Suffering from PTSD in childhood can have detrimental formative consequences. Researchers have been eager to develop effective interventions and to enhance treatment motivation since the introduction of the diagnosis of PTSD in the DSM. With evolving understanding of the disorder, its definition and criteria have changed over the course of time. The most recent change involves the addition of the criterium D of negative affects or emotions in relation to PTSD, the feeling of shame amongst others. Individuals experiencing interpersonal trauma, such as sexual abuse, are at high-risk developing trauma-related shame, which in turn can impact the course and effectiveness of PTSD treatment. Shame-inducing situations are typically being avoided, and the feelings are not disclosed to peers and other people. Hence, acknowledging and sharing feelings of shame as well as practicing self-compassion have been proposed to reduce the impact of that negative self-conscious emotion. These aspects get partially tackled in evidence-based trauma therapies, however, there appears to be a need for a more specific trauma-related shame intervention in addition to existing treatments. Recent research has focused on developing such interventions for adults and has reported positive effects.

To our knowledge, there is no intervention specifically tackling trauma-related shame in adolescents. Virtual Reality (VR) is a promising tool for such an intervention. Findings suggest that including VR in a treatment results in high treatment satisfaction and that it is highly motivating for its users, which is a crucial component for treatment success.

The goal of this study is to test the effectiveness of a short-term VR shame intervention (SHINE-VR) for adolescents suffering from PTSD after having experienced sexual abuse. The primary objectives of this study to assess the effect of SHINE-VR on trauma-related shame, self-compassion, and PTSD symptom reduction, to investigate whether treatment motivation, an increase in self-compassion, and a decrease in trauma-related shame are associated with PTSD symptom reduction.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Between 12 and 17 years old at inclusion
• Interpersonal trauma (sexual abuse); in case of multiple traumas the main trauma should be sexual abuse
• Indication for PTSD treatment
• Getting trauma treatment as usual
• Adequate command of the Dutch language

Exclusion Criteria:

• Known mental disability
• Epilepsy

Identifiable information of the participants will be encrypted for the further processing and analyzing of the corresponding data. Once the project is completed and the paper(s) has been published, the encryption key and the personal data will be deleted. Following paragraph from the template of the Institute of Education and Child Studies will be used:

I consent to my and my child's participation in the study (Title Research) I also give permission to store and use the pseudonymised research data about me and my child that is collected in this research and to share it with other researchers if necessary.

We will store the data according to the University regulations on data management of projects assessed by the Medical Ethical committee, allowing the data to be FAIR for at least 15 years after publication.

A CC-BY license will be used. Since sensitive data will be collected, it will only be shared with researchers upon request. Requests for information will be reviewed by the first and last author.

The participants are unaware of different baseline lengths