 COUNSELING
PROGRAMS
at the Family Counseling Center
We are here to help you! Below you will find a list of some of the areas of counseling we provide on our campus. If you have any questions about any of the following feel free to contact us at drcaroldoss@family-counseling or call us at 817-534-2189.
On this page, we list information for:
Individual,
Marital/Couple,
Family,
Play Therapy,
Group,
Grief Recovery,
Career counseling, and now
e-mail counseling.
Individual Counseling
Individuals seek counseling for a variety of different problems: depression, anxiety or low self-esteem. Sometimes you may have questions about a relationship you're not sure what to do with. Or a relationship might have ended, leaving you feeling lost and angry. You may have behaviors you know are bad for you, but you don't know how to change them. Perhaps you have a child or loved one you just don't know how to help. When the people you love are troubled, you feel troubled, too.
One-on-one counseling can help you sort through the confusion to decide what's best for you to do. Our counselors can assist you in identifying the specific aspects of situations troubling you and then explore changes you can make to help you feel more free and happy.
Coming in and telling your personal problems to a complete stranger might seem really weird, even when the stranger is trained to help with problems like yours. Our professional staff understands the initial discomfort some clients feel in seeking counseling and attempts to help them feel more at ease.
If you would feel more comfortable seeking individual counseling
through email or if you do not reside in our city and would
like to try email counseling, click here.
Top
Marital and Couple Counseling
Creating and maintaining a happy, healthy marriage can be a difficult job. With the demands of work and family, finances and children, people can lose track of the attraction that first drew them together. They can still love each other, but not know how to live together happily.
There is no such thing as one "bad" person in a marriage. Without exception, both partners contribute to the problems in the relationship. Our counselors know this and don't seek to establish blame, but try instead to help couples learn how to handle the conflicts threatening their relationships.
Unresolved conflict eats at the fabric of committed relationships, sometimes allowing outside influences to intrude into the weakened union. Couples fight over money, children, sex, in-laws and religion, to name the top five. They may have long-term conflicts over specific behaviors or a situation may suddenly erupt and disrupt the relationship.
Communication can be blocked. Sometimes people have a hard time identifying their feelings, much less telling them to their partners. Anger, disappointment, and loneliness are difficult feelings to handle. Our counselors are trained to help work through couple conflicts. If couples are committed to the relationship, resolution can be achieved regardless of the conflict.
Top
Family Counseling
Families can be tough places to live, particularly if they don't know how to get along. Parents are busier than ever with demanding jobs and tight budgets. Kids face an ever-expanding world of temptations and bad influences. If everyone loves each other, why is it so hard to be happy together?
Family counseling can be necessary when conflicts between siblings or between parents and siblings become disruptive to the family group. In this kind of counseling, the entire family comes for sessions together, talking about the problems in the home. All family members are encouraged to give their point of view on the difficulties and say what they feel needs to change.
While a family is not a democracy where the majority rules, parents must learn to listen to their kids' concerns if they want to stay connected and have an influence in their children's lives. Family counseling helps parents learn to listen. It helps kids learn the consequences of their choices and the importance of being responsible for their actions.
If children have disruptive behavior in the home or at school, this kind of family therapy may be of help. Counselors initially help with communication in the family. This involves both individual expression and learning to hear each other's concerns and feelings. Then the family members work with the counselor to create different behaviors in the family to establish a different experience.
The problems can be as complex as dealing with an older child's running away from home or as simple as helping to establish and accomplish a working system of getting chores done. Single parents may seek counseling for the family to help everyone adjust to a divorce or to help with blending if a remarriage has taken place.
Top
Play Therapy for Children
Young children with behavior or family difficulties don't always feel comfortable in what is known as traditional "talk" therapy. To help these kids, therapists take them into an especially equipped Play Room and talk with them there while they interact with the toys.
When children are distressed, they out through their natural method of processing -- play. For example, when a divorce is happening in the family, a child may use the dolls in the doll house to play out a scene where the parents are fighting. This gives the therapist the opportunity to talk with the child about the feelings this kind of situation stimulates in him.
