The Impact of Racial Trauma on Children and Youth Mental Health

Charmaine Lane PhDc, M.Sc., RP is the founder and CEO of CLR Lane Consulting & PsychoSocial Services Professional Corporation and a registered Psychotherapist practicing in the city of Toronto. She has joined the Institute of Childhood Trauma and Attachment in the role of trainer, consultant and clinician.

With over 20 years of experience in the mental health and counselling fields, she has worked with children, adolescent, and adult clients with a wide range of presenting issues including, but not limited to, adjustment disorders, self-esteem, body issues, anxiety, depression, trauma, racial trauma, childhood trauma, grief and loss, cultural identity, partner abuse, career and life transitions, immigration, family reunification, as well as relationship and family conflict.

She holds a Master of Science degree in Counselling Psychology with a concentration in Marriage and Family Therapy and a bachelor’s degree in Psychology. Her training is from a psychosocial perspective, giving her not only clinical, psychological, and emotional insight into people’s behaviors and needs but also, looking through the lens of social determinants and how that contributes to a person’s psychological health. Charmaine is trained in several modalities including but not limited to, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Culturally Adapted Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy (CBT) for English-speaking Caribbean and African populations in Canada, Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Narrative Therapy, Solutions Focused Therapy ensuring an Anti- Oppressive/Anti-Racism framework is utilize in the therapeutic journey with her clients.

She an advocate for Young People of color and have rallied on their behalf. She is experienced in Trauma and how it affects Racialized Youths and most specifically youth of African descent. She is Co-Founder of Millan and Associates (past), an organization dedicated to the Reunification of Black Children in Child Welfare (care) with their families, She is presently an associate of Balanced Living Message and Wellness Centre where she practice Psychotherapy as part of a multidisciplinary team on a part-time basis and is a part-time Professor at Humber College where she is a part of the Faculty of Community and Social Services teaching Mental Health and Additions in the Post Graduate Program and a part of the Faculty of Interdisciplinary Studies at Durham College teaching Conflict, Colonization and Courage: First Nations, Metis and Inuit in Canada. She is also a sessional Equity Trainer for The Ontario Association of Children’s Aid Societies where she trains on Equity in Child Welfare as it pertains to anti-black and anti-indigenous racism. She is also a Sessional Trainer for Safeguards Trauma Informed training, where she has developed and train on the topic “Trauma and the Black Youth Experience” looking at the trauma that Black youth face on account of racism and the impact on mental health with the effort of re-authoring their stories.

She is experienced in children and adult mental health. Charmaine spent 4 years as a Clinical Supervisor in children’s mental health focusing on dual diagnosis. She specializes in Racial trauma and its contribution to other mental health issues such as depression and anxiety. She is experienced in assessment, testing and long and short-term interventions.