ASSESSMENT
We provide a comprehensive evaluation of your child and/or family, with thoughtful and comprehensive treatment plan recommendations. This assessment may include collaborating with pediatricians, schools, psychiatrists, and other members of your child’s support team. Our evaluation includes identifying strengths, symptoms, and therapeutic needs. We offer a diagnostic evaluation utilizing DSM-5 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th Edition) classifications.
GROUP THERAPY
At Acorn Family Guidance Center we believe that our peers can often be our best guides. In group therapy, you or your child will have the opportunity to learn and practice new skills, gain support, and improve self-awareness. Groups can act as a support network and a sounding board. Other members of the group can help with identifying specific ideas for improving a difficult situation or life challenge, and provide accountability along the way. Regularly talking and listening to others can help put your own difficulties in perspective. Several groups are beginning soon!
PARENT COACHING
Parenting can be extremely challenging. If you find yourself feeling lost, stuck, or frustrated with the challenges of parenting, we would like to help you. We will assist you with identifying parenting strategies that improve communication, prevent meltdowns and problem behaviors, implement routines to promote predictability and structure, encourage trust and security, set effective limits, and develop problem solving skills between you and your child or teen.
INDIVIDUAL THERAPY
Individual therapy for pre-teens, teens, and young adults can be tremendously beneficial in assisting them with understanding themselves, overcoming their challenges, and achieving success. Often pre-teens and teens find it difficult to talk to their caregivers about numerous topics and feelings. Providing your child with a safe and supportive individual therapist can assist them with navigating the numerous challenges they are facing today.
PARENT-CHILD INTERACTION THERAPY
Parent-child interaction therapy (PCIT) is an evidence-based, research-supported treatment for young children with emotional and behavioral difficulties. This approach emphasizes improving the quality of the parent-child relationship and changing parent-child interaction patterns. Children and their caregivers are seen together in PCIT. Most of the session time is spent coaching caregivers in the application of specific therapy skills. Therapists coach parents from an observation room using a “bug-in-the-ear” system for communicating to the parents as they play with their child. Concluding each session, the therapist and caregiver together decide which skill to focus on most during daily 5-minute home practice sessions the following week.
WORKSHOPS & TRAINING
Professional seminars and workshops are available upon request. Topics include: Parenting with a Plan - Five steps to helping your child's growth, Successful Parent Meetings – Tips for talking to caregivers about their children’s growth, Detection & Intervention – Early warning signs, Managing Technology in Families, and more. For a complete list of workshops and training topics, please contact us.
FAMILY THERAPY
Is your family is experiencing conflict, challenging life events, significant changes, or stress? We know that even one stressor can lead to every member of the family feeling stuck. At Acorn Family Guidance Center, we offer the co-therapy approach to family therapy. Having two therapists assist your family often allows each family member the opportunity to feel respected, listened to, and understood. In family therapy, we help you find solutions to conflicts, communicate effectively, and strengthen your bonds. Allow us to help you work through the important issues impacting your family.
PLAY THERAPY
In play therapy, we utilize play to join with your child to discover what they are curious about, how they relate to others, and how they problem-solve. Playing in a therapeutic setting provides the child with a space to develop their emotional intelligence, which is critical in learning, developing confidence, improving cooperation, and increasing empathy. Often adults view play as just children having fun. However, play is actually critical to your child’s development, offering numerous benefits beyond just having fun. Children utilize play to understand their world, gain mastery over their experiences and feelings, and connect with the important people in their life. Play therapy is a structured, theoretically-based approach to therapy.
Walking therapy
Walking therapy is very similar to traditional psychotherapy, except you are walking while talking about issues. As the name describes, clients talk with me while walking outdoors rather than sitting in a therapy office. Walking therapy offers an opportunity to reduce stress, relieve body tension, improve circulation, breathe deep and clear the body-mind of intrusive, negative and ruminative thoughts and sensations. These sessions can help you decrease anxiety, regulate mood, enjoy more restful sleep and more. Some patients may become anxious when confronting something difficult in a traditional seated, face-to-face interaction, walking in parallel with visual distractions may allow for easier engagement, especially for teens.