It’s common for families within the church to want their child to be seen by a counselor to process difficult life circumstances, like phases of growing up, learning to experience and express new emotions, and learning to live and play with others.

We have two counselors who are certified in play therapy and utilize this type of therapy with many of our clients who are children. Play therapy is a research-driven approach that helps children express themselves through their strongest form of communication, play. Play therapy creates a safe relationship between a counselor and child. Counseling can be both fun and an effective route of processing many different types of challenges. Commonly, play therapy is appropriate for children ages 4-12. It takes time to build rapport, so the process of growth and healing through play therapy may take longer than our typical shorter-term model for individual counseling.

CONNECT WITH A COUNSELOR

To start the process of counseling for your child, we ask that you as the parent/guardian come in for a parent assessment first. This allows the counselor to work alongside you as the parent to create a plan-of-care for the child. We ask for this assessment to find a counselor that best suits your child’s counseling needs.

Adolescence can be a hard season for many teenagers as they navigate learning to be more independent while also still being under their caregivers care. Our hope is to provide a safe and confidential space for teens to process their struggles and to equip and empower their caregivers to come alongside them in this season. An important piece of counseling teens is confidentiality. Since teens are minors, parents or caregivers are the ones that hold the rights to confidentiality. But, what we have found to be most effective is if we can provide that confidential and safe space for the teens to process with the understanding that if the counselor believes that there is information shared that would be important for the parents or caregivers to know that they will be informed. We seek to strengthen the relationship between teens and their parents so the counselor will work with the teens to communicate effectively with their parent(s) and help the parents process what is being shared.

CONNECT WITH A COUNSELOR

To start the process of counseling for your teen…When parents would like their teenager who is under 18 to receive counseling at Forest Hill, we ask the parents to come in for a parent assessment prior to having their child placed with a counselor. This allows the counselor to work together with parents to create a plan of care for the teen without asking the teen to start the process with one clinician and then possibly asking them to restart with another counselor who is deemed the right fit for their counseling work. Depending on the age of the teenager, they may be able to complete an intake form (in addition to the one completed by parents) so that they are able to express their own goals and desires for their counseling process.

Often times the challenges within a family are systemic, and we want to address the family through a systemic approach as well. A systemic approach means we look at the family as a whole — parents, siblings, and other significant people connected to the daily life of the family. We look at the way those relationships exist and evolve amongst one another. We know that in order to help an individual heal in a sustainable way, the process must not be done in a vacuum, but rather working with the entire family system that can bring lasting healing. Our goal is to help the family system become healthier and create new ways of interacting and connecting. Family therapy can be useful in any family situation that causes stress, grief, anger or conflict. It can help you and your family members understand one another better and learn coping skills to bring you closer together.

 

CONNECT WITH A COUNSELOR