A trauma-specific approach to treating children who have been sexually abused rests on two basic assumptions: abuse experiences have specific negative psychosocial effects, and treatment effectiveness is enhanced when abuse-related outcomes are explicitly linked with the abuse experience as part of the therapeutic process. Strategies to develop treatment goals for child victims are developed from cognitive behavioral therapy, including gradual exposure, stress inoculation training, corrective information, cognitive restructuring, and teaching positive coping and social skills. The effectiveness and support for trauma-specific therapy will be enhanced when practitioners can articulate a theoretical framework, make use of the findings from treatment outcome studies, and demonstrate that abuse-related difficulties are improving over the course of treatment. A structured, relatively brief approach that incorporates cognitive-behavioral strategies has the strongest theoretical and empirical evidence for effectiveness. References