| Summary: | <p> The purpose of this dissertation is to develop a Trauma-Informed Music Therapy (TI-MT) program using a community-based approach to help with trauma recovery of children and their families. This program is designed in response to the 2016 San Joaquin County Needs Assessment, which identifies trauma recovery as a priority community health issue, especially in an area identified as the South Stockton Promise Zone. This part of Stockton, California, is highly culturally diverse, of low socioeconomic level, and with a high crime rate. Trauma impacts people on emotional, neurobiological, physiological, and cognitive levels. Due to cultural differences, traditional therapy may pose difficulties to break through diversity barriers to successfully treat trauma. Dependent upon the impact of the trauma, nonverbal expression can be more efficacious than direct, verbal processing, which tends to be the focus of traditional cognitive-behavioral therapies. Research shows that music therapy has psychotherapeutic and physiological benefits in mental health and treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Creation of a TI-MT program treatment protocol combines behavioral, cognitive, and biological theoretical foundations of trauma treatment into a clinical program that uses music therapy interventions as the treatment vehicle. These incorporate evidence-based cognitive-behavioral treatment with music therapy research and theory to create an innovative treatment method that treats psychological and neurobiological effects of trauma with children and their families. Research shows that treatment of trauma in childhood helps decrease risk of mental and physical health problems later in life. A community-based group approach to treatment over the course of 12 weeks addresses the needs of more people while being cost-effective with available resources. Community needs, program design and implementation, evaluation methodology, and implications for future research are discussed.</p><p>
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