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The Long Beach Trauma Recovery Center at Cal State Long Beach is entering its second decade of service, helping crime victims to retake control of their lives while providing a venue for graduate students to gain essential clinical experiences.

“The services are free,” said center director Bita Ghafoori, who is also chair of the university's Department of Advanced Studies in Education and Counseling. “They’re available to the campus community and the community at large – and people get better.”  

The Long Beach Trauma Recovery Center reached its 10th anniversary this past April. The mission of the LBTRC is to provide no-cost comprehensive mental health services to the most underserved victims of crime and violence. 

Over its first decade, clinical staff and graduate student interns served nearly 12,000 clients who included survivors of all types of crime and violence, such as sexual assault and domestic violence, as well as people living with traumatic loss. More than 75 graduate students going through The Beach’s counseling psychology and social work programs worked alongside the clinic’s full-time clinical staff to help these patients, many of whom might not have otherwise had access to mental health care due to financial, structural, or other barriers.

“It doesn’t matter if they’re documented or not,” former site supervisor Arturo Covarrubias ‘17 said. “It doesn’t matter if they’re insured or not. They don’t have to jump through hoops”  

Educating future therapists

The trauma recovery center’s current team includes Ghafoori, a site supervisor, a psychiatrist, a licensed marriage and family therapist, an associate marriage and family therapist (someone who has earned a master’s degree and is under supervision before completing licensure requirements) and six graduate students. Ghafoori hopes to double the number of students working with the center by the time the next academic year starts in 2025.

Student clinicians on the way to master’s degrees receive a month of training before joining the Trauma Recovery Center team, Ghafoori said. They shadow more experienced clinicians before delivering therapy under professional supervision.

Transitioning from book learning to face-to-face therapies with clients who have experienced traumas can be daunting, but the opportunity to serve at the center is an attractive prospect for aspiring therapists. About 1,000 applicants, many of whom expressed their hope to learn at the center, applied for 25 openings in the counseling psychology program before the 2023-24 academic year, Ghafoori said.

“It’s a highly desired master’s program,” she said.

Covarrubias, the former site supervisor, also served as a student clinician on the way to his degree. He’s now a training and technical assistance specialist with the National Alliance of Trauma Recovery Centers. He recalled that many of the center’s clients speak Spanish, so at the center, his fluency was an advantage that helped him to connect with patients.

“It’s speaking their language or understanding or respecting their cultural norms,” Covarrubias said. “Overall, it’s providing an empathetic and supportive environment that recognizes that trauma is a part of their life.”

Ghafoori and other faculty and student researchers have also published papers on topics related to the care of vulnerable people who have received care from the Long Beach Trauma Recovery Center. Their studies have examined such subjects as the efficacy of different therapeutic approaches and factors influencing whether clients persist with therapy.

For example, published in the Journal of Affective Disorders provided evidence that present-centered therapy, focused patient’s day-to-day recovery and problems, can be an effective approach for trauma victims served in a community-based venue like the Trauma Recovery Center.  

The paper reported observations of positive results for patients participating in other therapies in which clinicians guide exposures to sources of stress. Researchers also found that patients who experienced present-centered therapy were more likely to complete more sessions.

Reclaiming lives

The Trauma Recovery Center’s data shows that many clients improve their mental health during treatment. Roughly 2,900 patients received care over the 2022-23 fiscal year and among them, about 75% had diagnosable levels of PTSD at the onset of care. Among those patients who persisted through at least nine therapy sessions, the share of people with diagnosable PTSD registered at about 44% suggesting the evidence-based trauma-focused therapies provided at the LBTRC are helpful in decreasing symptoms and improving quality of life for clients.

“They regain that self-efficacy knowing, ‘Hey, I can improve my life,’’’ Covarrubias said.

The Trauma Recovery Center has attracted support from multiple private donors, including the California Endowment, the Unitarian Universalist Church of Long Beach and David Lechuga '80, an Orange County psychologist.

"The staff and students at the Long Beach Trauma Recovery Center seek to reach and care for vulnerable individuals and families that are not likely to be treated elsewhere,” Lechuga said. “The Center's staff reduce suffering caused by major stressful events or incidents, knowing that early treatment will lead to a better life and lives. In my mind, there isn’t a more important work or calling for mental health clinicians. The care provided can only enhance the life quality of those served, which can in turn enhance the health of our society.”

The California Victim Compensation Board, which oversees the state government’s reimbursement program for crime victims, is the LBTRC's principal funder. The center was only the second clinic of its kind to receive funding from the Board when the LBTRC opened in April 2014 at St. Mary Medical Center, north of downtown Long Beach. The center is now on campus and shares space in the ED-2 building with the Community Clinic for Counseling and Educational Services.

The trauma recovery center model of care has spread throughout the Golden State. Today, the state funds more than 20 such centers, many of which are clustered around Greater Los Angeles and the Bay Area.

“The California Victim Compensation Board is grateful for the important work done at TRCs to serve victims of violent crime,” spokeswoman Monique Langer said. “The Long Beach Trauma Recovery Center has a longstanding commitment to its community in providing valuable trauma-informed services to victims.”