Traumatic events are incidents that lie outside the range of usual hum
an experience and are so powerful that they are capable of overwhelmin
g any person's normal coping abilities and causing severe stress react
ions. Traumatic event debriefing (TED), conducted 24 to 72 hours after
exposure to the traumatic event, uses a form of intensive group crisi
s intervention. The method is designed to help reduce acute stress sym
ptoms and accelerate the recovery process, thereby diminishing the sub
sequent development of posttraumatic stress disorder. Social workers h
ave the precise constellation of skills, social-environmental perspect
ives, and practice methodologies indispensable both to developing TED
teams and to leading the debriefings. This article addresses the evolu
tion of debriefing-type psychological interventions for trauma victims
, the debriefing process itself, three environment-specific debriefing
team designs, and the unique qualifications of social workers to deve
lop and lead the teams.