The Trauma Based Behavioral Health Fellowship training program is for Social Work and Rehab Counseling Master’s Students in their final year of study. This is a didactic and experiential clinical platform that focuses on Trauma-Informed Practices, building integrated Trauma-Informed Systems of Care, learning assessment measures for clients who may have experienced Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES), designing evidence-based treatment plans for clients and providing those services which help to reduce behavioral health and medical suffering, therefore increasing the health, well-being, happiness and productivity of the clients we serve.
The didactic training is delivered by community-based professionals working in their area of expertise, providing real-life experience and case scenarios to assist the student in understanding and in practice, to deliver behavioral health services within a team model.
The 29 half-day training modules impart to students on how trauma transforms the microstructure of an individual’s brain, the behavioral manifestations of trauma introduces students to trauma-based cognitive behavioral therapy, trauma-informed medical aspects of child maltreatment, how to increase family involvement in trauma-focused family therapy, working in multidisciplinary teams including medical, behavioral health and legal, the trauma-related orientation of the Diagnostic Statistical Manual (DSM) recent 5th edition, group treatment approaches, addiction, play therapy, parent-child interaction therapy and clinical outcome based documentations.
The experiential training is done with the students’ field experience within their graduate program. Each Trauma Fellow is placed in a clinical site which allows the student to practice the interventions learned in the didactic training in working with clients who may have experienced trauma. The field hours count toward the students’ hours cumulatively for their graduate program.
Group Supervision sessions are held two times during the tenure of the Fellow. Each group supervision session is led by a professional working within the community. Here the student can check-in, discuss self-care, challenges with cases, present a case study, celebrate victories and voice any concerns. Individual supervision sessions are done with each Fellow to ensure that the practice is done with fidelity.
Accepted Students
Students who are accepted to the Trauma Based Behavioral Health Fellowship sequence will first meet the criteria and be accepted to enter the Masters of Social Work or the Masters of Rehabilitation Counseling program.
Students accepted into the Masters of Social Work or Rehabilitation Counseling program who are interested in working with clients will be specially screened before admission. Students need to sign a contract committing to attending the training sessions (a draft of the agreement is attached). Students with a minimum GPA of 3.0 and higher will be preferred for admission; special consideration will be given if they have previous baccalaureate work experience
Student Support
Student support includes the financial support of $10,000/year as well as academic guidance, supervision and social support.
The Trauma Based Clinical Treatment training modules are designed to accelerate the student’s learning of the clinical aspects of trauma-based interventions; including the basic building blocks for deeper understanding and ability to use in clinical practice. Built on a graduated framework for learning, these courses are taught by a multi-professional team comprised of medical doctors, clinical psychologists, medical social workers, licensed clinical social workers and addictions specialists. This integrated team has over 100 years of clinical experience combined and will instruct the Fellows collaboratively.