Sarah Jane Frankel, LICSW

Sarah Jane Frankel is a licensed independent clinical social worker and the Director of Family Therapy and High Conflict Resolution at Boston Child Study Center. Sarah Jane has extensive experience providing individual, group, and family therapy for diverse populations presenting with co-occurring problems and long-term distress including multiple forms of trauma, chronic suicidality, self-harm, serious mental illness, problematic sexual behavior, and complex family dynamics. She has a firm commitment to walking alongside parents as they navigate parenting challenges and relationship difficulties while actively collaborating with other providers to provide comprehensive treatment for people during the most difficult times in their life. Sarah Jane has a specialization in supporting parents who are navigating high-conflict parenting dynamics and provides treatment and consultation for families in high conflict.

Sarah Jane graduated from the University of Michigan School of Social Work in 2003 where she engaged in research exploring traumatic grief in children with parental loss, disrupted emotion perception and trauma, and adolescents with problematic sexual behaviors. Sarah Jane has worked in multiple settings including outpatient clinics, residential school, and most recently as Clinical Director of the UMASS Medical School Adolescent Continuing Care Units where she worked for over 10 years. As a clinician and clinical supervisor on the Adolescent Continuing Care Unit, the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health’s highest level of care, she provided intensive treatment for youth with complex emotional and behavioral difficulties that required longer-term hospitalization.

Sarah Jane has extensive training in Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Structural Family Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, evidence-based trauma therapy approaches such as TF-CBT and DBT-PTSD, and the Attachment, Regulation, and Competency model of care. She has a subspecialty providing treatment for children and adolescents and their families presenting with problematic sexual behavior and is a clinical member of the Association of the Treatment for Sexual Abusers. Currently, she is developing a clinical curriculum to reduce the impact of high-conflict parent dynamics in families and offer a path towards healing for parents under these circumstances, including in families where interpersonal violence has occurred.