Trauma-Focused Care
The youth and families served by FosterAdopt Connect have experienced an immense amount of trauma, whether that be inter-generational, chronic, or acute trauma related to abuse, neglect, or being removed from their homes. Prior to coming to us for support, many youth and their families have participated in years of therapy services that have not been effective in addressing trauma or truly reaching a point of healing to be successful in life. Traditional therapy services provide one hour of therapy per week and do not use trauma-specific, evidenced-based practices to address the compounded traumas our families have experienced. Because of this, many youth in the foster care system have developed a mistrust or adverse reaction to therapy.
To help address these barriers, we have developed a nontraditional clinical program to provide intensive trauma-focused, brain-based therapy services to our youth and families who have the most complex trauma histories, extreme mental health issues, and are at risk of disrupting their current foster or adoptive placements.
Referrals
Referrals for our Clinical Services are reserved for foster and adoptive youth/families. Our Clinical Services are most appropriate for those individuals or families who have histories of chronic abuse or neglect early in life, or experienced significant trauma or mental health challenges, especially those who have not benefited from other more traditional therapies. Because of its intensity, the average length of treatment is six months to one year. The goal is to provide intensive trauma-focused treatment to reduce unwanted behaviors and symptoms so that the client may be more successful in their life.
The Program
The Clinical Services Program consists of an interdisciplinary team of qualified licensed clinicians, all dedicated to promoting youth and family wellness and success. Our clinicians collaborate with all our staff members, families, and community partners to:
- Develop and provide multi-tiered, trauma-sensitive therapeutic interventions
- Identify needs through comprehensive, evidence-based assessments
- Support youth and families and help them access external resources
- Provide in-home and community-based individual and family therapeutic services and crisis prevention/intervention
Neurofeedback
Neurofeedback (NFB) is a non-invasive intervention to train the brain to improve its own ability to self-regulate the timing of its internal signaling. Doing so can resolve chronic stress and improve sleep, mood, attention, pain, and physical functioning. Important for those living with trauma, NFB is a true “Low-Barrier” treatment requiring no effort on the part of the client. In a session, the client simply plays a video game or watches a movie where a race car accelerates or the movie gets larger when the brain activity moves into an optimal pattern. The brain uses this feedback to better regulate itself.
Effective with clients of any age, it is compassion-informed and non-judgmental. It can be used with those who don’t do well with talk therapies, as it requires no self-disclosure, yet can be readily integrated into other modalities. It has been used with clients from a wide range of cultures and has demonstrated effectiveness with under-served and marginalized communities.
LEARN MORE ABOUT NEUROFEEDBACK
Demonstrated Outcomes
- 41% Reduction in severity of client’s concerns.
- 36% Improvement of client’s coping with stress.
- 58% Reduction in self-harm/suicidal ideation.
- 100% Reduction in arrests and/or incarcerations.
- 88% Reduction in ER visits for psychiatric reasons.
- 1-2% No-show/late cancellation rate.
- 63% Reduction in disciplinary actions at school.
- 82% Reduction in drug and alcohol relapses.
