Children, Trauma and the Legal System Phoebe Mulligan, LICSW Clinical Program Director HopeSparks Family Services (Pierce County)

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

[email protected]