Sarah Ascienzo

Bio

Sarah Ascienzo, PhD, LCSW is an Assistant Professor in the School of Social Work at North Carolina State University. Dr. Ascienzo has over 15 years of clinical experience with children and families adversely affected by psychological trauma, including work as a trauma-focused clinician in community- and school-based settings and child forensic interviewer. During her clinical career, Dr. Ascienzo specialized in the treatment of complex trauma, and worked extensively with child welfare-involved youth and those impacted by chronic interpersonal violence. She has experience with program development, clinical training, and implementation in the area of trauma-informed/responsive care and trauma-focused treatment. Dr. Ascienzo’s research broadly focuses on mitigating the adverse health consequences of direct and indirect trauma exposure, including a focus on secondary traumatic stress among helping professionals and behavioral health workforce development efforts. Dr. Ascienzo’s recent projects include an analysis of risk and protective factors at the individual, supervisory, and organizational levels that contribute to secondary traumatic stress and burnout among mental health professionals; an exploration of meaning making among trauma-exposed youth within the context of clinical treatment; and an examination of factors impacting the implementation and sustainability of trauma-focused interventions in community settings.

Publications

• Child Maltreatment and Whole-person Health: Investigation of Psychosocial Buffers Using Structural Equation Modeling , BIOPSYCHOSOCIAL SCIENCE AND MEDICINE (2025)
• Are Differences Evident in the Ways Boys and Girls Appraise and Interpret Their Traumatic Experiences? A Qualitative Analysis of Youth Trauma Narratives , VIOLENCE AND VICTIMS (2024)
• The utility of trauma evaluations in judicial decision-making in child sex trafficking cases: A qualitative analysis , Family Court Review (2023)
• “My Bad Experiences Are Not the Only Things Shaping Me Anymore”: Thematic Analysis of Youth Trauma Narratives , Journal of Child & Adolescent Trauma (2022)
• Gender differences in the PTSD symptoms of polytraumatized youth during isolated phases of trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy. , Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy (2021)
• Disseminating TF‐CBT: A Mixed Methods Investigation of Clinician Perspectives and the Impact of Training Format and Formalized Problem‐Solving Approaches on Implementation Outcomes , Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice (2020)
• Fidelity and sustainability in evidence-based treatments for children: An investigation of implementation determinants , JOURNAL OF FAMILY SOCIAL WORK (2020)
• THE IMPACT OF SAFE HARBOR LEGISLATION ON COURT PROCEEDINGS INVOLVING SEX TRAFFICKED YOUTH: A QUALITATIVE INVESTIGATION OF JUDICIAL PERSPECTIVES (vol 58, pg 816, 2020) , FAMILY COURT REVIEW (2020)
• The Impact of Safe Harbor Legislation on Court Proceedings Involving Sex Trafficked Youth: A Qualitative Investigation of Judicial Perspectives , Family Court Review (2020)
• “Just like Jail”: Trauma Experiences of Older Homeless Men , Journal of Gerontological Social Work (2020)