And the clinic continues to innovate. Two years ago, the clinic’s partners —Marquette’s College of Education and Penfield Children’s Center — began piloting schoolbased interventions through a new clinic in the Penfield Montessori Academy on Milwaukee’s Near West Side. Offering trauma-informed treatment for students and their families, the school clinic provides therapies ranging from mindfulness exercises and yoga to multitiered programs that include weekly home visits and parenting guidance. It also expands opportunities to train graduate students in the program’s treatment methods, says Dr. Alan Burkard, chair and professor of counselor education and counseling psychology, and the Behavior Clinic’s consulting psychologist. Piloted with two-year funding from the Argosy Foundation, Zilber Family Foundation and Bader Philanthropies, the elementary school clinic has ushered in broader ways of serving children and families, including small group sessions tailored to children dealing with challenges such as an incarcerated parent or the loss of a loved one. Screening
“indicates that about 70 percent of students at the school show some exposure to trauma,” says Burkard, significantly higher than in a typical school. Approximately 10 percent of academy students now receive in-home trauma treatment. A final goal of the new clinic is furthering research on trauma impacts and program efficacy. “We conduct evaluations of the activities and classroom lessons, focusing on determining whether students are gaining the knowledge and the abilities we want them to gain,” explains Burkard. For example, the classrooms contain “zones of regulation” in which students use color to match their emotions and communicate them to teachers. Measuring how much children use these tools, clinicians determine how to revisit these strategies. The team aims to learn more about the parents of these students. “The mental health of parents is a huge issue. We see it daily,” says Burkard. “We’re just starting to look at how to measure it and how we might incorporate it into our treatment. Based on anecdotal information, we’re pretty certain that parent mental health — and parent trauma history, in particular — has a huge impact on treatment outcomes. It seems obvious, but it doesn’t appear that there’s a lot of research in that area.” JENNIFER ANDERSON
research in brief
Chair and Professor, Counselor Education and Counseling Psychology
Under founder Dr. Robert Fox, now an emeritus professor of counselor education and counseling psychology, the Behavior Clinic established an influential home-based treatment model for children with serious behavior problems, including those whose tantrums, nightmares and other issues stem from traumas they’ve experienced but can’t yet understand.
Dr. Alan Burkard
After years of advances in treating child behavior problems, the Behavior Clinic pilots care in a new setting.
RESEARCHER
Trauma-informed treatment goes to school
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