Meet doctoral candidate Corletha Norman. Corletha is owner and director of Bonhomie, LLC, a private practice where she specializes in the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder, trauma, and mood disorders. Ms. Norman’s clinical and educational training began at the University of Louisville, where she earned a Bachelor of Art in Psychology in 2008. She then pursued her Master of Social Work degree with Spalding University. Upon graduation in 2011, she began the process to successfully obtain licensure as a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW). Ms. Norman became independently licensed in the States of Kentucky and Georgia in 2014.
Ms. Norman maintains an ongoing interest in researching statistical data reflecting the experiences and outcomes of foster youth. Experiences such as foster youth trauma histories, problem solving skills, commonly experienced barriers, and successful interventions. These varying interests birthed the topic of Ms. Norman’s capstone project: Mitigating Compounded Barriers to Independence: Improving Outcomes Post Emancipation for Foster Youth with Secondary and Tertiary Barriers to Success. Here Ms. Norman shares what the literature states about improving outcomes for subpopulations of foster youth preparing to age out of care, why further intervention is needed for subpopulations within the general population, and provides a suggested change to intervention to improve outcomes for foster youth prior to emancipation.
In 2021, Ms. Norman was awarded the Beaven-Eidetic Doctoral Research Fellowship Fund. She was also awarded the Jillian Johnson Outstanding MSW Award following the completion of her master degree program in 2011. Ms. Norman maintains numerous publications as a mental health columnist for Twenty4Seven Magazine, a virtual and print urban hip-hop magazine.