Clinical 

Inter-Professional Education and the Apopka Clinic : This partnership with the College of Medicine, College of Nursing, Department of Physical Therapy, and UF’s College of Pharmacy focuses on team based health care through experiential case-based learning. Dr. Wharton is a member of the steering team for this project and the lead for Behavioral Health, with SW Field Faculty member Iradly Roche and Counseling faculty member Dr. W. Bryce Haggedorn and doctoral student Niko Wilson. The Apopka “pop-up” clinic runs quarterly in partnership with the Farmworker’s Association, and provides interprofessional team care for uninsured and underinsured migrant farmworker community members in the underserved area of Apopka, FL. We see between 60-150 patients at each clinic. The Apopka Clinic team was awarded the inaugural Interprofessional Team Impact award from the IPEC and US Public Health Service in 2017, a grant from Florida Blue in 2018 (PI: Heather Peralta), and several student team awards from UCF.

Please see the page on this website for Community Service to view a video about the Apopka clinic.

SUPERVISION APPROACH

Tracy has clinical masters degrees in counseling psychology and social work and completed internships for both. Her current areas of specialty are trauma, mood disorders, family transitions, aging and dementia care, immigration adjustment, military and civil/foreign service families, first-responders. 

Tracy led the behavioral health team at the Apopka clinic for migrant farmworkers from 2016-2021, and has provided hundreds of hours as a disaster mental health volunteer with the Red Cross and local disaster response teams, in Orlando, Boston, and Tuscaloosa, AL. In addition to degree training and her PhD, Tracy has training in structural and strategic family therapy, end-of-life and palliative care, dementia and delirium, trauma-centered care, motivational interviewing and SBIRT, CBT, equine facilitated psychotherapy, and issues related to immigration/forced migration. She has extensive experience with military families and issues related to OPSEC and strain of deployments and separation from the military, coming from an Army family herself.

Her counseling style is integrative and client-centered, heavily influenced by systems theory and a person-in-environment orientation, using techniques that are grounded in cognitive-behavioral theory, feminist and critical theories, ego psychology, and narrative therapy. She works with clients as a partner, recognizing that clients are the experts in their lives, and the focus is on empowerment and working towards client-identified goals.

She is recognized by the Florida Department of Health as a Qualified Clinical Supervisor to registered interns seeking licensure as a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW), Licensed Mental Health Counselor (LMHC), or Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist (LMFT). Supervision sessions are directed by the supervisee, but the focus is on case review of clinical practice, approaches being used and clinical reasoning, ethical decision making, personal impact of the work and protection from compassion fatigue, and professional standards. 

Earlier career development:

Tracy worked in child protection services as both a clinician and an administrator, at a school for adolescents and children with extremely disruptive behavior and issues with aggression, in outpatient mental health practice with adults and adolescents, with military veterans and their families in hospital and community settings, and with families in primary care, inpatient, outpatient, and home-based settings. 

She moved into the area of gerontology (older adults) when she was working on her doctorate and became a specialist in dementia caregiving and family support interventions. She did an internship and postdoctoral study in a general medical inpatient setting, as a member of the Geriatric Inpatient Consult Team at University of Michigan Hospital, and in the department of Geriatrics and Palliative Care. Her advanced training has included work with first responders, including specifically fire and SWAT team members, and advanced research on family strain related to immigration.

Cost & Location:

Meetings take place at Live Oak Behavioral Health office in Maitland, near Winter Park or via secure telehealth platform. A contract outlines expectations for both supervisee and supervisor. Supervision may be done as one-hour weekly, or two hours biweekly. Temporary price reduction negotiable for new interns, those transitioning jobs or facing major life events.

Cost:

• $75/hour individual for weekly; $80 for two-hour session biweekly

• $50/hour each for two supervisees meeting together (still considered individual supervision in FL)

• $50 each for group supervision (3-6 people); group supervision is 1.5-2 hours, depending on number of people.

Email Tracy.Wharton@liveoakbehavioralhealth.com to inquire about supervision, visit https://www.liveoakbehavioralhealth.com/ or call 407-756-2084 & ask about clinical supervision.