Malinda Freitag, CMHC, IECMH-E®

Presenter 

PM Breakout Session - The Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How of Infant-Early Childhood Trauma-Informed Care

Malinda Freitag is a licensed clinical mental health counselor specializing in Infant/Early Childhood Mental Health. Malinda’s graduate background, research, and clinical training were in Clinical Psychology focused on children and adolescents who experienced trauma, were juvenile justice involved, and struggled with significant mental health and/or developmental concerns. She has worked clinically in a variety of settings ranging from a psychiatric hospital to juvenile justice centers to substance abuse and other community mental health practices.

Nearly all of Malinda’s clinical training and work focused on the assessment and treatment of trauma, including work at the Salt Lake VA providing PTSD assessments and treatment for military veterans. For the past eight years, Malinda has been employed at The Children's Center Utah (TCCU) working first as a family therapist providing attachment-focused, trauma-informed clinical services to infants, toddlers, and preschoolers and then as a clinical supervisor and coordinator. Malinda currently serves at the Senior Clinical Director overseeing all outpatient clinical programs at TCCU including outpatient clinical services and master’s internship program, therapeutic preschool program services, psychological testing services and psychology internship program, and psychiatry services.

Additionally, Malinda’s current role calls on her to support the expansion of clinical services while providing expert consultation and supervision for a variety of evidence-based treatments including Child Parent Psychotherapy (CPP), Attachment, Regulation, and Competency (ARC), and Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT). Malinda is nationally rostered in CPP and is also recognized as a certified trainer and supervisor in that model. She has received advanced training for both ARC and TF-CBT and is currently eligible for certification in TF-CBT. Malinda is also a certified trainer in the Child-Adult Relationship Enhancement (CARE) model and has trained nearly 100 providers in that model.

She is also a certified trainer and facilitator of the Facilitating Attuned Interactions (FAN) model that can be used in clinical interventions as well as reflective supervision. Malinda is a member of Utah’s first Leadership Cohort for national endorsement in Infant Mental Health and is nationally endorsed as an Infant Family Specialist, an Early Childhood Family Specialist, and as an Endorsed Reflective Supervisor through the Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Endorsement (IECMH-E®) system. She is currently working towards further endorsement as an Infant Mental Health Mentor.

In addition to her clinical expertise and work, Malinda has also held an adjunct faculty position for the past 12 years in the Psychology Department at the University of Utah teaching a range of undergraduate psychology courses. Relevant courses include infant development, child and adolescent development, clinical child psychology, abnormal child psychology, and research methods. Additionally, she has regularly provided community presentations and expert consultation to early childhood professionals and practitioners related to infant and early childhood mental health, trauma, reflective supervision, and clinical practice. Malinda’s work has focused on expanding evidence-based practice in the State of Utah through the training of professionals and collaborations with community partners to ensure that every young child and family in Utah has access to high quality mental health services.

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