I knew I wanted to help people recover from trauma when I first
applied to psychology programs. As a teenager I had had friends
experience difficult life events that they struggled to come to
terms with long after the event occurred. After watching them try
to understand what had happened to them and how to live safe and
fulfilling lives, I knew that I wanted to have a career that would
let me help others who encountered similar experiences.
As a graduate student, I received training in the most effective
therapy demonstrated to help people recover from trauma-
Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. I primarily worked
with adult men and women, helping them develop skills to cope with
the emotional stress and trauma they had experienced. I saw
first-hand how allowing people to talk about the traumatic events
that shaped their lives helped them recover and even grow from the
event. Through my training experiences, I became convinced that
Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is the most effective
way to help people recover from trauma.
In the spring of 2008, I had the opportunity to volunteer as a
therapist for PARTNERS and work with Dr. Elissa Brown. While I was
excited to work at such an innovative agency, I was extremely
nervous about doing Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
with children. I had tons of questions: Could kids handle talking
about the events they had seen or experienced? Could I handle what
they would tell me? What if they didn’t understand what I was
asking? How did I use play therapy, drawing, and other kid-oriented
techniques to help kids talk about and recover from emotionally
stressful events?
As it turned out, my worries were unfounded. Dr. Brown specifically
developed PARTNERS to help kids of all ages. Fortunately, Dr. Brown
also makes training new clinicians a primary goal of PARTNERS. She
introduced me to many different techniques that helped kids prepare
to talk about the scary event they saw or experienced. My training
was closely monitored to ensure that I not only understood all of
the elements of the therapy protocol, but to make sure that our
clients received the best services possible.
Most importantly, through my work at PARTNERS, I have had the
wonderful opportunity to see my clients, amazing boys and girls who
have experienced incredibly difficult times, improve in exciting
and unexpected ways. They experience less fear and anxiety. They
have stopped expecting that bad things will happen to them. They
stop thinking about the trauma all of the time, and when they are
reminded of the trauma, the memory no longer shuts them down.
But even more amazing were some of the changes they have
experienced that I had not anticipated. Some clients have been able
to apply the skills they have learned in therapy to better manage
problems with bullies at school. Through working with parents, I’ve
seen parent and child relationships that were already strong and
loving become even more honest, open, respectful, and supportive.
Watching these changes occur in these incredible children has been
one of the most rewarding experiences of my life.
After my time working at PARTNERS, I am not only convinced that
TF-CBT for children most appropriate way to help kids recover from
emotional stress and trauma, but I believe that PARTNERS is a
facility that is uniquely equipped to help children recover and
grow from emotionally stressful and traumatic events. I am honored
to have the opportunity to work with so many children and youth
through PARTNERS and to be a part of a program that offers such
unique and necessary services to the community.