Our Services.....

Children's Therapy

children's therapy

We believe that childhood should be a time for healthy growth and development with a happy family. For many children and teens, it is a time of great emotional stress. Children react to stress in many ways including withdrawal and acting out behaviors at home and school. Parents and school personnel want to help children become happy, loving adults, however in today’s society this can be a difficult goal. Our philosophy is to help children and families learn the life skills necessary to be successful.

Family Therapy

family therapy

Family counseling may help to promote better relationships and understanding within a family. It may be incident specific, as for example family counseling during a divorce, or a child experiencing trauma. Alternately family counseling may address the needs of the family when one family member suffers from a mental or physical illness that alters his or her behavior or habits in negative ways. The therapist often helps the family reflect on better ways of communicating with each other and because of that family counseling may in part be instruction and encouragement. In fact, family counseling often teaches family members new and more positive ways to communicate to replace old, negative communication patterns.

 

Marriage Therapy

A couple doing marriage therapy in Phoenix, AZ

Marriage counseling seeks to identify areas of conflict and communication in a marriage and facilitate healthy ways of resolving them. If problems in a marriage aren’t identified or dealt with in a timely manner, they can grow out of control and bring devastation and possibly an end to the marriage. There is no such thing as a perfect marriage. Marriage counseling helps a marriage weather the storms and rebound stronger as a result of the counseling. Counseling helps a couple focus on their problems in a marriage and resolves them. Most problems include poor communication, a lack of intimacy, anger or nagging.

Individual Adult Therapy

adult therapy

Individual psychotherapy for adults offers a compassionate approach to therapy, which encourages clients to explore how limiting beliefs and trauma are held in the body—often below the level of conscious awareness. Specialties include trauma and PTSD; chronic illness including fibromyalgia, IBS, Lupus, insomnia, chronic fatigue and cancer.  Other issues addressed include grief and loss; emotional struggles such as shame, depression, anger and anxiety, and relationship problems.  Counselors have extensive post- graduate training in Self Regulation Therapy, a gentle approach that enables the nervous system to integrate overwhelming events and bring balance to the nervous system. Additionally they are trained in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR).

 

“Brain-Body Parenting” Part 3

By Deborah Pettitt | November 18, 2024

Summary of Brain-Body Parenting: Green, Blue, and Red Pathways by Delahooke “Brain-Body Parenting” introduces a framework that helps parents understand their child’s emotional and physiological responses to parenting challenges through three pathways: green, blue, and red. Each pathway represents a different state, influencing how children act. Green Pathway: The green pathway symbolizes a state of…

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Brain-Body Parenting – Part 2

By Deborah Pettitt | July 23, 2024

Chapter 2 of “Brain-Body Parenting” by Dr. Mona Delahooke introduces the concept that every child has a unique brain and body platform which requires an individualized approach to parenting. Dr. Delahooke emphasizes the importance of co-regulation and relational safety, suggesting that children thrive when they feel safe and connected. The chapter goes into how a…

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Managing Behaviors or Understanding them

By Deborah Pettitt | June 17, 2024

A few weeks ago, I wrote a blog about Polyvagal theory (click on the link if you would like to read it). Today I would like to expand on my first blog and discuss managing behaviors as opposed to understanding behaviors. Dr. Dana has written extensively on this subject in the book “Polyvagal Exercises for…

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Trauma and Hospitalizations

By admin | May 22, 2024

The Center uses play therapy to aid children’s work through traumatizing events. Recently we experienced a child close to our family having been hospitalized for an extended time. This made me wonder if hospitals ever use play therapy to help children during hospital stays. I came across a journal article titled “Play Therapy as an…

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Favorite Family Quotes – Part B

By Deborah Pettitt | May 8, 2024

I thought this week I would just share part 2 of my favorite family quotes, hopefully you will enjoy them as much as I do:                 “Home is people. Not a place. If you go back there after the people are gone, then all you can see is what is not there any more.”― Robin…

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Parenting your child

By Deborah Pettitt | February 16, 2024

This week I would like to focus on a book by Dr Brie Turns-Coe “Parent the Child You Have, Not the Child You Were”.  Dr Brie is a therapist at Family Christian Counseling Center who has extensive experience working with children and families. In her book she gives help to parents in understanding and responding…

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Trauma and the Polyvagal theory

By admin | January 23, 2024

In our treatment of children and adults that have experienced trauma we have come to see the importance of the polyvagal theory in understanding triggers and responses that occur in daily life. These triggers are autonomic responses based on earlier experiences. A young child may find the touch of a parent frightening because he/she was…

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ChatGBT

By Deborah Pettitt | December 28, 2023

Imagine a teenager who does not want to talk with his parents about an issue turning to artificial intelligence (AI) to seek help and understanding. I was just reading about students using chatGBT in place of a therapist.  A recent example of this is the National Eating Disorder Association (NEDA) support chatbot, which recommended weight…

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