Cindy Lee & Amber Given

HALO PROJECT

Year Founded
2016

Website
www.haloprojectokc.org

Team Size
4 full-time employees and 26 subcontractors

Business Model, Theory of Change

Our business model includes offering mental health interventions on a daily basis through our current staff, but also training others to do what we do. Although we rely on donor dollars to operate in Oklahoma, we have utilized the funds raised from our trainings as an additional income stream. 240 families come through our offices each week, and we have trained over 1,600 professionals in a variety of interventions. We know that at least 67% of the general population has experienced at least one adverse childhood experience. This would mean that close to 400,000 Oklahomans could benefit from our services. This number would include those with heavy trauma and those with no identifiable trauma but who lack self-worth and the freedom to be authentic.

Biggest Organizational Needs

Two of our biggest organizational needs are the need for solutions and funding. How many children and families can we reach? How are we going to raise the funds we need from year to year to sustain our organization?

In a report by Health Minds Policy Initiative, their analysis shows that although professional counselors are in supply, appropriate training in evidence-based practices and brief psychosocial interventions are needed. Key levers for growth would include a sophisticated marketing strategy so that mental health professionals are aware of the trainings we provide. In addition, funding for scholarships to train a “mental health army” is also a key need we see on the horizon.

Redemptive Opportunity

We have already begun a movement in the application of TBRI® (Trust-Based Relational Intervention) in our state and hope to continue to do so. In addition, it our deepest hope to create a movement of Making Sense of Your Worth implementation as well. We are also training in a third model designed to overcome significant trauma in a fraction of the time. Our goal is to stop the cycle of abuse and neglect in our state while making sure those who have been harmed have access to high quality, efficient mental health services. It is our belief that Oklahoma can be a leader in the provision of mental health services. We believe we can help others heal, and, as a result, be given the chance to be free from the strongholds of trauma which interfere with them being who God created them to be.

Fellow Bio

Cindy Lee Cindy R. Lee, LCSW MSW, Arizona State University 1999 BS, Psychology, Arizona State University 1996 Cindy specializes in providing counseling services for children, adolescents and adults. In an effort to better serve families struggling with attachment issues, Cindy completed the Karyn Purvis Institute of Child Development practitioner training program of the Trust-Based Relational Intervention Model (TBRI ®) developed by Dr. Karyn Purvis and Dr. David Cross in 2012. Since her completion of the TBRI ® training, Cindy has conducted numerous trainings to clinicians as well as foster parent groups and serves as a TBRI Mentor at TBRI® trainings. In addition, Cindy is trained to administer the Adult Attachment Interview.

Cindy is the Executive Director and Co-Founder of the HALO Project. HALO (Healing, Attachment, Loving Outreach) is a 10-week intensive intervention program for children in foster care and/or children who have been adopted experiencing attachment or behavioral difficulties. Due to the success of the HALO Project, Cindy was asked to collaborate with the Karyn Purvis Institute of Child Development (KPICD) to create the TBRI Counselor’s Manual which will be available to TBRI Practitioners at the completion of the research. In collaboration with Dr. Karyn Purvis & Dr. David Cross, Cindy has published a series of children books based upon the valuable lessons on TBRI ®, including Baby Owl Lost Her Whoo, It’s Tough to Be Gentle: A Dragon’s Tale, Doggie Doesn’t Know No and others. Due to the need for individuals to have a step-by-step process of obtaining the “earned secure” attachment style, Cindy created an 8 week curriculum entitled Making Sense of Your Worth. This curriculum is taught to counselors and TBRI® Practitioners world-wide.

Cindy also published a bible study entitled Anchored: A Bible Study on Self-Worth to help individuals to increase their self-worth. In addition to TBRI, Cindy has received training in Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TFCBT), Parent Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT), Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR), Seeking Safety, Trauma Recovery and Empowerment Model (TREM), Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT), Theraplay®, Circle of Security ™, and Internal Family Systems (IFS.) Cindy has experience treating a wide variety of issues including child abuse and neglect, trauma, anxiety, eating disorders, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Dissociative Identity Disorder, Narcissistic Personality Disorder and Reactive Attachment Disorder. Cindy graduated with honors from Arizona State University with her Masters in Social Work in 1999. Cindy is licensed by the Oklahoma State Board of Licensed Social Workers.

Co-Fellow Bio

Amber Given is a Licensed Professional Counselor working for the HALO Project in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Additionally, she has a private practice where she provides individual and family counseling. Amber earned her bachelor’s degree in Family Studies in 1995 and her master’s degree in Community Counseling in 1999.She is trained in Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, Internal Family Systems, Trust-Based Relational Intervention®, and Making Sense of Your Worth. Amber has worked in a variety of settings, serving people in all ages and stages in life.

She has worked as the director of a non-profit agency providing infant mental health services, in a hospital setting providing mental health and substance abuse screenings, the clinical director of inpatient residential program, juvenile drug court therapist, the clinical director of a residential program serving youth ages 7-18, and early in her career serving chronically mentally ill adults.

Amber has spent the bulk of her career providing services to at risk youth and families. After learning about the deep levels of healing accomplished by using Connected Parenting, she joined the HALO Project team where she serves as the clinical director, trainer and therapist. Amber considers it a privilege to help hurting children and families find healing through the various modalities she has learned over the span of her career.