Meeting the Needs of Children from Disadvantaged Households: The Derner-Hempstead Child Clinic

ABSTRACT

The Derner Hempstead Child Clinic is a school-based, university-run community clinic that was created to offer mental health services to children and families in an underserviced area of Long Island, NY. The clinic also offers training to doctoral-level students from the Derner School of Psychology. In its few years of operation, the clinic has emerged as a source of support for the disadvantaged community despite the additional challenges created by the pandemic. To better respond to the multiple needs of the community and the training needs of the student therapists, the clinic is implementing a Nested Mentalization frame through an adaptation of the Weaving Thoughts supervision method.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Nicole Daisy-Etienne

Nicole Daisy-Etienne, PhD is an adjunct clinical professor and clinical supervisor at the Derner School of Psychology of Adelphi University. Her research interests include complex trauma and addiction, including eating disorders. Dr. Daisy received a supplemental grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse. She is a research award recipient from the Family Violence Conference and has been published for her work on interpersonal trauma in the Journal of Family Violence. She is the director of the Derner Hempstead Child Clinic. Dr. Daisy is the founder and director of On Course Psychological Counseling, P.C.

Ionas Sapountzis

Ionas Sapountzis, PhD., is an Associate Professor at the Derner School of Psychology of Adelphi University. He is a faculty member and supervisor in the Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy and in the Child, Adolescent and Family Psychotherapy programs of the Derner School of Psychology. His articles have been published in the journals of Psychoanalytic Psychology, Psychoanalytic Review, Psychoanalytic Perspectives, and in the Journal of Infant, Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy (JICAP). He has worked with emotionally disabled children and students in the spectrum in school and community settings and maintains a private practice in Garden City, New York.

Kirkland Vaughans

Kirkland C. Vaughans, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist and Fellow/ Training and Supervising Analyst of the Institute for Psychoanalytic Training and Research {IPTAR}, Adjunct Professor in both the NYU Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis and at the Mitchell Relational Study Center, and Clinical Director of the Derner/Hempstead Child Clinic and Senior Adjunct Professor at the Derner School of Psychology. He is a founding member of Black Psychoanalysts Speak and serves on the boards of the Holmes Commission of the American Psychoanalytic Association, the International Psychotherapy Institute {IPI} and the New York Center for Community Psychoanalysis and is the former Regional Director of the New Hope Guild Centers for Children’s Mental Health. He is the founding Editor of the Journal of Infant, Child, and Adolescent Psychotherapy and co-editor of The Psychology of Black Boys and Adolescents and has published on generational trauma and the school to prison pipeline. He is on the editorial boards of the Journal of Infant, Child, and Adolescent Psychotherapy, Psychoanalytic Dialogues, Psychoanalytic Psychology, and the Psychoanalytic Study of the Child.

Yvette Jones

Yvette Jones, LMSW, is the Assistant Director of the Derner Hempstead Child Clinic. She graduated from Adelphi University where she earned her Master of Social Work degree in December 2018. She was honored to receive the Dean's Award for Excellence in Social Work Practice, in May 2017. She completed a Postgraduate Training Certificate program in parent education and parent guidance from the Institute for Parenting of the Derner School of Psychology and also a Seminar in Field Instruction (SIFI) certification from Adelphi's School of Social Work.