Meeting the Needs of Children from Disadvantaged Households: The Derner-Hempstead Child Clinic

ABSTRACT The Derner Hempstead Child Clinic is a school-based, university-run community clinic that was created to offer mental health services to children and families in an underserviced area of Long Island, NY. The clinic also offers training to doctoral-level students from the Derner School of Psychology. In its few years of operation, the clinic has emerged as a source of support for the disadvantaged community despite the additional challenges created by the pandemic. To better respond to the multiple needs of the community and the training needs of the student therapists, the clinic is implementing a Nested Mentalization frame through an adaptation of the Weaving Thoughts supervision method.