The ever-growing range of approaches to psychosocial intervention in areas of armed conflict reflects a wide diversity in underlying perspective. Practitioners are faced with questions of effectiveness and appropriateness of interventions. The author presents a conceptual framework formulated by the Psychosocial Working Group that offers a way of understanding psychosocial well being that embraces the breadth of the field. This framework is used to explore the assessment of the impact of events, and issues of effective, appropriate and ethical interventions.