Attachment, Regulation, and Competency Framework (ARC)

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Treating Youth Experiencing Complex Trauma, from Birth to Early Adulthood

The Attachment, Regulation and Competency (ARC) Framework is an intervention for children and adolescents who have experienced complex trauma, along with their caregiving systems. ARC can be used to treat youth from birth to early adulthood with a variety of trauma-related diagnoses including PTSD, behavioral disorders, depression, and anxiety.

ARC is a clinical and organizational framework, and addresses three domains of intervention:

  • Attachment: This is about relationships and how we connect to others. Who do you trust? Who makes you feel safe?
  • Regulation: This is about the way people manage their emotions. How do you manage your feelings? What kind of coping skills work best for you?
  • Competency: This is about strengths and the things we do well, like problem solving and decision making. It’s also about how we feel about ourselves.

Trauma-Focused Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) is a trauma-focused intervention for youth (ages 3 to 18) who are experiencing symptoms directly related to a traumatic event or events and their non-offending caregiver. It targets post-traumatic stress, depressive and behavioral symptoms.

The average length of treatment is eight to 25 weekly, 60- to 90-minute sessions. Maximum benefits are seen when the youth’s primary caregiver is actively involved in treatment. TF-CBT has been successfully delivered in diverse settings, such as clinics, in-home, residential treatment facilities, schools and juvenile detention facilities.

Service Delivery

ARC may be delivered in diverse service settings such as clinics, in-home, residential treatment facilities, schools, and juvenile detention facilities.

Training Requirements

The Attachment, Regulation and Competency (ARC) Framework training is designed for teams from community based mental health agencies. Our model relies on clinicians training together with an administrative leader from their agency to ensure successful implementation and sustainability.

ARC trainings consist of a 2 day in-person training followed by 12 monthly group consultation calls. NC CTP will offer 1 cohort per year in ARC.

Team Requirements

Clinicians must:

  • Be a licensed clinician in North Carolina, including clinical social workers, marriage and family therapists, professional counselors, psychological associates, psychologists, child psychiatrists, nurse specialists or practitioners.
  • Serve the NC Medicaid population.

Senior Leaders (Participation is free! 1 staff member is great but feel free to send more):

  • Senior Leaders are typically Clinical Directors, Clinical Supervisors, Program Managers, Team Leads, and Supervisors. For ARC, we recommend that Senior Leaders have supervisory or administrative responsibility over clinical practices, to help integrate ARC principles and tools into existing programs.
  • Do you have questions about Senior Leaders? Please contact NC CTP to connect with Mellicent Blythe, Implementation Specialist and Senior Leader Director, for more information.

Who Should Apply?

Applicants are encouraged to apply as part of a team, which can bolster clinical implementation and model sustainability efforts both during and after the training period.

When reviewing applications, preference will be given to committed teams with a highly supportive Senior Leader.

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