Psychological Recovery Camps: Intensive Integrative Group Psychotherapy

Abstract

This one-week Group Psychotherapy Program is a multicomponent treatment for the resolution of traumatic memories (e.g., rape, sexual abuse, physical and emotional violence, etc.) for children and adolescents. It was designed and developed to support those children and adolescents who in general have not been able to develop the basic neural networks of feeling loved, cared for, and who often have attachment disorders. Children suffering from Adverse Child Experience (ACE), and also from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), may find their confidence in themselves and in humanity, disturbed, preventing them from pursuing their development with joy. In a recent controlled study, it was shown that this program significantly decreased symptoms related to PTSD and improved attention-related outcomes. Furthermore, the program leads to changes in deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) methylation at the genome level, and these modifications have been seen in genes whose biological processes are related to early childhood adversity-neural pathways. Data confirms the results of our previous uncontrolled studies using this multimodal program in children and adolescents with a history of sexual and physical abuse. In this chapter, we present the methodology of the program, the therapies, and techniques we use, as well as some authors who have inspired the intervention elements.