BACKGROUND:

Stressful events can have negative mental health consequences. Preventive interventions are scarce and most focus on reducing symptomatology.

OBJECTIVE:

To develop and pilot a brief intervention protocol for the prevention of mental health problems in people exposed to a recent stressful event, with a Positive Behavioral Cognitive approach, as well as to evaluate its usefulness and acceptability in participants and therapists.

METHOD:

Mixed qualitative-quantitative design. A four-session programme was applied and the users and therapists involved were interviewed. In addition, depressive and post-traumatic symptomatology, posttraumatic growth and subjective wellbeing were assessed at pre-, post-intervention and follow-up.

RESULTS:

There was a positive evaluation of the techniques and material used, as well as of the activities assigned between sessions. A significant reduction in post-traumatic and depressive symptomatology, and an increase in posttraumatic growth and life satisfaction were observed.

CONCLUSIONS:

The programme designed and evaluated is useful for the proposed objective. The techniques used and the potential impact on users and significant others as well as their appropriateness for therapists are analyzed.