Play Therapy is a widely-accepted, very effective tool for helping children in problematic life situations learn to express their feelings and explore coping skills. The therapy can be helpful in dealing with a wide range of problems from simple environmental stress to more severe behavior difficulties. In order to benefit from this kind of therapy, children need to be somewhat verbal and able to interact meaningfully with the therapist.
Top
Adolescent Transitions
The transition from being a kid who goofs off with friends and doesn't worry about tomorrow to being an adult who pays the bills and votes, is huge. Parents love keeping their kids kids, but what happens when they graduate from high school? Do they get a job or go off to college? What college a adolescent goes to, how they study(or don't!) and how they choose the career they're going to embrace as a young adult--its all about transitions.
This shift from child to adult may be one parents and kids are not eager for, but it begins when adolescents enter high school. Many choices lie ahead. Most kids don't get this and don't realize that when they enter high school, their grades start really counting. This major life transition can be challenging--for parents and teens. All at once, it seems, adolescents have scary lifestyle options--freedom to choose destructive relationships and bad behavior. Parents may want to keep them on a close leash, but that doesn't help kids become responsible adults. Getting professional help can take some of the heat off parents and can give teens a clearer view of the choices they're making.
Top
Group Counseling
In small group counseling, individuals or couples talk with other group members about the problems confronting them. Led by trained therapists, the group members discuss and exhibit social behaviors that may be inhibiting their relationships. In the group setting, the interaction between members serves as a kind of lab for behaviors used in the outside world. In this environment, however, the group is encouraged to give honest feedback about the dysfunctional things they see in each other's actions.
The process of learning can be a painful one, but it is most effectively accomplished when individuals feel supported and cared for and are thus better able to hear feedback. Our counselors encourage honesty and responsibility in the group.
The group environment is a wonderful opportunity to experience others' understanding and nurturing while trying out new behaviors and examining old ones. Groups are typically conducted on a weekly basis and may continue for a varying length of time.
Top
Grief Recovery Counseling
Suffering from the loss of a loved one can be excruciating. Whether through death or divorce, people struggle when a significant relationship is ended. Grieving can extend of a period of time, even becoming complicated with symptoms of depression.
The process of grief is very personal, following no specific time table. Feelings of guilt and regret may seem overwhelming. Sometimes, individuals just do not know how to go on with their lives. Doing so can even seem like a betrayal of the loved ones, as if they didn't matter.
But prolonged, disruptive grief is harmful, not only to the grieving individual, but to those who love and depend on him or her. Grief Recovery counseling can help people work through the natural stages of loss - the anger, denial and despair. Working through this painful transition allows individuals to become happier, healthier people without trying to deny or bury past loves.
Integrating the lost loved ones into a new life can be achieved through the process of addressing people's feelings and making new choices to move forward.
Top
Career Counseling
People spend a significant chunk of their lives working, but many find themselves unhappy and frustrated in their careers. Career counseling can help pinpoint the best jobs for specific individual strengths.
Whether an individual is just beginning a work career or has been in the workforce for decades, career planning can help with future choices. Counselors begin by assisting clients to understand their particular personality. Different jobs are perfect for different people.
Introverts work best when they can have some work time alone. Extroverts thrive on activity and interaction. To determine clients' best work situation, counselors will first administer the Myers Briggs Type Indicator. This instrument does not measure how mentally sick or healthy clients are, but instead attempts to describe personality attributes. Once clients understand their needs, they are better able to decide which jobs will best suit them.
If desired, clients may then take a vocational interest inventory such as the Kuder Preference Record or the Strong Interest Inventory. These measures can help focus clients' academic or career efforts.
All jobs have some drawbacks, but a career that fits individual needs enables us to feel productive and happy.
Top
IF THIS IS AN EMERGENCY, if you feel suicidal or if you feel like you want to hurt yourself or someone else, CALL 911, call your DOCTOR, or go to the nearest EMERGENCY ROOM immediately!
|
