Forensic Behavioral Health

Clinical excellence at the intersection of behavioral health and the legal system — for individuals, families, and legal professionals.

Forensic behavioral health sits at a unique and often complex intersection — where the clinical world of mental health and substance use care meets the legal system and all that it carries. For individuals navigating this intersection, the stakes are high and the need for compassionate, clinically rigorous, and legally sophisticated care is profound. For legal professionals seeking evaluation, consultation, or expert testimony, the need for credibility, accuracy, and professional integrity is equally paramount.

Scholar’s forensic behavioral health services are designed to meet the needs of all three audiences who most often encounter this intersection — individuals and families navigating the legal system, legal professionals seeking expert clinical services, and courts seeking credible, evidence-based evaluations and testimony. Whatever brings you here, Scholar brings the same clinical excellence, ethical integrity, and genuine commitment to well-being that defines everything we do.

Forensic behavioral health sits at a unique and profoundly human intersection — where the clinical world of mental health and substance use care meets the legal system and all that it carries. It is a space inhabited by individuals at very different points in very different journeys. Some are navigating the consequences of choices that caused harm. Others are navigating the aftermath of harm that was done to them. Both deserve access to compassionate, evidence-based, and clinically rigorous care. And both will find that care at Scholar.

Scholar’s forensic behavioral health program serves adults and adolescents across the full spectrum of forensic clinical need — including individuals who have engaged in sexual and non-sexual offending behavior, whether or not charges have been filed or convictions obtained, and individuals who have experienced victimization through crime, abuse, or exploitation. Our program is built on the belief that the legal outcome does not determine the clinical need — and that both accountability and healing are possible, often simultaneously, for everyone this program serves.

Treatment for Justice-Involved Adults

•  Sequential Intercept Model (SIM) — every individual is identified & engaged at the right point in their justice system involvement

•  Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) — evidence-based intervention targeting criminal thinking patterns and offending behavior

•  Trauma-Informed Care (TIC) — recognizing and addressing the profound role of trauma in justice-involved adult populations

•  Motivational Interviewing (MI) — strengthening intrinsic motivation and commitment to change

•  Mental Health & Substance Use Treatment — individualized and grounded in the Risk-Need-Responsivity Model

•  Anger Management — structured CBT-based intervention for court-referred and voluntary adults

•  Domestic Violence Intervention — evidence-based clinical intervention for perpetrators and survivors

•  Sex Offender Treatment — specialized, evidence-based treatment grounded in the RNR Model

Treatment for Justice-Involved Adolescents

•  Developmental and Neurobiological Framework — adolescent brain development, implications for culpability & rehabilitation

•  Strengths-Based and Resiliency-Focused Approaches — building on the adolescent’s existing strengths and protective factors

•  Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) — addressing criminal thinking patterns and behavioral change in adolescent populations

•  Trauma-Informed Care (TIC) — essential given the extraordinarily high rates of ACEs and trauma exposure in this population

•  Motivational Interviewing (MI) — honoring adolescent autonomy while building intrinsic motivation for change

•  Mental Health & Substance Use Treatment — developmentally informed and family-centered

•  Multisystemic Therapy (MST) — intensive, home-based intervention for serious delinquency

•  Functional Family Therapy (FFT) — family-centered intervention for behavioral problems and delinquency

•  Multidimensional Treatment Foster Care (MTFC) — structured community-based alternative to residential placement

•  Aggression Replacement Training (ART) — structured CBT intervention for aggressive and delinquent adolescents

•  Adolescent Anger Management — developmentally tailored evidence-based intervention

•  Adolescent Domestic Violence Intervention — trauma-sensitive, developmentally informed

•  Adolescent Sex Offender Treatment — specialized, developmentally informed evaluation 

Treatment for Victims and Survivors of Crime & Abuse

•  Trauma-Informed Care — the foundation of all survivor-focused clinical services at Scholar

•  Prolonged Exposure Therapy (PE) — evidence-based PTSD treatment

•  Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) — evidence-based trauma and PTSD treatment

•  Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) — for trauma, depression, anxiety, and related conditions

•  Trauma-Focused CBT (TF-CBT) — evidence-based standard for adolescent trauma treatment

•  Seeking Safety — evidence-based co-occurring trauma and substance use treatment

In addition to clinical treatment, Scholar provides a comprehensive range of forensic evaluation and consultation services for individuals, families, courts, and legal professionals. These services span both populations and are available by referral and appointment.

•  Child Custody Evaluations

•  Parenting Capacity Assessments

•  Sex Offender Risk Assessments

•  Substance Use Evaluations for Legal Purposes

•  Mitigation Evaluations

•  Expert Witness Testimony — Civil and Criminal Proceedings

•  Consultation to Attorneys and Courts

For referrals and consultation inquiries, please visit the dedicated page for legal professionals and courts or contact our care team directly.  We respond to all forensic referrals within 24 to 48 hours.