1.2 STAIR Narrative Therapy Overview
Skills Training in Affective and Interpersonal Regulation (STAIR) Narrative Therapy (SNT), is a phase-based intervention which was initially developed for individuals with PTSD related to childhood abuse but now is applied to treat the effects of various types of interpersonal trauma (see Cloitre et al, 2020). The treatment was developed to address not only the symptoms of PTSD but also the commonly observed problems of emotion regulation and interpersonal problems among those with chronic abuse (Cloitre et al., 2002). The first module (STAIR) includes skill training to develop emotional and interpersonal resources that have been compromised by long-term complex trauma. The second module (Narrative Therapy) employs exposure and cognitive restructuring techniques to alleviate PTSD symptoms. Three RCTs have demonstrate the clinical efficacy of SNT for PTSD symptoms, and problems related to emotion regulation and interpersonal functioning among individuals with childhood abuse and interpersonal trauma (Cloitre et al., 2002, 2010; Oprel et al., 2021). Given the problem domains it was developed to resolve, the treatment appears transparently appropriate for the treatment for CPTSD. A pilot study has indicated substantial positive benefits for individuals with CPTSD (Niwa et al., 2022) and other studies are under way.