Extensive Trauma Expertise
Dr. Jeff Sugar’s career has been defined by a sustained focus on the psychiatric effects of trauma and adversity. His work integrates decades of clinical practice, forensic evaluations, academic leadership, research, and national service, making him a recognized authority in child, adolescent, and adult trauma psychiatry.
Clinical and Forensic Trauma Work
For more than thirty years, Dr. Sugar has worked in settings where trauma was a central concern, including residential treatment, inpatient psychiatry, outpatient clinics, emergency services, and consultation. Since 1990, he has also maintained a forensic practice as an expert witness in both civil and criminal cases, for plaintiffs and defense, with emphasis on trauma-related matters.
Representative case areas include:
- Institutional sexual abuse
- PTSD and Complex PTSD (C-PTSD)
- Adversity and its effects on child development
- Chronic physical, sexual, and emotional abuse
- Psychological trauma in the workplace
- Date rape and internet grooming/seduction
- Traumatic brain injury and psychiatric consequences of injury
- Psychiatric medical malpractice
Additional clinical roles have included:
- Director, Child & Adolescent Psychiatry Trauma Program, USC (2006–2021)
- Chief, Child & Adolescent Crisis, Emergency and Consultation Service, USC (2006–2013)
- Ward Chief, Adolescent Inpatient Psychiatry, USC (2005–2006, 2013–2015)
- Psychiatric Relief Work (volunteer), Banda Aceh, Indonesia, post-tsunami (2005)
He also conducted more than 250 Workers’ Compensation psychiatric evaluations (1989–2001), many involving trauma in the workplace, and developed an instrument to systematize trauma-related assessments.
Teaching and Training in Trauma
Teaching has been a central part of Dr. Sugar’s trauma work. At USC, he established the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Trauma Program, funded by a five-year SAMHSA grant, and began training residents and fellows in Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) in 2006.
Trauma-related teaching contributions include:
- Courses in psychotherapy and statistics focused on trauma and critical analysis of research
- Clinical case conferences on trauma for pediatric and psychiatry trainees
- Training fellows and residents to distinguish trauma-related disorders from psychosis
- Using expressive arts therapy in adolescent trauma groups
- Longstanding supervision of medical students, psychology, counseling, and social work trainees
Earlier in his career, he developed a child psychiatry fellowship training program at Hathaway Children’s Village (1992), which continued for nearly two decades, with an emphasis on trauma-focused clinical care.
Research and Grants on Trauma
Dr. Sugar has consistently pursued research on trauma assessment, treatment, and outcomes.
Key projects include:
- SCAATIR (Screener for Child Attachment, Adversity, Trauma, Impairment, and Resilience): co-developed with Julian Ford, PhD, and field-tested nationally.
- Justina: Virtual Adolescent Trauma Patient: an innovative training tool for clinicians learning to recognize PTSD and therapeutic alliance.
- Trauma Outcomes Database: created one of the first large trauma databases for over 100 ethnically diverse youth in residential treatment.
- Hathaway Children’s Clinical Research Institute (Director, 1999–2004): led major projects on chronically traumatized children.
Grant support for trauma research has included:
- National Child Traumatic Stress Network (2006–2011) – USC subcontract for trauma assessment and training
- BC McCabe Foundation ($1.4M, 2001–2004; renewal in 2004) – best practices for traumatized youth
- Southern California CTSI Pilot Funding (2014–2018) – biomarkers of childhood trauma
- Multiple foundation and government grants supporting research in trauma psychiatry
Consulting and Professional Service
Dr. Sugar has provided trauma-related consulting at the organizational level.
- Residential Treatment Program Assessment for the National Center for Child Traumatic Stress (2004–2005)
- Program Development Consulting for Hollygrove Children’s Center (1997)
He also served on national trauma committees:
- National Child Traumatic Stress Network (Substance Abuse Committee, Complex Trauma Committee, Founding Chair of Residential Treatment Committee)
- AACAP Disaster and Trauma Committee (2004–2009)
Publications and Presentations on Trauma
Dr. Sugar has published and presented extensively on trauma, dissociation, and adversity.
Selected publications:
- Peritraumatic Dissociation and PTSD in Psychiatrically Impaired Youth, Journal of Traumatic Stress (2012)
- How Adversity Becomes Disease: The Biological Embedding of Experience, Proceedings of the National Crime Victim Bar Association (2015)
Selected presentations:
- “Rapid Assessment of Pediatric Adversity and Trauma (RAPAT),” ISTSS Annual Meeting, Dallas (2016)
- “Mis(sed) Diagnosis: Trauma, Dissociation, and Psychosis,” APA Annual Meeting, Toronto (2015)
- “Treating Child and Adolescent Dissociative Disorders with Hypnosis,” Lund University, Sweden (2014)
- “Trauma, Dissociation and Somatization in Youth,” ISTSS, Los Angeles (2012)
- “PTSD following the Indonesian Tsunami,” Southern California Psychiatric Society (2006)
- “Peritraumatic Dissociation and PTSD in Youth in Residential Treatment,” ISTSS, Baltimore (2002)
- “Complex PTSD in Multiply Traumatized Youth,” ISTSS, Baltimore (2002)
- Earlier AACAP and hypnosis conference presentations (1990s) on child dissociation and trauma