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Our Therapeutic Approach: About

Strengthening

our

Special Needs Families

We do have specialized expertise to serve the emotional needs of each family member that interacts with a child who has special needs.  Children with special needs add to the lives of every family member.  Each child brings their unique strengths and areas of challenges, which brings great joy and profound sadness at the same time.  Parents, step-parents, siblings, and other extended family members who interact and live with a child with special needs often face cumulative challenges/stressors that can lead to fatigue, stress, anger, anxiety, depression, and hopelessness. 

 

Our therapeutic team collaborates closely to serve "the family" as a whole because each family member has unique challenges and struggles, which impact the rest of the family.

 

For families with children with special needs, we focus on "talk themes":

 

  • Understand the diagnosis or needs of the child with special needs over each developmental stage of life and develop empathy through better understanding of his/her condition

 

  • Establish appropriate family expectations and routines

 

  • Provide a safe space for each family member to vent about their specific stressors, struggles, and reactions to living with a child with special needs, and develop healthy strategies to cope

 

  • Develop effective parenting communication and strategies that benefit all family members

 

  • Provide support to the neurotypical sibling to promote their own development, well-being, and foster positive sibling dynamics

 

  • Address the many marital and couple issues that result from the unique family dynamics that arise from raising a child with special needs

 

  • Improve communication between parents for marital satisfaction and/or effective co-parenting

 

  • Increase positive relationship dynamics between family members and confidence for effective problem-solving and coping

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