Chase Giroux (they/them), LMHC, has over 20 years of experience working in the field of community mental health and local non-profit agencies. After attaining their degree in counseling, Chase became a therapist trained in TF-CBT and ARC. They specialize working with children and families who exhibit a complex trauma response through a variety of interventions. Chase is passionate about building strong and resilient communities so that all children and families can thrive by utilizing a trauma-informed and culturally-responsive lens. After spending time in buddhist monasteries, practicing mindfulness in the tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh, Chase was inspired to make this beautiful practice accessible to as many people as possible. Becoming trained in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction and a certified Koru mindfulness trainer has allowed Chase to share this practice in a more secular context. Chase lives with their family in Northampton, Massachusetts, where they can be found playing and coaching sports in her community, hiking, and meditating.

The Children (and Families) Healing After Trauma (CHAT) clinic is an outpatient specialty clinic at the Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology of Rutgers University. We serve youth ages 3 to 21 years old and their families referred from New Jersey Division of Child Protection and Permanency (DCP&P), local schools, mental health partners, and general community referrals from surrounding Rutgers University. Our mission is to support children and families impacted by trauma to rebuild their identity, establish a sense of safety and foster positive relationships with others. Using a multi-systemic, collaborative treatment approach, we hope to give each individual that has faced complex trauma an opportunity to process their experiences and look toward the future with hope. CHAT's specialty areas include adjustment to resource care, impact of trauma and loss, behavior management, sexual abuse and stress management for caregivers. Our clinic provides individual, family and/or group sessions utilizing trauma and attachment informed treatment modalities that include Trauma Focused- Cognitive Behavior Therapy, Attachment, Regulation and Competency (ARC) and Game-Based (CBT). CHAT attempts to overcome treatment barriers by providing transportation services to and from the clinic for DCP&P-involved families and in-home parent management training and family sessions, when needed. Additionally, CHAT provides mentors to clients to increase the opportunity for positive peer interactions.

Child First will create a national Center for Prevention and Early Trauma Treatment (CPETT), which will address persistent gaps in prevention, identification, reflective consultation, early intervention, and treatment for very young children and families exposed to trauma and adversity. The evidence-based, two-generation Child First (CF) model will be replicated and serve young children (prenatal-5) and families with the highest levels of traumatic stress and concrete challenges. It employs a two-pronged approach with home-based teams, consisting of a licensed mental health clinician and a care coordinator, to 1) decrease multiple environmental stressors through intensive care coordination, while building parental executive functioning and 2) establish a nurturing, responsive parent-child relationship, which heals trauma and enhances resilience. To help facilitate a comprehensive system of care, CPETT will train a diverse array of early childhood mental health providers in a range of other diagnostic and therapeutic modalities, including Child-Parent Psychotherapy, Circle of Security, and Diagnostic Classification: 0-5. CPETT will adapt CF’s extensive training curriculum to create a new, web-based Early Childhood Mental Health Trauma Training. We will also offer in-person/virtual training and reflective clinical consultation groups to multiple providers, including home visiting, early care and education, pediatrics, and child welfare. Our goal is to create a trauma-informed community in which all providers understand the impact of trauma on young children; increase development-enhancing, trauma-informed practices; identify children needing further treatment; and refer to relationship-based therapeutic interventions that address mental health needs and heal trauma.

The Center will train and support the delivery of evidence-based, culturally adapted trauma services and interventions for children exposed to disaster, sexual abuse, family violence, race-based and immigration trauma (e.g., unaccompanied minors), COVID-19, and traumatic deaths. Major stakeholders in children’s mental health–school personnel, parents, and mental health providers–will work in partnership to create a continuum-of-care at 18 sites nationwide. The Center aims to serve underserved children (ages 4-17) from culturally diverse backgrounds (e.g., people of color, LGBTQ+) who have been exposed to trauma and are experiencing diverse mental health responses. Each site’s trauma team will have representatives from schools, parents, youth, mental health clinics, and other social systems (e.g., police) and be responsible for implementing a tiered approach to services and interventions. Tier 1 is system-level psychoeducation (i.e., Trauma 101) to create a trauma-informed culture and provide a foundation for trauma EBIs. Tier 2 is early intervention delivered after trauma (i.e., Skills for Psychological Recovery) to prevent the development of mental disorders. Tier 3 is treatment for traumatized children and their caregivers (i.e., Trauma-Focused Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy and Alternatives for Families-A Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy). After being trained and implementing the interventions, school counselors and mental health supervisors will participate in train-the-trainer programs to train others (e.g., teachers, clinicians).