Introduction: Forcibly displaced persons rates rose to more than 123 million in 2024 due to growing, complex global challenges (i.e., political unrest, climate change, discrimination). Fifty million are youth under 18 years who are not accompanied by a legal guardian to a new country (i.e., unaccompanied minor (UM)). Legal support for UMs seeking asylum is crucial to wellbeing. Globally, 85% of UM's who have legal representation obtain asylum compared to 15% who do not; but the number of UMs needing representation far exceeds capacity. Interdisciplinary collaborations between psychologists and attorneys to train legal providers on key trauma tenets and its impact has the potential to expand legal workforce capacity and more effectively represent UMs in courts.


Purpose: Clinical researchers at Northwestern University and the National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC), a Chicago-based immigration law firm, partnered to adapt an evidenced-based, trauma training curriculum, Think Trauma, to meet the unique professional needs of UM legal providers.


Methods: Between 2022-2024, a team of psychologists and legal providers convened. An initial needs assessment of the legal partners was followed by monthly meetings to identify and adapt core training components, iteratively refine content, and identify facilitators and barriers of implementation for Think Trauma Legal (TTL). Using the Dynamic Adaptation Process (DAP) implementation science framework, post hoc qualitative, thematic analyses from feedback of pro-bono, immigration lawyers, and the iterative work processes were conducted.


Results: Results suggest 1) attorneys involved in immigration proceedings report understanding trauma is essential, and 2) following early TTL training efforts, they report increased understanding about the impact of trauma and enhanced ability to utilize this knowledge in their work.


Conclusion: Interdisciplinary efforts to train legal providers on the impact of trauma can expand global workforce capacity and open opportunities for greater number of UMs to have effective, trauma-informed legal representation in court.