Integrated Family Trauma Treatment Clinic

Mission: Prevent and treat intergenerational trauma in the child welfare system through collective advocacy, access, and innovation. 

The Integrated Family Trauma Treatment Clinic (IFTTC) was developed in 2024 as a collaboration between Western Kentucky University’s LifeSkills Center for Child Welfare Education and Research (LCCWEAR) and the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services (CHFS). The Clinic currently has four full time therapists and relies on a rigorous evaluation protocol that assesses for outcomes on various levels.

The IFTTC seeks to reduce the impact of trauma and to alleviate the risk of its reoccurrence. IFTTC is dedicated to assisting families with potential for or current involvement with the child welfare system by strengthening parent-child interpersonal dynamics and aspiring to be a trusted catalyst for reducing the need for out of home placement.

Overall, the Clinic aims to alleviate interpersonal trauma symptoms in order to strengthen parent and child psychological safety and attachment, while simultaneously addressing child welfare specific needs that continue to serve as barriers to families and children in south central Kentucky and beyond.

The Clinic offers Generational Intervention for Families with Trauma (GIFT), an innovative child welfare intervention, provided free of charge to families. The intervention includes trauma treatment for the parent and child individually, and then together when ready. GIFT is a phased treatment approach that begins with individual psychoeducational for birth parents with histories of trauma and moves toward parallel and dyadic trauma treatment for the parent and child.

The Clinic is located at:

WKU's South Campus

2355 Nashville Rd., Bowling Green, Kentucky 42101

Email: ifttc@wku.edu