Today’s blog is dedicated to the men and women who’ve devoted themselves to hope in the judicial system. In their honor, check out this wonderful upcoming film, featuring our own beloved judge!
Why Justice Matters to Future Generations
Hushed whispers accompanied the shuffle of a chained man dressed in an orange jump suit. Quietly, the friend sitting next to me, a frequent guest of the court, explained the man was appealing the court over the custody of his children. Apparently, this time, he asked for his 90 year-old great grandmother to receive custody. In fact, the court had systematically removed the kids from his mom, and his grandmother, each proving unfit for care after his arrest. With such cases clogging our courts and breaking our hearts, Trauma Informed Care increasingly finds proponents.
Of course, if you’ve ever spent a day in family court as an observer, you know it’s bewildering. Now, after serving twenty years as a family court judge, Carole Clark takes on the system. With a powerful insider’s perspective, what’s the judge’s passion? Trauma Informed Care. So, what is Trauma Informed Care and how is it helping?
Trauma Informed Care Research
It all began with a chance encounter with Dr. Karyn Purvis, a pioneer in attachment theory and Trust-based Behavioral Intervention. Based on research accumulated by Purvis and her team at TCU, Texas Christian University, the data suggested a serious disconnection for children adopted from eastern European orphanages into loving, American homes.
At that time, a pattern emerged of behaviors, including rage and lashing out, overwhelming adoptive parents. Subsequently, the pattern of symptoms indicated a trust-based approach offered comfort to children. Significantly, according to Judge Carole, there’s a big difference between behavior modification vs. correction.
For instance, while behavioral modification is an urgent need every day in courts across America, the real goal ought to be healing broken hearts. (For more great interviews on how to create healthy companionship in families, sign up for our weekly blog, here.)
All Rise for Justice, Trauma Informed Care with Judge Carol Clark
CPS Worker to Judge: Trauma Informed Care with Judge Carol Clark
Impressive Results with Trauma Informed Care Training
Throughout the legal process in east Texas, officials from CPS to nonprofits, attorneys and judges, all have the opportunity to receive Trauma Informed Care training. As a result, Smith County’s numbers are impressive.
“Seventy-six percent of the children (based on the most recent numbers) who came into the care of the state in Smith County were returned to their families,” she says, “We know children are best off with their families. The state average is about 30 to 40%.” (For more on how to handle the trauma when your child is arrested, click here.)
Naturally, Judge Carole’s contacts included all aspect of the legal and justice system, from mental health care providers, service providers, CPS workers, and fellow judges to attorneys and law-makers. However, like Judge Carole, many were frustrated. Sadly, no one seemed to know what to do to make it better. Until her chance encounter with Dr. Purvis, no one seemed to have answers.
Intervention Miracle
While in Austin, Judge Carole met Dr. Purvis by chance in the cafeteria of the capitol building. Purvis was there to testify as an expert before a committee. Judge Carole was there to appeal for changes in the legal code, a task that turned out to be incredibly daunting.
“But the good thing that happened while I was in Austin, (I really feel like God led me there) was I met Karyn,” says Judge Carole.
“I’m a research psychologist at the Institute of Child Development at TCU, ” Purvis said. The two women connected over lunch and their mutual love of TCU. A life-long friendship began on the spot. Their chance meeting led to a whole new set of options for Judge Carole’s courtroom. Soon, they began collaborating to help families get unstuck from the justice system.
“I’m one of those people who doesn’t believe in coincidences. I believe it’s God acting,” adds the judge. (Click here to receive more great stories of God at work in our lives.)
Developing a Plan
Once home, Judge Carole received her next issue of TCU’s alumni magazine. Serendipitously, Dr. Purvis graced the front cover. The article explained the symptoms adoptive children often experience.
Instantly, Judge Carole recognized the symptoms of attachment disorders. She saw them every day in her courtroom. Next, she invited Purvis to come and explain the research to colleagues in Smith County. Initially, Purvis came to Tyler to do a noon training. Judge Carole recruited anyone she could persuade to come, including attorneys, CPS case workers, and fellow judges.
