American Indians and Alaska Natives are vulnerable populations with significant levels of trauma exposure. The Indian Country Child Trauma Center developed an American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) adaptation of the evidence-based child trauma treatment, trauma-focused cognitive-behavioral therapy. Honoring Children, Mending the Circle (HC-MC) guides the therapeutic process through a blending of AI/AN traditional teachings with cognitive-behavioral methods. The authors introduced the HC-MC treatment and illustrated its therapeutic tools by way of a case illustration.

In a statewide implementation, the manualized SafeCare home–based model was effective in reducing child welfare recidivism and producing high client satisfaction. Concerns about the effectiveness and acceptability of structured, manualized models with American Indians have been raised in the literature, but have rarely been directly tested. This study tests recidivism reduction equivalency and acceptability among American Indian parents. A subpopulation of 354 American Indian parents was drawn from a larger trial that compared services with versus without modules of the SafeCare model. Outcomes were 6-year recidivism, pre/post/follow-up measures of depression and child abuse potential, and posttreatment consumer ratings of working alliance, service satisfaction, and cultural competency. Recidivism reduction among American Indian parents was found to be equivalent for cases falling within customary SafeCare inclusion criteria. When extended to cases outside customary inclusion boundaries, there was no apparent recidivism advantage or disadvantage. Contrary to concerns, SafeCare had higher consumer ratings of cultural competency, working alliance, service quality, and service benefit. Findings support using SafeCare with American Indians parents who meet customary SafeCare inclusion criteria. Findings do not support concerns in the literature that a manualized, structured, evidence-based model might be less effective or culturally unacceptable for American Indians.

The Indian Country Child Trauma Center, as part of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network, designed a series of American Indian and Alaska Native transformations of evidence-based treatment models. Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) was culturally adapted/translated to provide an effective treatment model for parents who have difficulty with appropriate parenting skills or for their children who have problematic behavior. The model, Honoring Children-Making Relatives, embeds the basic tenets and procedures of PCIT in a framework that supports American Indian and Alaska Native traditional beliefs and parenting practices that regard children as being the center of the Circle. This article provides an overview of the Honoring Children-Making Relatives model, reviews cultural considerations incorporated into ICCTC's model transformation process, and discusses specific applications for Parent-Child Interaction Therapy within the model.

Reviewed empirical research on the short-and long-term effects of four major types of child maltreatment (physical abuse, sexual abuse, psychological abuse, and neglect). Outcome research for a variety of treatments for child victims of abuse and for adults abused as children suggests that treatment is effective; however, comprehensive and carefully designed studies have not been done. Likewise, outcome research for treatment efforts with parents and caregivers who engage in child maltreatment is limited, but evidence supports treatment efficacy. Thirteen recommendations are offered pertaining to improvement of conceptualization, treatment, and research in the area of child maltreatment.

Over the past four decades, the Society of Indian Psychologists (SIP) has grown from a small network of indigenous psychologists and students to a well-established network among the ethnic minority psychology organizations. SIP embraces both Western psychology and indigenous values of cooperation, group harmony, respect, generosity, careful listening, and observation-values shared by the field of counseling psychology. This article examines the interrelationship between SIP and counseling psychology, given their shared beliefs in social justice and culturally competent research, training, and service. Some of the early history of SIP is presented as well as the landmark moments for the organization.