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.
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
Director, Collective Care Center
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
I grew up in the Virgin Islands. I hail from a place where mental illness is stigmatized, though it affects us all. I desire to become a psychologist to serve minority populations and assist with policy-making since one’s mental health is just as important as their physical health. My aim is to serve others by advocating and helping them cope with mental health challenges. I’m excited about providing services to individuals who have roots beyond America, and I’m looking forward to serving individuals who have had restricted access to mental health care. I’m hoping to learn more about Dr. Kniffley’s Racial Trauma Model and how it applies and helps to meet the needs of each individual. I would describe myself as adventurous. I love Top Golf, hiking, dining out, traveling, pageantry, and watching Netflix. I love spending time with my family and friends as well. 
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