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Children, Trauma and the Legal
SystemPhoebe Mulligan, LICSW
Clinical Program Director
HopeSparks Family Services (Pierce County)
Goals for Today
• Provide background on trauma treatment
• Identify ways that the legal system influences the impact of trauma on children (in criminal and family court)
• Discuss possible changes that can increase the support of children interacting with the system
Trauma Treatment for Children
• Evidence-based practice: Trauma-focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
• Core components• Psycho-education
• Affect regulation
• Exposure (imaginal and/or in-vivo)
• Cognitive restructuring
What does “recovering” mean?
• Does not mean forgetting about what happened.
• Recovering from trauma means a decrease in distress related to the memory, healthy beliefs about the event, and a decrease in avoidance/fear of non-dangerous trauma related cues.
• Children will and should still be afraid of a person who hurt them.
Children in Court
• Why is it challenging?• Facing the person who hurt them and has always had all the
power
• Lack of understanding due to development
• Everyone around is an adult (judges, attorneys, etc.)
• Negative responses from adults
Strengths of the Legal System
• Therapy does not prevent future trauma. The legal system does.
• Holds people accountable for their actions.
• Court programs already established to help children/families.
• Once we understand it, we know how to work with it.
Challenges of the Needs of the Legal System
• Disclosure is a process – for everyone, in every situation.• Expectation of full disclosure at original interview
• Trauma narratives are not interviews; they are the child’s memory of what occurred and their thoughts and feelings related to it.
• Most therapists are terrified of testifying.
• Therapy does not take as long as the legal system, which means that with a good therapist, they will look much better by the time they take the stand.
• Visits with the alleged perpetrator.
Opportunities for System Integration
• Engage with each other and understand the process of different systems.
• Criminal Court: Implementing programs (such as “kids court”) to help children learn the process before they are on the stand.
• Family Court: children should only decrease fear of an adult perpetrator if the adult has made actual meaningful change and communicated that to the child appropriately.• Clarification, reunification, parent training programs.
Cont’d
• Ordering treatment:• Services for parents (psych eval, therapy, drug and alcohol
services, parent training programs)
• Services for children (trauma therapy, etc.)
• Services for families (clarification, reunification)
Questions??
Contact Info
Phoebe Mulligan, LICSW
Clinical Program Director, HopeSparks Family Services
253.565.4484