Strengthening People and Families

Families First Counseling & Psychiatry

Violence leads to trauma. Unhealed trauma can lead to recurring violence against oneself and others. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Individuals and communities can learn skills for addressing trauma, healing relationships, and building resilience which improves the well-being of all.

FFCP offers trauma training to clinicians and educators. Individuals who complete all 5 courses are eligible to sit for an examination and receive STARR certification.

FFCP Trauma Training Program

Each trauma training course is eligible for 5 continuing education credits and there are options for completing all courses or specific ones. FFCP Maryland offers the following courses:

Children of Trauma and Resilience

Children of Trauma and Resilience introduces participants to a trauma informed and resilience focused mindset and teaches participants about toxic stress and trauma, how to help process those experiences and how to foster and nurture characteristics of resilience. This course begins with a strong focus on resilience and includes an exploration of how core values and beliefs direct the way professionals work with children. The four universal needs of all human beings as explained by the Circle of Courage model including belonging, mastery, independence and generosity are explained and discussed. Participants learn about the experience of trauma as one that impacts a person’s body and are shown a demonstration of trauma’s impact on the brain. Participants learn the importance of sensory-based interventions and how to assess a child’s private logic and universal needs. Finally, participants practice the development of trauma informed and resilience focused support plans for youth.

Structured Sensory Interventions

Participants learn about the SITCAP model (Structured Sensory Interventions for Traumatized Children, Adolescents and Parents) and practice sensory based interventions from a variety of SITCAP model programs including Healing the Experience of Trauma: A Path to Resilience. Experiential activities and the presentation of case examples showcase how to process trauma, nurture and restore resilience in youth of all ages.

Trauma Informed Resilient Schools

Trauma-Informed Resilient Schools teaches school professionals and clinicians how to create trauma-informed schools and classrooms. The training focuses on resilience, exploring the core values and beliefs of educators and places an emphasis on understanding how trauma impacts children and their school experience. Lastly, proactive strategies such as fostering connections, prioritizing social and emotional skills, establishing safety, and promoting play are presented. This course provides detailed information and concrete actions that answer not just the “why” but also the “how” to create the best classroom and school supports for traumatized students and the school professionals who serve them.

Resetting for Resilience

This course builds upon Trauma Informed Resilient Schools. There is a strong focus on understanding the link between private logic and deficits in the Circle of Courage’s universal needs with student academic achievement and behavior. Participants will learn how to integrate positive behavior intervention supports, rewards, and consequences into their classroom management systems. Participants will learn how to assess students and create behavior support plans for students. Trauma informed, resilience focused student and classroom scenarios will be presented and discussed in small groups. Tier 2 and Tier 3 interventions are discussed. Strategies to collaborate with families and communities and to support staff will be presented. Examples of how to collect and utilize outcome data will be shared.

Healing Trauma and Restoring Resiliency

FFCP Trauma Instructors

Please meet our Trauma Instructors.

Leah McGown, LCPC

Leah McGown is a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor, an Advanced Certified Trauma Practitioner, and a certified trauma trainer. She has experience providing school-based group and individual therapy services in Baltimore City schools. She also has 6 years of experience working as an off-site therapist, conducting individual and family therapy services in home, community, office, and school-based settings. Additionally, Leah assists others in expanding their knowledge and providing trauma informed care to youth as she conducts regular trauma trainings to clinicians and educators.

Emily Latimer, MSW

Emily Latimer was born and raised in Howard County, MD and loved her experience in Maryland public schools. She went to Radford University to pursue a Bachelors in Psychology, and then returned to Maryland to complete her Masters in Social Work at the University of Maryland Baltimore. Emily Latimer started her career working with juveniles awaiting trial as adults in Baltimore City and provided GRE prep upon their release. She worked in homes providing therapeutic support services in Baltimore before working with survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault in Howard County. Emily then continued to provide community based therapy for children, teenagers, adults, and families in Prince George’s, Montgomery, and Howard County through court ordered programs as well as through Medicaid accepting outpatient clinics. Partnering with schools, mentor programs, DJS, Emily has gained a holistic view of how kids and families operate in and respond to their environments. It was seeing clients respond to trauma, whether that trauma took the form of single incidents or simply prolonged exposure to stress, that drove her to pursue a Trauma Informed certification from STARR. Being able to better understand her own clients as well as to teach others about the opportunities for work and growth sparked a desire for Emily to become a trainer and partner with therapists, parents, schools, DJS, DSS, and all those that have a significant impact on children, teenagers, and families, so that all the systems in children’s lives can work together to promote growth and healing.

Our Founder

Dr. Todd R. Christiansen, MD, is a psychiatry specialist. He attended and graduated from the Medical College of Wisconsin in 2000.

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About FFCP Maryland

FFCP Maryland is an outpatient mental health clinic (OMHC) providing behavioral health services for children, adolescents, and adults in Maryland.

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Employment

FFCP is actively hiring licensed Off-Site Therapists in Montgomery County, Prince George’s County, Baltimore County, Baltimore City, and Howard County.

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