SPRINGFIELD - Early in her career, licensed clinical social worker Jessica Begans got interested in creating safe environments for young people who had experienced trauma. Her interest was prompted by working with such young people - a number of whom had been in foster care - and realizing their sometimes disrupting behavior was often an attempt to protect themselves.

"The more I learned about trauma, the more I realized these kids were often doing everything they could to feel safe," Begans said.

"I wanted to learn to create environments that could help these kids feel safe and understood."

Begans is getting to do just that as one of three therapists - the other two are licensed social workers Sam Chaplin and Emily Myer - recently hired by the YWCA of Western Massachusetts for its Children Who Witness Violence Program.

Thanks to a Victims of Crime Act grant of nearly $200,000 from the Massachusetts Office for Victim Assistance and nearly $100,000 from the Department of Public Health, the YWCA is expanding, strengthening and offering its individual and group counseling as well as support services free to young people "who have been adversely affected by exposure to domestic violence and to the parent who is experiencing the abuse."

Elizabeth Dineen, the YWCA's executive director, sees the intervention for those as young as three and up to the age of 18 as a way "we can address this issue early and have some hope."

"Counseling provides a safe space for a child to understand complicated feelings, build coping skills, and nurture a positive self image," said Dineen, a former Hampden County assistant district attorney who handled a number of the area's most serious cases of domestic abuse and child sexual assault.

"And with counseling, we, as a society, have an opportunity to break the sometimes generational cycle of domestic abuse."

Dineen is hoping that the fact the counseling and related support services are offered free so lack of insurance coverage is not a barrier will help the YWCA "reach a wider range of people."

"It is hard to imagine growing up in a house where there is domestic violence and yelling and screaming and hitting and punching and what do you do with that as a kid and where does it stay in your body," said Dineen who feels the Children Who Witness Violence program offers its young clients a place to experience a "sense of relief and a sense of being unburdened."

The YWCA is one of the largest providers of both domestic violence services and services to pregnant and parenting teens in the state. It operates a domestic violence emergency shelter, an apartment supportive housing program for survivors of such violence and an array of counseling and advocacy programs for this population.

The YWCA's recent state funding applications note Hampden County has a proportionally higher rate of restraining orders, in terms of population size, than the rest of the state, and that the YWCA sees to offer evidence-based interventions, including trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy, to help children exposed to domestic violence "voice their specific experiences and reduce feelings of embarrassment, self-blame and post-traumatic stress syndrome."

"We work with people who live in our shelter and our transitional housing but also people in the community. Anyone between the ages of 3 and 18 who has witnessed, experienced or been impacted by domestic violence is welcome in our clinic as long as it is part of their story, whether it happened last week or 10 years ago," said Begans of the clients with whom she works as part of the Children Who Witness Violence program.

She added the program's therapists are available during the day as well as for after-school and evening appointments Monday through Friday, and called the intervention an often needed one despite any perceptions that children are not impacted by exposure to domestic violence.

"One thing adults often say to me," said Begans, "is, 'Oh, she is so young. She will not remember any of this happening. We just need to get back to normal and not talk about it or bring it up.' Or, 'Children are resilent.' Children are resilient, but they also need tools to be able to manage some of the powerful emotions that are brought up and intrusive thoughts."

Begans said children frequently experience sleep disruptions as a result of exposure to such trauma.

"Kids can't sleep the whole night, are peeing the bed, who want to sleep with mom again," Begans said.

"We see behavior eruptions which is when kids are very irritable all the time, starting fights, disrespectful at home. They can't concentrate, and are not doing their school work. They don't hear what you saying and are reacting to something else."

Sometimes, Begans added, "A parent has done a really good job of shielding a child from the violence" but then confusion may result as to "why doesn't dad live with us anymore" or "why did I have to change schools."

"These are disruptions that come into a child's life as a result of one parent trying to protect them," Begans said.

Begans said how therapists engage children who witnessed domestic violence depends on the client's age with play therapy - the YWCA has two play rooms filled with puppets and HeroBoy figures and reading nooks - used for the very young and to help the non-abusive parent better interact with their young child.

"One of our success stories involves a three-year-old and a parent who suffered horrific abuse for years. The parent was pretty numb as a result and it was hard for her to connect with her child," Begans said, "because she was overwhelmed with getting her legal and financial stuff in order to start their new life together. So, through play therapy here with her child she was able to recognize emotions and respond in healthy ways. This is what therapy might look for a three-year old. They are feeling connected to parent. We know the number one protective factor for children is having positive family relationships."

