Adolescent, Young Adult, and Family Specialist
Better Way Counseling specializes in working with adolescents, young adults, and their families. We genuinely enjoy helping you find solutions and relief from life’s many challenges. We provide effective services that have helped many clients reach the goals they were striving for, and have served them working closely in various settings, such as: mentoring programs, residential programs, group homes, out-patient clinics, juvenile justice services, schools and juvenile courts. We value safety, empathy, warmth, and genuineness in building healthy-supportive relationships with our clients. We utilize a client-centered holistic approach to treatment, meaning we value the personal experiences of each client, and work with them to better understand how their psychological, social, physical, spiritual, environmental, and financial experiences influence the problems they seek to resolve. We strive to promote a therapeutic experience that helps clients discover solutions to their own problems, promoting: integrity, accountability, self-control, self-discovery, conflict-resolution, strengthened relationships, improved self-image, age-appropriate developmental competency, and last change. We're genuinely committed and passionate about helping adolescents, young adults, and their families find solutions for living life a Better Way. SPECIALTIES:
• Sexual Addiction (CSAT)
• Sexual Behavioral Problems (NOJOS Certified)
• Substance Abuse/Addiction
• Behavioral/Emotional Problems
• Depression/Anxiety
• Suicidal Ideation/Thoughts
• Childhood Trauma/PTSD
• Family Conflict
CORE AREAS OF FOCUS:
1. Establishing Integrity: for this area of focus the main goal is to create a therapeutic relationship and environment for change. This is achieved by working closely with clients and their families to discover their: 1) willingness, 2) ability, and 3) readiness to change.
2. Accepting Responsibility: for this area of focus the main goal is to help clients and their families learn to take accountability for personal actions and learn ways to manage individual experiences cognitively, physiologically, and behaviorally. This is achieved by helping clients and their families: 1) build an internal/external awareness of the existing problems, 2) identify and learn safe-effective strategies to manage and regulate physiological and emotional experiences, and 3) enhance capacity for healthy social relations and connectivity.
3. Strengthening Relationship: for this area of focus the main goal is to help our clients strengthen relationships with self and others. This is achieved by helping clients and their families: 1) work together to manage their own emotional and physiological responses, 2) enhance everyone’s capacity to accurately read, attune and respond to the cues of others, and 3) and build a safe predictable environment that promotes healthy relationships in the family system.
4. Developing Age-Appropriate Competency: for this area of focus the main goal is to promote age-appropriate developmental competency, which is achieved by helping clients and their families: 1) develop age-appropriate processing and problems solving skills, and 2) to explore and strengthen healthy self and family identity.
5. Maintaining Lasting Change: for this area of focus the main goal is to avoid the risk of re-engaging in past problem behaviors, which is achieved by helping clients, in support of their families: 1) identify the possibilities of future risks, 3) learn how to manage these risks, 3) and create a plan that addresses risks, integrating the skills and resources learned throughout treatment. The above areas of focus acts as a framework, helping to guide treatment, rather than providing a mandated step-by-step standard, dictating therapy. While we believe strongly in building on scientific literature and utilizing evidence-base materials, we also believe in identifying principles of intervention that translate uniquely to each client and their family.
