MODULATE
Trauma Healing Through Music Science and Art
An After-School Family Support Program
Modulate is...
A six-week creative arts and wellness intervention program
Facilitated by Dr. Camisha Chambers of IV-CHARIS / Refuge Trauma Recovery Institute, in partnership with Dr. Shantel Thomas of A Sound Mind Counseling
Why This Matters Now
Students across the country are navigating increased behavioral health challenges, trauma, and stress, while families often face barriers to accessing timely and culturally responsive care. Current wait times for youth mental health services in Butler County can exceed six months, leaving schools to carry the weight of unmet needs.
This program is designed to fill that gap inside the school community by providing:
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Immediate, on-site assessments.
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After-school family interventions that reduce stigma.
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Practical tools to improve emotional regulation, resilience, and parent-child
connection.
Program Highlights
Core Program:
Six-week creative arts therapy program (extendable to twelve weeks) with parents, caregivers, guardians.
Program Format:
After-school sessions, with an option to also run at school family events (PTA/PAC nights).
Modulate Experiences:
Music, art, storytelling, dance and movement, and mindfulness exercises, all paired with applied trauma coping skills for healing and resiliency.
Supports Included:
Meals, stipends, referrals to twenty-one vital health pathways, and continued relationships with the program's Community Ambassador and Community Health Worker.
School-Aligned:
Designed as enrichment, minimizing classroom disruption.
Group Size:
We work with the host school to identify up to fifteen families – students and their parents, guardians, or caregivers – to partner with for this transformative program.
Established Success:
Our pilot program, which included trauma healing through storytelling and music showed strong outcomes in deepening parent-child connection.
How It Works
This section provides a brief overview of the program workflow. If you would like an in-depth breakdown of the program or would like more information about partnering with IV-CHARIS and the Refuge Trauma Recovery Institute for future Modulate cohorts, please email Dr. Camisha Chambers at camisha.chambers@iv-charis.com.
Student Identification
Students selected to participate in the Modulate program are identified by the host school in coordination with trusted Success Liaisons and staff. Parents receive program information and provide opt-in consent.
The Fun Begins!
Weekly after-school sessions include learning by doing. Sessions blend parent-child joint activities in art, music, storytelling, dance/movement, and mindfulness with optional parent-only workshops. Meals and participation stipends provided.
Baseline Assessments
Initial engagement with Dr. Shantel Thomas and the team from A Sound Mind Counseling helps ensure that each student and their family members are a good match for the program and will benefit from the resources we provide.
Extension Option
At the end of the initial six weeks, families will be offered the opportunity to continue for six more weeks. This additional period will focus on helping individuals and families build deeper resiliency and communication skills.
Family Orientation
Orientation covers program structure and goals, parent involvement expectations, confidentiality and stigma reduction, and the support systems available through and in partnership with our program.
Completion and Transition
Post-program assessments will occur, along with opportunities for feedback to help refine the program. Families will graduate with certificates and recognition, while also being connected to ongoing supports and future touchpoint to stay connected.
Modulate Means...
As a verb, the word modulate means to tune to, to adjust to or keep in proper proportion, or to pass gradually from one state to another. As a program, Modulate offers the same outcomes.
Through the use of music, art, storytelling, dance / movement, and mindfulness activities, participants receive assistance in identifying past and present trauma, are empowered to begin or continue processings its impact, and are equipped to move forward toward healing and resiliency – as individuals, as families, and within their broader communities.
Modulate offers coping techniques and a better understanding of self-care, connects people with vital resources, and strengthens relationships now and for the future.
Program Successes
We first partnered with H.O.P.E.-full Pastures in December 2024, beginning with a Christmas painting session for the children enrolled in their program. Their high level of engagement was so evident in our first session that the organization's founder immediately invited us to expand into a spring series. In response, our team launched a six-week therapeutic music and art program for foster families in Butler County during Spring 2025.
The response was powerful. Every family participated, with many openly expressing their need for emotional support. Sixty-three percent of the families acknowledged experiencing system-induced trauma, and we also saw firsthand the effects of complex trauma carried by children before entering foster care.
Some session topics included:
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Music and Improvisation
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Music and its Cognitive Effects
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The Art of a Story
At the conclusion, H.O.P.E.-full Pasture's founder shared that the program had been “an incredible gift” to both parents and children, offering emotional healing and resilience. Parents, in particular, valued the bonding moments the sessions created. Four specifically highlighted the storytelling activities as transformational, helping them better understand their foster children’s experiences and behaviors. During the program, twenty-five percent of parents openly wept in gratitude, finally able to “name” the heavy burdens they were carrying, while half of the participants showed visible emotional release.
