The Children (and Families) Healing After Trauma (CHAT) clinic is an outpatient specialty clinic at the Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology of Rutgers University. Formerly, the Foster Care Counseling Project (FCCP), this clinic has provided mental health support for children in resource and relative care for over 30 years. Through a SAMHSA grant with the National Center for Traumatic Stress, CHAT will expand and provide clinical services to children impacted by trauma.
We serve youth ages 3 to 21 years old and their families referred from New Jersey Division of Child Protection and Permanency (DCP&P), local schools, mental health partners, and general community referrals from surrounding Rutgers University.
Our Mission
Our mission is to support children and families impacted by trauma to rebuild their identity, establish a sense of safety and foster positive relationships with others. Using a multi-systemic, collaborative treatment approach, we hope to give each individual that has faced complex trauma an opportunity to process their experiences and look toward the future with hope.
Services Provided
- Evidence-based Trauma-Focused individual and family therapy
- Group therapy
- Training/consultation for caregivers, caseworkers and other service providers
- Mentorship for children and adolescents when clinically appropriate
- Transportation for qualifying DCP&P involved families.
History
The CHAT Clinic evolved from the Foster Care Counseling Project beginning in 1989, when it was founded by David Brodzinsky, Ph.D., an internationally recognized expert in the areas of foster care and adoption. At the time of the Project’s founding, foster care and adoption were primarily the purview of the field of social work and few psychologists were involved with the provision of specialized services for individuals impacted by trauma. CHAT has refined its focus and services as a specialty clinic to serve youth ages 3 to 21 that are impacted by trauma and represent a lower socioeconomic demographic group of families in need of low or no-cost services.