Support for Students Exposed to Trauma: The SSET Program
RAND Corporation (NIMH-funded) · 2009 · 198 pages · For school counselors, teachers, and clinicians working in schools
Read it at the official source
Free from RAND; the PDF may not be re-posted elsewhere. SSET is the openly distributed adaptation of CBITS, whose full clinical manual is sold commercially.
If the publisher link moves: archived copy
A ten-lesson, group-format program for middle-school students exposed to trauma, adapted by Jaycox, Langley, and Dean from the evidence-based CBITS intervention so that teachers and school counselors can deliver it without clinical training. The book includes a leader training section, complete lesson plans, and all student worksheets, parent letters, and screening forms.
Lessons cover common reactions to trauma, relaxation, the thoughts-feelings-actions link, facing fears gradually, processing the trauma memory through drawing and writing, and social problem solving, making it a rare fully open trauma protocol for school settings.
Run it with these materials
The kids' fear ladder and trauma reaction sheets mirror SSET's gradual-approach lessons, and the site's relaxation scripts cover its calming skills.
This manual is a publication of RAND Corporation (NIMH-funded). Therapy Resource is not affiliated with, or endorsed by, its publisher. The summary above is our own; always follow the manual itself and your clinical judgment. If you are in crisis, contact 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline or call 911.