Description & Objectives

Continuing Education Hours: 1.5 CEs for LPC, SW, LMFT, and Psychologists - NBCC Approved

Description: Adolescents impacted by street life, sexual exploitation, and juvenile justice involvement often display behaviors that are misunderstood as resistance, manipulation, or noncompliance. This 90-minute training reframes these behaviors as adaptive survival responses shaped by trauma, exploitation, and systemic harm. Using a cultural humility and harm-reduction framework, participants will examine implicit bias, power dynamics, and criminalization patterns that influence service delivery. Through case scenarios and applied discussion, attendees will learn trauma-informed, dignity-centered strategies to engage justice-involved and exploited youth in ways that promote safety, trust, and ethical behavioral health care.

Instructor

Sarah Brown

Sarah Brown is a Licensed Professional Counselor and Licensed Chemical Dependency Counselor with nearly two decades of frontline experience in mental health, addiction, and trauma recovery. She provides services in Texas, Alaska, Virginia, and Washington. She is the founder of Rocky Shores Counseling and Consulting, PLLC, where she works with teens, young adults, and survivors of exploitation, blending clinical precision with fierce advocacy. Her career spans residential treatment, juvenile justice, and community-based care. Since 2009, she has specialized in substance use treatment, and since 2022, she has focused extensively on serving survivors of human trafficking and sexual exploitation through trauma-informed clinical programming and multidisciplinary training across DFW. With over 440 hours of advanced training in DBT, Trauma-Focused CBT, and exploitation prevention, Sarah is known for developing impactful trainings and high-risk youth programming. She is recognized for her direct, grounded style and steady presence in both clinical and systems-level work.