Institute of Trauma and Victimization

The Institute on Trauma and Victimization (ITV) was founded to create a focus of interest in the area of trauma and victimization and to form a network for collaboration between students and colleagues from both within and outside of the center. The mission of the institute is to stimulate research and sponsor training and service delivery in the field of trauma and victimization, and to develop and evaluate innovative interventions for those exposed to trauma. The activities of the institute include maintaining a colloquium series on trauma and victimization, sponsoring an annual conference on trauma and victimization, establishing links with relevant groups, organizations and colleagues in the local, national, and international community, and involving students in existing CPS trauma- related programs that share a three-fold mission:

1 - Provision of specialized psychological services to a particular population of clients exposed to trauma;

2 - Doctoral level clinical training in the provision of psychological services to that population of traumatized clientele;

3 - Execution of an ongoing program of research on that population of traumatized clientele.

ITV Faculty

Ralph "Gene" Cash, Ph.D., Associate Professor, received his doctorate from New York University. His research interests include school psychology; psychoeducational assessment, diagnosis, and treatment; depression; anxiety disorders; suicide prevention; forensics, including child custody, wrongful death effects, and disabilities; stress management; and psychology and public policy.

Jan Faust, Ph.D., CPS Professor, received her doctorate from the University of Georgia, and is founder and director of the Child and Adolescent Traumatic Stress Program (CATSP) and is co-editor of the Journal of Trauma Practice and of the book Conceptualization and Treatment of Child and Adolescent Psychopathology.

Ana Fins, Ph.D., CPS Associate Professor, received her doctorate from the University of Miami, and has collaborated on research investigating the relationship between sleep and acute PTSD. Dr. Fins' interest focuses on the role that sleep may play in acute and chronic PTSD.

Steven N. Gold, Ph.D., CPS Professor, received his doctorate from Michigan State University, and is founder and director of the Trauma Resolution and Integration Program (TRIP). He is author of the book Not Trauma Alone: Therapy for Child Abuse Survivors in Family and Social Context, and co-editor of the revised edition of the volume Handbook on Sexual Abuse of Children and of the Journal of Trauma Practice. Dr. Gold's clinical and research interests include adult survivors of childhood abuse, delayed recall of abuse, dissociation, and sexual addiction/compulsivity.

Charles Golden, Ph.D., CPS professor, received his doctoral from University of Hawaii and is the founder and director of the Neuropsychology Assessment Center. He has interests in the area of disabled individuals, especially those with brain injury or chronic mental illnesses. His work in this area of trauma is primarily forensic, helping to prosecute abusers and aid in the defense of clients charged with retaliation after abuse.

Helen Orvaschel, Ph.D., CPS Professor, received her doctorate from the Graduate Faculty of the New School for Social Research, and is the author of the epidemiologic version of the Schedule for Affective Disorders for School-Age Children-Version 5 (K-SADS-E), a semi-structured diagnostic interview used internationally with children and adolescents. She has over 80 publications and presentations, primarily in the area of mood disorders and the assessment of psychopathology in youth. Dr. Orvaschel's research background and interests include depression in youth and the affects abuse and trauma.

Scott Poland, Ed.D., CPS Associate Professor, received his doctoral degree from Ball State University. He is internationally known for his work in school crisis and suicide intervention and he is the author of four books and numerous chapters on the subject. He is the chairman of the National Emergency Assistance Team for the National Association of Schools and has
over a decade of national crisis experience serving on teams after tragedies such as Columbine and many other school tragedies.

Vincent Van Hasselt, Ph.D., CPS Professor, received his doctorate from the University of Pittsburgh. He is director of the Family Violence Program (IVP), and co-editor of the Journal of Family Violence. He also has co-edited a number of books, including the Handbook of Family Violence, the Handbook of Psychological Approaches with Violent Offenders. Dr. Van Hasselt's clinical and research interests included domestic and other forms of interpersonal violence, criminal offenders, police psychology, criminal investigative analysis (psychological profiling) and apprehension; interviewing and interrogation techniques, cognitive behavioral interventions with juvenile offenders, behavioral criminology and PTSD and other stress-related disorders.

Lenore Walker, Ed.D., ABPP, CPS Professor, received her doctorate from Rutgers University. She is director of the Domestic Violence Institute, which provides education and training, research and public policy initiatives around the world. She specializes in forensic psychology; expert witness testimony; battered women syndrome; violence against women; family and interpersonal violence; sexual harassment; impact of trauma; post-traumatic stress disorder; feminist theory. Dr. Walker is author of The Battered Woman Syndrome, Abused Women and Survivor Therapy: A Practice Guide for the Psychotherapist, Terrifying Love: Why Battered Women Kill and How Society Responds, and many other books and articles.

ITV Programs

The programs listed below are all specialty clinical programs whithin the CPS Psychology Services Center, a publicly-funded facility administered by CPS that provides mental health services to individuals throughout Greater Fort Lauderdale. Each of these clinical specialty programs has a three-fold mission:
 

1. Provision of specialized psychological services to a particular population of clients exposed to trauma;
2. Doctoral level clinical training in the provision of psychological services to that population of traumatized clientele;
3. Execution of an ongoing program of research on that population of traumatized clientele.

Child and Adolescent Traumatic Stress Program (CATSP), Director - Jan Faust, Ph.D.: serves children and adolescents experiencing acute, chronic, and/or genetic medical disorders exhibiting a psychological reaction directly related to the medical problem; physical symptoms as a function of behavioral and psychological problems; and psychological problems and physical complaints due to trauma such as child abuse.

Family Violence Program (FVP), Director - Vincent Van Hasselt, Ph.D.: serves both victims and perpetrators of domestic violence. FVP provides standardized psychological assessment, crisis intervention, short-term therapy, and longer-term treatment. Intervention procedures address a broad base of individual, couple, and family clinical issues.

Trauma Resolution and Integration Program (TRIP), serves adults age 18 and above who: were sexually, physically, or verbally abused as children or adolescents, and are currently experiencing problems in functioning as a result of the abuse; are experiencing dissociative phenomena that are disturbing to them or are interfering with their ability to function effectively; or have experienced a traumatic event such as rape, physical assault, or a life threatening accident or injury that is creating ongoing distress that interferes with day to day functioning. A combination of individual psychotherapy and participation in coping skills training groups form the core of the treatment package provided by TRIP.