Neuroscience: The brain is flexible, and can add neurons and connections throughout the lifespan; a process known as neuroplasticity. Counseling and therapy change the brain. Counselor's and clients brain functioning changes through interview interactions. Stress reduces life quality and damages the brain. Through research we now know that stress is involved in the majority of health and mental health concerns. Therefore, stress management and reduction are a central goal of our counseling and therapy. Multi-cultural competence is imperative in our counseling modules. Awareness of our client's multicultural background enables us to understand their uniqueness more fully. We also understand the stressors that are associated with poverty, racism and social stratification. For people of color, multi-generational trauma affects individuals and familial response to trauma and stress.
Dr. Wisdom Powell, an artist, Director of the Health Disparities Institute and Associate Professor of Psychiatry, and Senior Consultant for Treatment of Developmental Trauma Disorders at UConn Health, has worked to advance health equity for young adolescent males. We have designed our services to be culturally sensitive specifically to include Native Americans as well as African American men of color. Research shows that they have the largest rates of disparity. Under the guidance of their research, our programs and counseling sessions align with the CLAS Standards, promoting quality behavioral health programs and practice. We address the chronic exposure to historically racial and developmental trauma on young males. These sessions are focused on how intergenerational trauma has affected our communities. These group therapies teach creative pathways that promote healing to those that have experienced historical racial and developmental trauma. Which has been proven to lead to drug and alcohol abuse.