The children were equally engaged, with an eighty-five percent participation rate across sessions. One especially moving example was an eight-year-old child who initially resisted the process—crying, throwing art materials, and even leaving the classroom. With patience, mindfulness strategies, and therapeutic music, the child gradually opened up. By the final week, they were fully participating, expressed affection to our team, and even gifted one of their art pieces as a thank-you. Watching this transformation was deeply moving for our team.
Staff and volunteers repeatedly emphasized how valuable this intervention was, calling it an unexpected yet essential addition to their curriculum. As a result, we’ve been invited to return for another six-week series, and discussions are underway to expand the program to include the biological children of foster families as well.
Modulate Team Leads
Get to know the Program and Assessment Leads who make Modulate possible.
Dr. Camisha Chambers
Camisha Chambers is a Cincinnati native. She earned her Bachelor of Arts Degree from Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, and her Master of Science in Organizational Leadership from Mount St. Joseph University. She has her Doctor of Ministry from United Theological Seminary that focuses on “Spiritual Cultivation and Trauma Healing Through Music Therapy” in places of worship and community settings. Additionally, she has her certificate in Music Therapy and Sound Healing through the University of Cincinnati’s “edonthego” program, holds a PROSCI Change Management Designation, and is a certified Therapeutic Art Life Coach. Camisha dedicates her life to the betterment of others, and her passion comes alive whenever she can serve others. She is responsible for multiple local, regional, and statewide community initiatives, and her program initiatives have touched the lives of over 65,000 individuals combined. She loves helping others create a path to healing and wholeness in their lives so they can be their best self. From 2013 - 2017, Camisha sat at the table in Washington, DC shaping federal policy around HIV/AIDS. In 2014, she served as a Principal Investigator for a year-long HIV research study with African American Churches and the UC Academic Research team. This project ended with a publication in the International Journal of Research on Service-Learning and Community Engagement. She has also developed several Health Braintrust workshop sessions for the Congressional Black Caucus under the direction of former Congresswoman Donna Christensen. In 2024, Camisha founded the Refuge Trauma Recovery Institute located in Butler County, Ohio. The work of Institute includes the infusion of Biblical and Scientific teaching principles and employs music and art therapeutic models to help the community rise above the many traumas, triggers, and stressors of life. Additionally, she serves as the Nurturing Coordinator for All In Community where she facilitates Trauma Resilience Trainings, Vicarious Trauma Trainings, and Wellness Sessions. She is also in the process of developing a victim-centered ministry for All In Community where victims will have a voice in their healing process and advocate for change on a regional and state level for other victims of criminal acts. Camisha is well-versed in the areas of strategic planning, mobilization, change management, organizational development / branding, and networking / relationship building. In 2000, Camisha received the Cinergy Multicultural Award. She was selected for the National Dean’s List in 2002, and again in 2004. She received the Miami University President’s Award in 2004. She was a YWCA Rising Leader in 2013 and was nominated for Miami’s 18of9 in 2014. Additionally, she was the recipient of the 2015 Women’s Social Justice Award at Mt. St. Joseph University. Camisha is very career, goal, and task oriented and takes immense pride in organizing stellar mobilization programs throughout the city of Cincinnati and State of Ohio.
Dr. Shantel Thomas
Shantel Thomas, Ph. D. PCC-S, LSW is a published author, President and CEO of A Sound Mind Counseling Service and Founder of the Center For Healing The Hurt, a free trauma based therapy center for kids and teens in the Cincinnati inner city. Dr. Thomas has been trained and certified in numerous counseling techniques; a few to note are: depression, women’s issues, trauma and crisis intervention. Dr. Shantel provides individual, couple and group therapy to people of all cultural backgrounds and ages. In addition to private practice, she has presented both locally, nationally and internationally to numerous audiences, in corporate, academic and church settings. Thomas has trained companies in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, and she has been the keynote speaker for numerous conferences. She believes that everyone can receive total mind, body and spiritual wellness. Dr. Thomas was honored by the Mayor of Cincinnati and City Council for Women’s History Month. She received the highest award in the city for a female, the YWCA’S Career Women of Achievement and the list continues. She is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. Dr. Thomas received her B.A., M.Ed. from the University of Toledo, where she was inducted into the Hall of Fame. She attended the University of Toledo on a full athletic scholarship and had a stellar career, traveling the world competing and receiving various honors, including MAC Athlete of the Year and NCAA Woman of the Year for Ohio. Her doctorate is from Kent State University.
Learn More or Give!
For more information on how to participate in the Institute, please email camisha.chambers@iv-charis.com for more details. To help support the work we do, give the gift of REFUGE today.