Kenneth J. Lau is a licensed certified social worker who has work in the field of child abuse trauma for over 45 years. For more than 35 years, he has specialized in working with children and families with histories of sexual abuse trauma. From 1987-2013, as Coordinator of Sex Offender Services at the Westchester Jewish Community Services, Treatment Center for Trauma and Abuse, he provided direct supervision and consultation services to over 500 hundred incest families in the metropolitan area. The Treatment Center for Trauma and Abuse (TCTA) has been providing special assessment and treatment services to sexual abuse victims, their families and offenders for over 30 years. They are the only program in the lower Hudson Valley to provide comprehensive services to incest families. Over the years, TCTA staff has provided specialized treatment to hundreds of incest families and has successfully completed reunification/unification of adolescent and adult incest sex offenders with these families.
For more than 30 years, TCTA has provided contractual services to Westchester County Departments of Social Services, Probation and the Westchester County Family Court. In his capacity as Coordinator of Sex Offender Services, Mr. Lau has directly completed hundreds of psycho-sexual risk assessments on adolescents and adults who have committed sexual harm. In addition, he has provided supervision of staff and consultation of more than 750 adolescent /adults who have committed sexual harm. In addition, TCTA has provided ongoing specialized sex offense specific individual and group treatment to more than 500 clients in the NY Metropolitan area.
For over 25 years, Mr. Lau has maintained a private practice specializing in the assessment and treatment of adults who have committed sexual harm. In his practice, Mr. Lau and his colleagues have evaluated and provided treatment services to outpatient and incarcerated individuals convicted of sexual offenses. In his practice, Mr. Lau has evaluated hundreds of convicted individuals and provided ongoing individual and group treatment to over 750 clients in the community. His out-patient program, Empire State Forensics (previously Tri State Forensics Group) presently has contracts with the NYS Office of Mental Health (OMH) and the Federal Department of Probation in the Southern District of New York. As part of the Federal contract, Mr. Lau and his colleagues provide psycho-sexual risk assessments and treatment to adults charged with sexual crimes under the supervision of the Federal Courts. The OMH contract calls for Mr. Lau to provide treatment services to civilly committed individuals charged with sexual crimes as part of the Strict and Intensive Supervision (SIST) program. In addition, he has worked with probation and parole departments in both NYS and Connecticut with clients under supervision. For over 30 years, Mr. Lau has been accepted as an expert in criminal and family courts related to the assessment and treatment of individuals convicted of sexual offenses both in New York and Connecticut.
In addition to providing direct services to victims of sexual abuse, their families and offenders for over 30 years, Mr. Lau has trained more than 10,000 caseworkers, law enforcement personnel, prosecutors and therapist related to the investigation and treatment of child sexual abuse. In his position at Children FIRST, Fordham University, he has fulfilled numerous sex abuse training contracts with local county department of social service, including NYCACS and the NYS Office of Children and Families. He is also on the training faculty for the New York State Children’s Justice Task Force Forensic Best Practice Training of Safe Horizon and has trained hundreds of NYS Child Protective workers and law enforcement personnel on forensic interviewing best practices when investigating child sex abuse allegations.
At Fordham University, Children FIRST, Mr. Lau is the Project Coordinator of the Sex Abuse Dynamics and Identification (SADIT) training. He has taught classes related to interpersonal trauma and the Identification and Reporting Child Abuse that is required for mandated reporters to be licensed in NYS. He is the author of a publisher book entitled, Mandated Reporting of Child Abuse and Neglect, A Practical Guide for Social Workers. As a consultant and trainer with the NYS Forensic Interview Best Practice (FIBP) Guidelines training, Mr. Lau conducted over 50 trainings of Law Enforcement, Prosecutors and Child Protective Investigators throughout New York State. He worked with other consultants with the FIBP training to update the basic curriculum and write the Advanced Forensic Interview Training.
In addition, he serves as a consultant to other educators, caseworkers, law enforcement personnel and mental health care providers on the investigation and treatment of victims of sexual abuse and their families. In June 2008, he was the recipient of the Rohmer Award at WJCS which recognizes excellence in “Outstanding Professional Accomplishments. In 1998, he was the recipient of the Fay Honey Knopp Memorial Award, given by the NTS Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers which recognizes outstanding work and dedication to the treatment of sexual offenders.
Mr. Lau background includes over 15 years work in the child welfare system in both foster care and preventive services in New York State. His duties included eight years as director of a foster boarding home program and preventive service programs at child welfare agencies in the Bronx. He was the initial chairperson of the Bronx Child Abuse Task Force and for two years was board president of the New York Federation on Child Abuse and in May 2005, he was elected president of the New York State Chapter of Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers (NYSATSA). He served in that capacity until 2011. ATSA is the only recognized membership organization in the United States whose members specialize in assessment, treatment and research related to sex offenders. Many criminal and family courts will only accept ATSA members as resources for assessing and treating individuals convicted of sexual crimes.
Mr. Lau can be contacted at KLau@EmpireStateForensics.com.