Sometimes, Begans said, young children will play in a sand tray with toy characters.

"Children love sand and it is interesting what they will act out when they have these characters in here. Oftentimes kids who don't like to talk in words will show me exactly what is going on in their lives with the characters, like this is the bad man, and they will put the mom between them and the bad man," said Begans, moving three characters about in the tray as demonstration.

"We try to meet the kids where they are at. Some kids just want to cook so when they are playing at that I will just talk to them. I am always interested in the child, when mom is having a bad day, who will say, 'I don't want to play with the firetruck today, I want to cook for my mom.' Things like that give me a clue to what is going on."

Begans said the therapy can be individual with separate parent sessions or can take the form of family sessions, depending on the needs and desires of the clients. The end result, she said, is for the client to "feel more control of the powerful emotions that they have."

She added a common approach with an older child is to ask at the beginning of a session if their "energy is high, medium or low. Are you comfortable or uncomfortable?"

"We might say, 'Pretend you are an ice cube, and then melt to the floor." Then we might check their energy again and ask if that helped them feel more relaxed and more comfortable in their body," Begans said.

"So every stage we are trying to build in an awareness of themselves and what works or doesn't work for them. Sometimes kids don't have words for their emotions so sometimes it is easier to say your body is moving really fast today and is that because your energy is really high or if they look droopy we can ask about that. "

Begans added, "We never force a child to talk about something they don't want to talk about."

"We offer them opportunities and tell them therapy is a safe place to talk about upsetting things that have happened to them. If a child is interested, we might have them write or draw about the trauma so they can say in their own words this is the worst thing that happened to me and then they can share that with their parent or love one so that the parent can really understand what the child saw," Begans said.

"We coach the parent in responding in an appropriate way and we coach the child in how to manage all these emotions. We also do some safety coaching with the parents and kids."

Begans said the therapy offered through the program is viewed as short term, as clients are not always in situations that allow for more long-term commitment.

"We are focused on providing as much safety and stability as possible for the child. This means the child always having a safe parent they can go to, and for the parent knowing how to respond if the child has a safety issue or is experiencing powerful emotions or thoughts.There is a lot of caregiver worker. We tell them we are with this child only a short amount of time whereas you are with this child forever. You are the most important person in the child's life," said Begans, adding she has witnessed how some of her clients have benefited from the counseling and also shared what they learned with others.

"We will see kids who have been marginalized either because they live in a shelter or have been in foster care making friends with other kids in the same situation and they will teach other kids how to manage their energy and feel proud about doing that."

Begans said her oldest clients at 18 might need "a lot of help with building healthy relationships because they may not have a real clear idea about being respectful to a romantic partner."

"They may think having power means hurting people sometimes. They are very hungry for information on how do I treat people with respect," Begans said.

"I can give them information about how trauma effects your brain and body. I can say losing control reminds you of times when you were abused. That is why you act out this way, and they go, 'Yeh. Maybe I can do things differently next time.'"

Begans said older boys may wonder, "How can I become a man without becoming an abusive man like my father," whereas older girls "need to build a sense of safety in the world and to feel good about themselves as girls and women."

"We talk a lot about pop culture and media. I'll ask what are messages you get from songs you hear. Is that a healthy relationship?" Begans said.

"We are always making it relevant to them. Play is relevant to the little ones. Talking about pop culture and boyfriends and girlfriends is relevant frequently to the older ones."

She added, "With trauma work you often do a piece of work. You sit and think about it for a year, and you do another piece of work. You come back to it when you feel safer. As kids grow and mature they will think about these things in different ways."

"But in every interaction I strive to have with the kids, I want them to feel heard and understood and that they are a valuable person in the world," Begans said.

"That is one of the biggest messages which trauma can take away from you because trauma can communicate you are not worth it - you are not worth my time, my energy, my love. We are always trying to build that - the places in life where kids feel important and good at stuff. People love me whether it is at home where a parent loves them or in their community. With trauma work it is the little victories."

Anyone interested in receiving counseling and support services through the Children Who Witness Violence program may call the hotline of the YWCA at 413-733-7100 or 800-796-8711.