Attachment Proposal: The Children's Center

The Children’s Center is a private, not-for-profit mental health clinic located in downtown Salt Lake City, Utah. Their mission is to provide “comprehensive mental health care to enhance the emotional well-being of infants, toddlers, preschoolers, and their families.” They provide affordable services and subsidize families in need with charitable funds. It is the largest agency of its kind and provides care to over 2,000 families a year, helping children under the age of seven to improve in managing their feelings, learning to play, making friends, and succeeding in school and at home.

The Center is a partner of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network and provides evidence-based treatment to children and families exposed to traumatic events. Dr. Douglas Goldsmith is the Executive Director of The Children’s Center and has created wide spread impact on the clinical application of attachment theory to help heal parent-child relationships and is nationally and internationally recognized as an expert in the field of attachment

It provides group therapy, in addition to individual therapy, to support improvement for specific behavioral goals. This program provides intensive daily treatment, where the children can gain skills necessary to succeed in school, such as learning to listen to adults, manage their emotions, and play with peers. I will be interning at this preschool, assisting Dr. Goldsmith and other specialists with a group of nine children, age 2-5 years old, with a wide range of emotional and behavioral health diagnoses (i.e. autism, hyperactivity, depression, and aggression) and traumatic experiences (i.e. domestic violence, abuse and/or neglect, refugee from war-torn countries, and parent(s) in the military that returned with PTSD). I will be there Mondays-Fridays from 9:00am-3:00pm from June through August this