescents (13 to 17 years)– Iceberg
Large Iceberg graphic with penguin on top [included in the publication]
1) Top of Iceberg – What everyone knows about me.
2) Under surface ice – This is what not many people know about me.
3) Bottom of iceberg – This is what nobody knows about me.
Directions: Ask the adolescent to write his or her responses next to each part of the iceberg.
Suggested Response from Helping Professional: Everyone has things about them that many people know, and then there are things that only our very best friends know, and even some things about us that no one knows! That is okay. Some things are meant to remain private. But, if those things begin to bother you, it often helps to talk to someone you trust. Instead of keeping a secret that is bothering you, getting it out, even to one person can give you some relief and make you feel better.
For more information on this National Institute for Trauma and Loss in Children publication, click on this link to One Minute Trauma Interventions. This valuable book contains a collection of age-specific, sensory-based trauma intervention activities that focus on the major themes of trauma. It is designed especially for use with children and adolescents, ages 3 to 18 years, in school and agency settings when time is limited. All intervention activities take less than 20 minutes to complete.
Be well,
Cathy Malchiodi, PhD, LPCC, LPAT
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