Case example: Once Kayla was successfully using music, yoga, deep breathing and visualization strategies at bedtime, her therapist worked with her to identify other situations that made her anxious (e.g., being around groups of males in the RTF; hearing laughing or loud talking) when she could also use these skills. Kayla gradually became more able to use these strategies when she became anxious or irritable. Over time she became more aware of internal responses to these reminders (“cues,” e.g., fisting her hands; clenching her teeth) and used these cues as signals that she should use relaxation coping strategies.Youth with complex trauma often have blunted affect and lack a full range of affective vocabulary. Most commonly they have learned not to express feelings because doing so was previously punished, ridiculed and/or dangerous. The therapist does not make assumptions about expressing feelings in the current home or community environment being safe since this may not be the case. The therapist personally models a range of appropriate affective expression and validates a broad range of feelings as acceptable, but youth may be understandably reluctant to accept such statements at face value. Youth will often initially “test the waters” through expressing negative emotions that leave the youth less vulnerable (e.g., anger; disdain). Therapists work with parents or caregivers to validate and support appropriate emotional expression as described below. Feeling identification work may need to start on a very basic level. For example, the therapist (and ideally the caregiver) may need to mirror the youth's facial expressions (e.g., smiling when the youth smiles) and labelingthe emotion the youth appears to be experiencing in the moment (e.g., “You feel happy!”). This process is similar to interactions that occur between adults and very young children in secure attachment relationships and serves as the foundation for developing more advanced affective regulation skills.TF-CBT includes a wide range of practical strategies for decreasing affective distress (Cohen et al., 2006).Some specific strategies used for youth with complex trauma include distraction; mindfulness; perceptual bias modification; self-awareness skills; and cognitive coping skills. Each is described briefly here.