Collective Care Center

Overview

The CCC prioritizes transformation through training/education, treatment/healing, service/outreach emphasizing liberation, empowerment, and evidence to address the trauma of BIPOC communities. Herein, we train BIPOC to provide specialized care to often forgotten/excluded communities under the supervision of BIPOC leaders/clinicians.

It is the mission of the Collective Care Center to be a premier clinic in the area of evidence-based culturally responsive treatment of socioemotional distress including racial trauma therapy and assessment across the life span for BIPOC individuals. Additionally, we endeavor to engage in community education and comprehensive racially informed clinical training.

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The CCC annually provides clinical services to 100 BIPOC individuals each year and has trained 1,000 clinicians in racial trauma therapy and assessment nationally and internationally.

Therapy/Assessment Services

The CCC provides free individual, family, and group therapy which prioritizes identity development through affirmation, exploration, and coping. Persons of color experience racial trauma due to consistent exposure to racism or discrimination. This exposure can lead to feelings such as sadness, anxiety, worry, anger, frustration, and hopelessness. Additionally, persons of color can become stressed and worried because they feel that they can’t control or respond to racism and discrimination in ways that feel helpful to them and will keep them and the people they care about safe.  The experience of these feelings can contribute to difficulties in relationships with friends and families, challenges on the job, and a general lack of mental wellness.

Racial trauma treatment

Here at the Collective Care Center (CCC) we believe that persons of color can experience a reduction in the negative effects of racial trauma through three main steps: (1) developing racial identity, (2) processing experiences of racial trauma, and (3) building and practicing skills for future racially traumatic events. The CCC offers racial trauma therapy services across the lifespan including individual, family, and group therapy as well as racial trauma informed psychological assessment.

 

Community Engagement, Partnerships, and Education

The Collective Care Center is committed to increasing access to information concerning: (1) Defining Racial Trauma, (2) Understanding the Impact of Racial Trauma, (3) How to get help for Racial Trauma, and (4) How to help others get help for Racial Trauma.
In addition to the CCC’s in-house clinic at Spalding University, the CCC provides racially informed culturally responsive trauma and assessment services at satellite sites throughout the city of Louisville including a Historically Black College and University (HBCU) college counseling center and other universities in the Kentuckiana area, a community center that serves Louisville’s refugee and immigrant population, a Latinx serving community center, Afrocentric family center.
The CCC has conducted a number of local, national, and international presentations each year to equip BIPOC individuals and BIPOC serving organizations with the knowledge and skill needed to reduce the impact of racial trauma.

 

 

Director, Collective Care Center

Lucille Gardner, PsyD

Dr. Gardner is an alumna of Rutgers University where she studied psychology and music. She earned a MS in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from Indiana State University, and a MA and PsyD in Clinical Psychology from Spalding University. She completed her internship at the University of Illinois at Chicago and her postdoctoral fellowship within Student Wellness at The University of Chicago. Dr. Gardner is an integrationist. She believes in the nature of collective healing and the value of being grounded in both identity and community. Thus, her approach to therapy (thinking about, teaching about, and doing) is collaborative, contextually informed, trauma informed, justice oriented, affirmative, and prioritizes liberation. She seeks to center those marginalized by systems that have far long deferred fault. Dr. Gardner works to reconcile the relationship between evidence and practice for oppressed people as she establishes her place in the field of psychology through clinical work, leadership, and in the classroom.

CCC Student Clinicians

​Renija Redman

    I grew up in Atlanta, Georgia. I want to become a clinical psychologist to provide diagnostic clarification, accessible mental healthcare, and education regarding mental health services to marginalized populations. I am excited to learn more about my theoretical orientation and my personal style as a psychologist in training. In my spare time, I enjoy concerts, movies, festivals, parks, travel, and painting/coloring.  A fun fact about me is that I am also a special education teacher.

     

David Davis

I grew up in Montgomery, Alabama. Many people hope to “change the world” in one way or another. I have a similar ambition, but with a different perspective. Each of the people that I work with is an individual that has lived a life full of unique experiences; therefore, I believe the best way to “change the world” is to have a positive and healing impact on the individual “worlds” of each person with whom I will work.” I am most excited to contribute an optimistic mindset, the ambition to grow and develop in the field of psychology, and my previous experience with assessment/therapy for children, adolescents, and families.
 In my free time, I enjoy playing and watching various sports, practicing martial arts, outdoor recreation, and spending quality time with friends.
 

Akira Isaac

I grew up on the beautiful twin island of Trinidad and Tobago! I want to be a psychologist because I am passionate about mental health, research, and working with children and adolescents. I hope to foster healing and growth by creating safe spaces where children and their parents/caregivers feel respected, heard and understood. I am eager to serve, connect with, educate and learn from the BIPOC community in Louisville through the CCC. I enjoy brunch, baking, arts and crafts (e.g., painting, basket-making), video calls with my nephews and sharing time with my loved ones.

 

Sam Hollis-White

Sam Hollis-White is a fourth-year graduate student in the Clinical Psychology doctoral program at Spalding University. She grew up with two moms and an older sister in Birmingham, Alabama. From a young age, she was interested in understanding people around her and enjoyed helping others tap into their inner strengths. Growing up in the LGBTQ+ community, Sam is passionate about dedicating her career to working with those with marginalized identities, particularly LGBTQ+ youth and adults. She loves the idea of being a psychologist because she loves puzzles; she wants to help adolescents and adults’ piece together their strengths, personality traits, and therapeutic techniques to help them improve their lives. A fun fact about Sam is that she rode horses at an equine center for individuals with disabilities for ten years!