Lori Smiley-Klinger, MFT
TLC Certified Trainer

Lori is a Juvenile Probation Officer in San Mateo County, California, and a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. She specializes in adults, teens and children struggling with grief and loss issues, trauma from abuse, and adolescent behaviors that have resulted in juvenile delinquency. Lori has worked with “High Risk” adjudicated juvenile offenders for 16 years and has extensive experience providing counseling, case management, disciplinary and specialized services for traumatized youth and their families. Lori also has a private practice in Burlingame, California where she enjoys working with individuals especially children & teens affected by traumatic experiences. She conducts several youth and adult counseling groups: “A Woman’s Journey” (a self reflective group for moms), “Raising Safe Kids (an 8 week parenting program), “Girl Talk” (an adolescent girls group), and various TLC trauma groups for youth. She also uses play therapy, sand tray therapy, music/movement and drama therapy as additional modalities in her work.

Lori graduated from San Francisco State University with her Masters in Counseling and completed post graduate work at the University of Berkeley, where she obtained a Certificate in Art Therapy. Lori has experience as a “hot line” counselor for both the San Mateo County Suicide Prevention Crisis Team and the Sexual Assault Line. She is currently a member of the board for the Rape Trauma Services in San Mateo County. Recently, she has played an active role in creating a youth development model for San Mateo’s Probation department to ensure that youth on probation have the experiences that are critical to their success, learning, and healthy development. Building resiliency, the ability to contribute to their environment, creating long term positive relationships and providing an environment where youth have a voice are only some of the goals the model is addressing. Lastly, Lori is very excited to be a part of The National Institute of Trauma and Loss in Children as she is a strong supporter of all the programs provided by TLC and an absolute believer in their work!

Lori presents the following course:

Working with Adjudicated and At-Risk Youth Through a Trauma Lens

This course starts out with the assumption that a youth on probation is a youth that has experienced trauma, and the fact that they have “acted out” from that trauma is highly likely to be the reason for being there. Participants will benefit from the understanding of trauma with the goal of helping at-risk youth and juvenile offenders begin to find their “best self” and thus become a responsible and productive member within his family and community. As professionals we have the ability to provide youth with opportunities to address their un-healed trauma while concurrently helping them to develop the tools they need to take responsibility for their actions and future decisions. The ability to take responsibility is best developed through their understanding of the cycle of trauma and healing and their place in that cycle. We will discuss the importance of working with all key personnel and developing a collaborative case plan to help the youth regain a sense of safety and control, and a sense of self and meaning in his/her world thus improving the youths overall behavior and ability to learn. We will also discuss TLC’s Trauma Intervention Program for Adjudicated and At-Risk Youth, (SITCAP-Art).