“She really interested us in her research, which was about attachment. How children are bonded to their parents or not bonded. How the problems with that create some of the very bewildering behaviors, the very aggressive behaviors that we were seeing,” she says.
A Whole New Meaning for Trail and Error
In the course of the next ten years, the court worked closely with the TCU team. Together they worked to understand the issues facing the court, developing effective strategies and treatments. Over time, Purvis’s team developed training specifically for Judge Carole’s court.
Together, they innovated new ways of attacking the problem of recidivism in the court. Collectively, they found new ways to coordinate many moving parts. In one small example, generous donations to an existing 501-3c allowed the court to send people to training. Soon, with dozens of people trained throughout the system. Before long, positive results began to develop. Consequently, each effective strategy suggested the next one, as solutions unfolded.
“Over the years, she would suggest things for us to do,” says Judge Carole. Miraculously, Purvis’s research, leadership, and mentoring, began to impact not only Judge Carole’s court, but beyond as well.
Connecting Children with Safe Families
Then, in 2007, Dr. Purvis’s best-selling book, The Connected Child, hit the shelves, offering strategies for parents in adoptive families. (For more creative ways to create life-long companionship with your children, click here.)
“The Connected Child is about good ways to parent. She (Purvis) developed it as a way to help parents with these adoptive children who were having such aggressive behaviors,” Judge Carole says, adding that it’s good for all families “because it’s a way to discipline that builds relationships with the parents.”
Traumatized: a Family Heritage of Addiction
“The parents, I found, were hurting as much as the children, but it was coming out as addictions 99% of the time,” Judge Carole says. For Smith County’s team, Purvis connected the dots about how addictions develop and enter into the equation of family dynamics. Since the evidence stood in her courtroom every day, Judge Carole got it.
“The American family has been in crisis for a long time. But now we’re seeing multi-generational crisis. We have grandparents raised in crisis in their home; now they’ve raised their children the same,” she says, “I saw grandparents who were on meth, which is the primary drug in East Texas.”
From the Meadows Report
With so much pain in families, what’s the answer to make it better? In the Texas State of Mind, Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute for Texas, Trauma-Informed Care Final Report, dated July 26, 2017, summarizes Smith County’s Family Court methodology this way:
“Judge Clark and her team recognize the impact of trauma on brain development and how it affects children and their parents. They view the family as the client and aim to provide a safe and predictable environment in the courtroom. They view attachment and trust as critical to having positive relationships with children and their families.
To make complete treatment plan and achieving reunification less overwhelming for families, the Court has modified its treatment plan into three phases. Phase 1 addresses safety, including drug treatment. Phase 2 addresses risk factors and includes a psychological assessment and enrollment in services and supports such as EMDR, trauma-informed therapy, Trauma Group, Circle of Security, parenting groups, and AA.”
All phases are important, but the final phase addresses accountability. The monitoring confirms the strategies are working.
“Phase 3 is monitored return, during which the court provides in-home services and supports to parents to help them manage children’s behaviors when they return home. The program tries to ensure bonding between infants and their mothers through increased visitations.” Click here to read the full report.
Why Trauma Matters to All of Us
Courts throughout our country are struggling for justice to help families and groaning under the pressure of recidivism. Sadly, kids are the victims. Additionally, some of these patterns are repeating themselves throughout two or even three generations of the same families. It seems, once a family break down happens, the suffering is passed to the next generation.
Our country struggles under the weight of a justice system that is just recycling the same people without recourse. People who’ve been through the system feel like they can’t get justice and resentment builds.
“It all goes back to the original family, the chaos in the family, the trauma that people experience in their childhood. It changes your DNA, we were taught, due to the chemicals in your brain,” Judge Carole says, “So, we’re passing on the tendency to be addicts and abusive and neglectful, all those things.”
Fortunately, they discovered with better understanding of the family dynamics of attachment, they could create plans to prompt real change in families.
Hope and Healing for Families
In order to help families, Judge Carole says it’s important to know what trauma is. Since trauma occurs in multitudes of situations, it can be hard to pinpoint initially. (For stories from real-life heroes who’ve overcome trauma, check out our podcasts at Fireside Talk Radio.)
