Tuesday, June 15, 2010

June Reflection

I am extremely happy with the initial start and success of Forgotten Voices. Starting in May, I researched extensively for 3 weeks. I delved further into the study of domestic violence, especially its effects pertaining to children. Of particular note, I completed a Child and Domestic Violence Training Series through the Center for Child and Family Health. Lastly, I investigated the newest, empirical treatment methods: Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (Cohen, Mannarino, & Deblinger, 2006), Group Treatment for Children Who Witness Woman Abuse (Loosley, Bentley, Lehman, Marshall, Rabenstein, & Sudermann, 1997), Structured Psychotherapy for Adolescents Responding to Chronic Stress (DeRosa, Habib, Pelcovitz, Rathus, Sonnenklar, Ford, et al., 2006), and Alternatives for Families: A Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (Kolko, 2002). Components of these methods have been incorporated into our new coping skills program: Forgotten Voices.

To be honest, the biggest challenge for me has been to not overstep my boundaries. I am NOT a trained clinician. And this is NOT a therapy group. Forgotten Voices is a coping skills group, that untrained clinician can facilitate to children experiencing times of transition and change (ex. domestic violence, transitional housing, etc). Thankfully, I have a wonderful support group through Ardith Burkes (Community Mentor), Bob Pleasants (Faculty Mentor), and Nicole Heilbron (UNC Clinical Psychology), who have all helped me to understand my limits. This collaboration has resulted in the creation of a new program (Forgotten Voices), which utilizes empirically supported treatment program components, for untrained clinicians to administer. This work has definitely further fueled my desire to become a therapist, further reinforcing that this line of work is my life calling.

Having completed the pre-group interviews with both moms and children and Session 1, my biggest surprise has been the overwhelming amount of support and participation, we have received from both the mothers and the children. I have facilitated 4 coping skills groups in the past. This group, by far, possesses the most engaged mothers. To be fair, we have changed components of the program, strongly emphasizing communication between facilitators and mothers. However, even with this new focus, I have been pleasantly surprised by the overwhelming interest these mothers have taken. I truly hope that the enthusiasm continues throughout the program's development.

In general, the scope of the program has changed slightly. Initially, I had thought that from the very beginning I would be advertising at schools and local agencies in order to recruit children. However, the Family Violence Prevention Center and I decided that instead it would first be better to focus on creating a sustainable and well-researched program. Second, we would test it at a familiar location which we have worked with in the past. Last, we will conduct more recruiting, especially with DSS (Department of Social Services), at the end of the summer, once we have the results from the success of our group (pre and post evaluation measures are being conducted) and a solid program created and finalized.

Overall, Forgotten Voices has been a success. I am extremely happy with the progress made thus far. I look forward to seeing how the rest of the summer progresses, ready to tackle new challenges and embrace pleasant surprises.

Session 1: Introduction to Group

This week, we completed our first successful group session. This first session serves as a basic overview of the program, enabling the children to understand the goals and expectations of group. All of the children seemed very excited to be there, fully participating throughout the session. They all directly expressed that they believed that the group was a good idea, that they felt there was a need to have this group, and that they wanted to participate in the group.

The main goal of our first group was to teach the children that "Violence is Never Okay." We talked about how we live in an extremely violent world, creating a collage from newspaper images to illustrate this point, and that "No person deserves to live in a world like this." We ended by talking about respect for others and self-respect. The children all gave examples about how they would show respect either to others or their selves this week. Candy was awarded for participation.

All of the children expressed desire to come back next week. We are off to a successful start! Hopefully, things will only continue to get better.

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Pre-Group Interviews

The group is finally beginning. All of the hard work and research as culminated into a wonderful final project, ready to be served to the general public! Yesterday, we began our pre-group interview for the children's coping skills group, which will officially begin next week at a transitional housing facility for women and children in Chapel Hill. Given that Orange County does not have a shelter for battered women and their children, a fact that desperately needs to be changed, many of the women in this facility come from domestic violence settings.

The pre-group interviews went wonderful, better than I ever could have expected and/or hoped for. Stephanie and I began by conducting a brief introduction with the mothers. We explained the overview of the program, highlighting new changes to the curriculum. We also emphasized our commitment to working one-on-one with the mothers. We strongly believe that a lack of communication/relationship between facilitators and mothers was a major fault of the last group which we led here in the spring of 2010. Thus, Forgotten Voices emphasizes open dialogue, respect, and trust among facilitators, mothers, and children. We are all working for the same goal: present and future success and happiness for these children. In order to accomplish this objective, it is vital to all work together.

After the introduction, Stephanie and I interviewed each mom along with her child. After this interview, moms completed a brief child history form and the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. This last assessment tool will be compared with a followup version at the end of the group. The results will be used to help evaluate the success and effectiveness of the group.

Currently, we are working with 4 families, with a total of 7 children. Two to three more families are projected to move into the facility this week. If any of the new families include children between the ages of 4 to 11, they will also be included in the group. Stephanie and I will conduct their pre-group interviews at a designated time this weekend, prior to the first group session next week.