Children Exposed to Violence Program

The Children Exposed to Violence (CEV) program addresses childhood trauma and provides evidence-based interventions to assist children in their healing journey. The specialized program serves children under the age of 18 that have witnessed domestic violence and/or been sexually assaulted. Services include evidence-based trauma outpatient therapy with licensed therapists, non-offending parent education, court advocacy, and case management services.

Therapy Services

• Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR)
• Trauma-focused Cognitive Behavior Therapy (TF-CBT)
• Trust-Based Relational Interventions (TBRI)
• Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT)
• Expressive and Play-based therapy
• Animal Assisted Psychotherapy

Outpatient treatment will start with an initial intake session. At this initial session, history of trauma and mental health symptoms will be assessed, and an individualized treatment plan will be developed in conjunction with child, non-offending parent/caregiver and their community service team. The individualized treatment plan will determine needs and services to best to support and assist the child in healing from their exposure to violence.

Training Services

The CEV program offers no-cost training to professionals and community members on the following topics:

• Domestic Violence: Signs and Symptoms in Children
• Toxic Stress: Impact on children’s development
• Trauma Interventions for the Classroom environment
• Responding to Children in Trauma-Basics of a trauma-informed approach
• Animal Assisted Psychotherapy
• Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES)
• Trust-Based Relational Interventions (TBRI)
• Evidence-based therapy treatment overview

Please call for individual requests or for other training topics.

All Services and training are provided free of charge and are funded through a combination of community, state, and federal grants and private donations to the program.

To make a Referral or request a training, please call the office at 828-452-2122 and ask for Children Exposed to Violence Staff to schedule.