“We’re not talking about something simple,” she says. Children grow into adult who still struggle with unaddressed issues from childhood trauma. Still, no matter how complex the cause, the symptoms jump out to anyone with training.
For those with traumatic backgrounds, addictions emerge. They often try to self-medicate with drugs and alcohol. Behaviors include explosive and sometimes criminal actions. Unmitigated anger surfaces. (Especially if you have a family member threatening suicide, there is comfort. Please find out interviews with Doug McSwane and his daughter, Marcie, here.)
“Knowing what I know now, I could look at any case, even a divorce where mom and dad are fighting over the children,” she explains, “I could see their own history and how they were passing it on to their children.” Yet, the legal system’s tools give the court the power to make a difference in the lives of family members.
Long-term Justice Means Healing Families
“Many people touch the lives of children and youth who are involved in the child welfare system. These include judges, lawyers, child protective service (CPS) workers, Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASAs), mental health and primary care providers, biological parents, relatives, and foster parents, according to the Meadows Report, “These individuals need to understand what trauma is, recognize signs and symptoms, know how to treat it, and create opportunities for children and youth who have experienced trauma to feel safe and empowered.” Click here to read the full report.
“Through that journey we really did learn how to make a difference, the whole group,” Judge Carole says, “My group really bonded together and everybody did their job, but we did it from a perspective of ‘Let’s heal this family. Let’s heal the trauma and get them back on the road to where they need to be.’” (For more on how to respond when your child is arrested, click here.)
The Judge Rules
When Judge Carole retired from the bench recently, East Texans came together in her honor to create the Judge Carole Clark Trauma-Informed Training Fund through the East Texas Communities Foundation. In her honor, east Texans contributed over $50,000 that night.
“I was stunned. I almost fell off the stage,” laughs Judge Carole about the moment when they surprised her with the giant cardboard check. (To make a donation to the Judge Carole Clark Trauma-Informed Training Fund at the ETCF, click here.)
The Fund allows Judge Carole and the rest of the team to take this ground-breaking work to the next phase. Passionately, she spreads the news of hope for families caught in the justice system due to child neglect. Eagerly, she helps courts throughout the U.S. get training for their people. Results in her own courtroom inform her passion.
May I pray with you?
Dear Father, thank you for the years of work and research going into Trauma Informed Care. Thank you for the families restored due to the compassion and help this perspective entails. Bless those engaged in providing justice in our nation. Please, Father, let this message go out to equip those in the courts across America. Have mercy on families, and especially children, Lord. We ask for freedom from the bondage of multi-generational trauma and spiritual attack. In Jesus’s name. Amen.
We love to hear from you!
How have you witnessed God working in the court system? How is your church encouraging those who have experienced incarceration? What activities foster community in your neighborhood? (It means so much to us when you leave comments below in our comment box! Thank you!!)
More Ways to Create Healthy Companionship
At Camp Krafve, we strongly support all efforts to create companionship in our families and communities. Just for you, Anna Krafve Pierce offers lots more easy ideas about spending time with creative kids, here. Also, if you’ve ever struggled to write a stack of thank you notes, watch for our “Foolproof Thank You Notes” cheatsheet, which will be available soon! Sign up for our weekly blog, here.
More Stories and Wisdom to Bless Our Hearts
If you, too, embrace justice and compassion in our communities, we want to encourage you! Joyfully, we’ve interviewed experts. Don’t miss their stories and wisdom, shared just for you on Fireside Talk Radio: Doug Mcswane, Marcie McSwane, Lori Boruff, Ben Scaicca, Tina Meier, and Colleen Long, to name a just a few of our favorite heroic people! Don’t forget, Anna is returning soon for more creative fun with kiddos. Or, you can sign up for our blog by clicking here (and we sure hope you do!!!)
Cathy Krafve, host of Fireside Talk Radio, Speaker, Blogger, Podcaster, and Christian Communicator, invites your stories, ideas, and questions at CathyKrafve.com. Truth with a Texas Twang spoken here!
Trackbacks/Pingbacks