June 2013
The Voice
C A S A O F T R A V I S C O U N T Y, I N C .
CASA recommends unique forms of therapy to help children heal
Judges often count on CASA volunteers to make creative, innovative recommendations on behalf of children who’ve been abused or neglected. Some of these recommendations include unique forms of therapy to help children heal when they aren’t responding positively to traditional forms of therapy.
Equine or horse therapy is another unique treatment that CASA volunteers may recommend for children, and we have worked with great organizations like Spirit Reins and Therapy Works to make sure our children can get access to these helpful services. CASA recently advocated for a teen girl to go to horse therapy because she was having a difficult time building rapport with her current therapist. Animal therapy in general is helpful for children who are hesitant to build relationships or communicate with adults. The horse helps the therapist build a relationship with the child in a brief amount of time versus what could take months in talk therapy, and it helped this teen to advance in her healing. The horse can also become something the children can identify with in their healing process. Another young woman whose parents turned her over to CPS strongly identified with a horse that had been taken away from its mother just as she had been separated from hers. Advocating for these specialized forms of therapy is an important role for CASA volunteers when it comes to helping children who’ve experienced abuse or neglect to heal. You can read more on this subject on the following page in our Being Trauma Informed article.
So far in 2013, CASA of Travis County has:
237 new children Closed cases for 227 children Advocated for 1,172 children with 439 volunteer advocates Served
Meet our newly sworn-in CASA volunteers! Lissa Adams Fannie Akingbala Waylon Allen Leti Alvarez Jessica Arnobit Melanie Babbitt Martina Bluem Jeanette Brinegar Adeline Brown Wendy Calderon Laura Ceglio Laura Cervantes Veronica Chambers Kelly Childers
Quincy Cooper June Crain Sarah Crockett Robin DePalma Meghan Dougherty Stacey Drown Ashley Eddleman Uli Fail Nora Fitzgerald Audrey French Tamara Friedman Jessica Gonzales Flora Gray Tara Green
Elizabeth Guleke Peggy Hanna Wanda Hayes Laura Hernandez Tera Highbarger Erin Hornung Tara Hughes-Womack Rebecca Hyde Rose Jeans Melinda Jones Amanda Joseph Iben Kadri Janet Kirk Anne Kleinert
Christy Langenberg Laura Lansing Lisa Lopez-Gooding Richard Mattingly William Mazurek Meghan McCamant Glaucia Milanez Mary Palombi David Ray Paula Reckson Naomi Richard Vanessa Rollerson Lauren Smith Ana Smith-Daley
Jennifer Stanovich Lynn Surrette Bree Taylor Nikki Teage-O’Connor Judy Thomas Tami Thomas Margarita Trembath Tom Upton Dana Vance Angelica Vega Lucy Velazquez Libby Weedman Mary Elen Williams Richard Wright
w w w. c a s a t r a v i s . o r g
As a young boy, Seth’s mom had been physically abusive with him, and he had witnessed domestic violence in his home before he came into the care of Child Protective Services (CPS). He displayed a lot of aggression, was angry with his mother for what he had gone through and was closed off to the idea of a new adoptive mother. CASA recommended play therapy as a way to help Seth work on being more open to the idea of adoption and having a new mother. During play therapy, Seth’s therapist let him lead what they were doing and express what he was feeling through the toys he played with. He often played with a family set of dolls and a house, yet he would always leave the mom doll in a box with the lid closed and keep this box far from the house where he was playing with the rest of the dolls. Through his play therapy, over time he began to leave the lid off, then let the mom doll out of the box. He began moving her closer and closer to the house until he finally allowed the mom doll into the house with the rest of his doll family as he progressed towards accepting a possible adoptive family, and with that, maybe even a new mom.