All Star Children’s Foundation Appoints Team for Outpatient Treatment Center

All-Star Children’s Foundation has appointed four clinical professionals with expertise in childhood trauma to staff its outpatient treatment services. Since starting its outpatient clinical program on April 1, All Star has received 92 referrals for children needing trauma therapy. All Star’s three clinical counselors and its clinical director currently work at All Star’s temporary offices in Sarasota until the state-of-the-art clinical building opens in October. The organization plans to hire two more clinicians in 2019 and two in 2020.

Graci McGillicuddy, All Star Children’s Foundation’s board chair, said that the community’s overwhelming need and funders’ support empowered the decision to offer outpatient treatment before the campus is completed.

“Our team is already working with many children involved in child welfare cases,” says McGillicuddy. “The referrals we receive come from ​case managers, diversion counselors, child protective investigators, and foster parents.” She adds that All Star’s clinical counselors have received specialized training to work with children and families who have experienced trauma. Clinicians are trained in several evidenced-based treatment protocols, including PCIT, CPP, TF-CBT and ARC.

Lucia Branton, All Star’s executive director, explains that the clinical team has already found success by engaging foster and biological parents into the therapeutic process with children. “After working with our specially-trained therapists, children and their caregivers are feeling empowered to open up about the root cause of their issues and challenges. It takes a level of trust for this to happen, but it’s a critical component of what All Star is based on—trauma therapy and creating a psychologically safe environment that will foster healing.”

The clinical team is headed up by Kimberly Treharne, LMHC, director. Counselors include Dawn Affeldt, LMHC, Samantha Ericson, LMHC, and Bailey A. Jackson, MSW.

According to McGillicuddy, All Star has implemented an unprecedented, trauma-informed program that delivers the latest evidence-based protocols and treatments for foster children and their biological families. Partnering with leaders across the child welfare system, the non-profit organization has tapped best-in-class partners to assist in their mission. Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital (JHACH) is providing critical clinical consultation, as well as serving as the lead research entity.

“When our campus opens, we’ll provide children who have been abused, when first removed from their homes, a nurturing, family-style home environment and comprehensive, trauma-sensitive treatment,” says McGillicuddy. “We’ll keep siblings together and offer them a full range of innovative services, informed by the latest findings in brain science.”

All Star is currently seeking six couples to become foster parents in six single-family homes on its new campus. Interested applicants should contact Lindsey May, ASCF’s program director, at 941-217-6503.