HEARTPRINTS COUNSELING LLC

FAMILY COUNSELING

Our families can be messy. We love them but may find ourselves more often than not in conflict or avoiding them. In family counseling, goals are identified by each of the family members. Expectations for the family sessions are also mutually agreed upon. As a family therapist, I use a variety of interventions to create growth, improve communication, and connection, reducing conflict. Each family member is given an opportunity to contribute and whole family participation in encouraged.

Caregiver Support

I offer caregivers support to the grownups struggling to know how to best respond to their hurting teenager. There is no guidebook for raising your youth. And there are definitely no innate skills for dealing with mental health struggles. The grownups can fear enabling as they seek to accommodate and support. They also are concerned of ignoring or not offering enough support in difficult times. It’s a tightrope walk. We can unintentionally reinforce reactive behaviors. We can unintentionally reward mental illness. It often feels like a lose/lose scenario.

I provide caregiver coaching sessions on de-escalation, relationship development, psychoeducation, and connection. I work with caregivers to develop reasonable expectations, along with clear and brief consequences engaging motivation even in the midst of mental health issues. These sessions are typically done without the client present (Parent confidentially is not guaranteed). I use the curriculum presented by the evidenced based program Parent Project as a foundation for the work. I have taken the class myself, worked with the facilitators of Parent Project, and implemented the practices in my own home as a foster mom to teen girls. I can personally attest to its effectiveness.