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Clinical Social Worker and Psychotherapist
Supported by more than three decades as a clinician, supervisor, administrator, social work educator, and human service consultant, Dr. Carten’s inclusive, family centered clinical practice is anchored in a philosophical approach that respects the diversity of cultural experiences that shape individual world views, and the belief that the family is the essential context for our emotional well-being. Her practice centers around helping clients cope with the stresses associated with normative life transitions occurring over the life cycle of coupling, parenting and launching children, maintaining intimacy in adult partner relationship, and caring for aging parents; or minimize the traumatizing effects of unforeseen crises such as divorce, addiction, physical or mental illness, or presence of a special needs child or adolescent. Her solution focused, strengths-based approach is anchored in social work’s “person-in-environment” perspective and integrates traditional relationship and insight therapies with new evidenced based models that draw on cognitive behavioral change theories. Ever mindful of the role of culture in shaping behavior and family values, her approach is to help clients reach their full potential and enjoy more satisfying intimate, family and work relationships. Her therapeutic approach is especially effective for changing repetitive unproductive behavioral patterns and supporting new insights for understanding that the same mindset cannot be used for finding solutions to complex problems that created them.
Alma J. Carten, PhD, LCSW, ACSW, earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from Ohio University, Master of Social Work degree from the Whitney M. Young Jr. School of Social Work, and Doctorate in Social Welfare from Hunter College School of Social Work of the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. She is a recipient of the National Institute of Health mental health fellowship, and the Council on Social Work Education Minority Fellowship. Dr. Carten recently celebrated more than 25 years as a full-time faculty member of the New York University Silver School of Social Work, and since her retirement has a continuing affiliation with the School as Adjunct Associate Professor. Over a career, that has focused on child and family well-being, Dr. Carten has been actively involved in academia and the social welfare practice communities, as well as with social work professional membership organizations. Over her a two-year term as president of the NYC chapter of the National
Association of Social Work, Dr. Carten spearheaded the profession’s leadership role in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks of the World Trade Center. Throughout her career Dr. Carten has been continuously involved in teaching at the undergraduate, graduate and doctoral levels, agency staff development and training programs and program evaluation. Counted among her awards are service award from Mayor David Dinkins for her work on the New York city Commission on the Foster Care of Children, and interim commissioner of the city’s public child welfare agency; the NYC chapter of the National Association of Social Workers highest social work leadership award, and the African American Pioneers award; the New York University Silver School of Social Work’s Dorothy Height Humanitarian Award, and the New York State Social Work Educators Lifetime Achievement Award On the occasion of her retirement from the full time faculty of Silver an invitational colloquium in acknowledgment of her work examined child and family well-being over her career. She continues to present at local and national conferences, and upon her retirement launched a private practice specializing in clinical practice with individuals, couples, and families.
Dr. Carten is well known for her work in academia that has focused on pressing issues in the field of services to children and families, and specifically in the field of child welfare She has conducted research and published on family preservation programs, maternal substance abuse, child survivors of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, independent living services for adolescents approaching discharge from foster care, dimensions of abuse and neglect among immigrant families, neighborhood-based services and culturally competent mental health services for the African American community. He recent publications include “The Collected Papers of James R. Dumpson, examines US social welfare policy over a 50 year period from the enactment of the 1935 Social Security Act through the 1996 Welfare reforms. "Strategies for deconstructing racism in the health and human services” brings together a national roster of experts from practice and academia to examine new approaches for closing racial and ethnic disparities in the health and human services. Her articles addressing current issues of concern to the health and human services are published in the Conversation, the New Republic and the Global Post. Focusing on the CAU Whitney M. Young, Jr. School of Social Work , her book Find A Way or Make One, published by the Oxford University Press, documents the history of social work as it evolved in the schools of social work in historically black colleges and universities. She continues to actively support efforts of the professionalization of the child welfare workforce and racial disproportionality. See Dr. Carten’s curriculum vitae to learn more about her academic portfolio.
The Alma J. Carten Scholarship
Embracing the Silver’s commitment to excellence in clinical practice, and the generation of diverse research for examining society’s most pressing social problems impacting children and families, the Carten Scholarship supports the scholarship and professional development beginning professionals who are committed to the pursuit of a common goal of knowledge building to support excellence and innovation in professional social work practice. It brings together Silver students from diverse social and cultural backgrounds who are matriculated in one of the School’s graduate degree bearing programs in an effort to promote their advancement to leadership positions in child and family serving health and human service agencies. Candidates for the scholarship will have demonstrated leadership potential and commitment to a career in service in the field of service to children, youth and families, and new immigrants in keeping with the focus of Dr. Carten’s work. . Click here to learn more.
Dr. Carten consultancy centers around three areas: long and short technical assistance, staff training, and program development for private and public sector child and family serving agencies; an expert witness to attorney’s representing parents or agencies in child protection or Family Court proceedings, and clinical case consultations to clinicians seeking to meet licensing requirements or interested in strengthening clinical skills for practice in child welfare settings. Click here for more information about New York State Education Law.
See videos of Dr. Carten work as child and family advocate; seminars advancing a strength-based approach in the work with families anchored in the neuroscience; promoting the contributions of social welfare icon Dr. James R. Dumpson, and a NASW webinar on the publication Find A Way or Make One.