Dr. Jean on her trauma-informed care work with BRIDGE (part 1)

Dr. Jean Clarke-Mitchell, Ph.D. MSW, LICSW, spoke with Multicultural BRIDGE about trauma-informed care. As a Clinical Consultant and Psychotherapist, she speaks with 25 years of clinical experience as a therapist specializing in trauma recovery, resilience building, healing, and holistic mental wellness. 

She has served as director of clinical services at the Elizabeth Freeman Center, and clinician for the Brien Center for mental health and university professor at Lesley, Smith, Simmonds and more. Today she has her own private practice and mentors a new generation of therapists.

She came to BRIDGE Solidarity House on April 16, 2025, to offer mentorship and guidance, as she comes monthly as a part of  BRIDGE's health and wellness programming, and she took the time on a spring night to reflect on her work.
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She sat down with BRIDGE director Gwendolyn VanSant, Gabriela Cruz, Laura, Rosa, Rosi, Sarah Haile, masters in public health at UMass, and Kate Abbott, editor and oral historian from By the Way Berkshires, to record an oral history with technical direction from JV Hampton-VanSant

Kate: Dr. Jean and I have been talking some about the fact that this is sexual assault awareness month.

First of all, we are talking together with full respect for confidentiality, and also understanding that this may be a conversation that sometimes touches on some difficult places or some personal ones.

So we can always stop. We can always turn off the recordings. People can get up and move around. We can take this conversation anywhere we want it to go, and we can also at any point move it away from somewhere. 

Rosa translates into Spanish.

Kate: Looking to Dr. Jean. (8:40) You were talking about trauma-informed care and the work you've done with BRIDGE. Would that be a place to start to talk about some of the work that you do with BRIDGE? 

Dr. Jean: Look, BRIDGE and I go way back — I'm trying to think of how many years — and I know, long before I became involved I wanted to be a part of what BRIDGE is doing, because of the multicultural aspects of it — how we want to be together, and live together in unity, and support each other as community. 

Gwendolyn VanSant explains:

In October 2014, BRIDGE held the Berkshire County Civil Rights Conference, with U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz to give the keynote address, and that night they honored Dr. Jean with a Cultural Competence Award. 

Gwendolyn VanSant: (Turning to talk to Gabriela Cruz) you all were dancing because Carmen Ortiz came, the U.S. Attorney at the time, and you danced for her in Lenox. 

Clarke-Mitchell was then director of clinical services for the Elizabeth Freeman Center and clinician for the Brien Center. She was advocating for state policy to support survivors of domestic abuse, and Gwendolyn Van Sant heard and saw Clarke-Mitchell's work with then State Rep. William 'Smitty' Pignatelli.

Gwendolyn VanSant: The experience that was so powerful with me and Dr. Jean before that was that there was a policy being passed, and we needed Smitty Pignatelli's help to support it. Dr. Jean was very firm in advocating with Elizabeth Freeman Center, and I was in the room. 

She turns to Dr. Jean.

"And I just loved how you incorporated your personal story, your expertise. You were starting your studies, and you just were really powerful, and I just was really inspired. So when I was thinking of the awards, yours was the first one I thought of." 

At the Civil Rights Conference, Dr. Jean received her award along with Jeanet Ingalls, founder of Shout Out Loud Productions, who was creating work to support women who have survived human trarricking, and Mary Grant, outgoing president of the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, and Jennifer Browdy de Hernandez, founding director of the Berkshire Festival of Women Writers. 

BRIDGE also recognized the Berkshire County Commission on the Status of Women.

Gwendolyn VanSant: We were focused on women, and I honored you.

And then I found out later on that there was family connections. And so I feel — the answer’s always like our stars were crossed before we met. 

Dr. Jean reflects on the kind of work that drew her to Gwendolyn's attention, and the kind of work she does with BRIDGE today, as part of their wellness days.

Dr. Jean: When we think of trauma-informed care, it's about it's a new term that hasn't been around that long. But what it is it's trying to live in a way, or treat Constituents and individuals, the people that we help in a way, that's very focused in and has a lot of awareness of the traumas they might have experienced. 

And because of the traumas they've experienced, a lot of times there isn't a lot of trust. So how do we build trust? 

So when you come to BRIDGE, you feel like you're in a place that you belong. You feel that you're in a place that you will be taken care of. You will be believed. You won't be controlled. You won't be feeling othered, like ‘I don't get any respect here’ — you won't feel that way. 

If we're doing trauma-informed care, then we're always trying to be mindful that you are a person, you're a very different person from any other person in your family. 

And what you say about yourself, you know more about yourself than anybody else, even though your sister may say or your mom may say or your husband may say — (10:30) We have to listen to what you have to say. 

That's trauma informed care, because your trauma, the experiences that you've had in your life are different from anyone else's, even when you're siblings, even when you're from the same family. 

So I think that's a big part of what Gwendolyn has been very aware of, and tried to work from that perspective, and just keep doing better at it because we can always improve, right? You walk in you feel like oh, this is the place that people respect me. They will help me. I am wanted. I belong.

Kate: When did you first get to know Gwendolyn and BRIDGE? 

Dr. Jean: Gwendolyn, when did it first start it? … I knew of Gwendolyn because Gwendolyn had gone to Bard College at Simon's Rock. (11:30) And I've been in the community and then Gwendolyn formed this organization awhile back.

I just remember I really got into BRIDGE formally when Gwendolyn decided to give me an award. I thought, "What?" So I came to accept that award, and a part of it was about multiculturalism, and it was one of the first awards I've ever received. 

And then I was able to accept that, yeah, you make a difference in the community (12:00) at that time. So I bring some support and help to others. 

(13:30) It’s a validation of who you are — like, you're here, and in ten years from now who might you be? You know, there's something inside of each one of us that can give back to our community. Even in the small ways. 

Someone said to me the other day, they wanted me to present in a training for leaders, and I said ‘I’m not a leader,’ and she said Dr. Jean, oh yes you are and with your presence and story — you need to be in that room. 

Sometimes we don't see ourselves and see our stories as something special — you know, we just somewhat take it for granted. And when someone like Gwendolyn (sees us and our stories), or any other award I’ve received since then, it says there's something special there. 

And that's what I want every woman to experience, and every child, even more than their moms, every child to have the experience of (feeling) ‘I'm special in the world. because I am this. There's something about me.’ So just encourage that in each other and in ourselves because we keep evolving as well.
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