Our combined professional practice has taken us to work in every setting imaginable from locked psychiatric units to residential settings for adolescent drug abuse treatment. We have counseled chronic mental illness and potentially violent personalities. No professional challenge has been as difficult as raising a family. We understand!
Our Counseling Services will help you with the challenges of raising your children. Our professional counselors believe that effective family counseling must begin with the bonding of values between therapist and family members. Our family counselors will never dictate the values to which family members must subscribe. When the values between therapist and family are incompatible, therapy cannot be successful. We will not tell you how to parent. We will help you be the parent you want to be.
The Common Wealth© Philosophy
We will help you with the challenges of raising your children. Our services incorporate the models of natural & logical consequences and, when working with a family recovering from an addictive disorder, the 12 Step program principles will be woven into our own philosophy of a Common Wealth©.
In a Common Wealth© all members of the family derive benefit from their membership in the family and should share an equal responsibility for the accumulation of the family’s Wealth. All willing family members are helped to understand that the family’s Wealth extends far beyond the obvious supports of food, clothing, and shelter. We encourage members to see each other as potential sources of support regardless of their age and position in the family.
Discipline is viewed as the responsibility of each member to develop in themselves rather than relying on the traditional PARENT POLICE. We discourage punishment as it seldom teaches the intended lesson and rather instills a cynical approach to life in which children learn that “if they are willing to do the time, they can do the crime.”
Children are not permitted to disregard their responsibility for the family’s well-being (Wealth) simply because they are “kids.” Likewise, parents are not permitted to avoid being held accountable by their children by hiding behind the “because I am the parent and I said so” rule.
Our Approach
Our family counseling approach is built on several core principles:
- Values-Based Bonding Between Therapist and Family
- Natural & Logical Consequences Model
- 12 Step Program Principles (When Applicable)
- Equal Responsibility Among Family Members
- Mutual Support Regardless of Age or Position
- Self-Discipline Over External Punishment
- Accountability for All Family Members
- Empowering Parents to Be Who They Want to Be
Call us if you want to learn more about building a Common Wealth©.