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

pmulligan@hopesparks.org