Supporting our Caregivers through Adult Mental Health Therapy
For years, our staff has recognized the importance of caring for the adults in the lives of the children we serve and addressing their mental health needs. Still, as The Children’s Place, we focused purely on working with children. Last year, this changed as our board of directors made the monumental decision to launch a new adult mental health therapy program specifically for the caregivers of children we serve.
Last spring, we hired an Individual and Family Therapist who helped design this new program and began offering mental health therapy services for caregivers whose children are involved in one of our four programs. Since then, several caregivers have boldly stepped forward to pursue mental health therapy, and nearly a year later, we are seeing the transformation in these families’ lives.
A Familiar Setting
Uncertainty can be an insurmountable barrier for many interested in pursuing therapy. Potential clients might wonder what it will be like. Will they connect with the therapist? Will the building and staff there be welcoming and free of judgment?
Our new program eliminates many of these barriers by offering adult mental health therapy in a place where the family is already comfortable and with people they trust. We have also worked to remove as many additional obstacles as possible, including offering evening appointments and being flexible with the needs of the family’s children. This means that caregivers can often schedule sessions with our Individual and Family Therapist at the same time that their children are seeing another therapist down the hall.
Beyond the uniqueness of offering this service in a familiar location, the other factor that makes our caregiver therapy program unique is that we work with all caregivers, regardless of their ability to pay. We accept Medicaid and private insurance and offer a sliding scale option to make this life-changing service available for all, regardless of income.
In the first few months since the caregiver therapy program launched, we have seen representation from various caregivers, including biological, foster/adoptive and kinship relationships.
Navigating the Ups and Downs of Life
Therapy is open to any caregivers of the children we serve, whether the caregiver has experienced traumatic events of their own or not. Whether it is the stress of parenting, navigating depression or anxiety, or developing self-regulation management of so many other needs, therapy can be a vital tool to help strengthen mental health and address life challenges.
For those who experienced traumatic events in their childhood, therapy can help clients heal from their past and navigate raising children of their own. Caring for a child when you are struggling to meet your own mental health needs is complex, and doing so when your child has also experienced traumatic events can be an overwhelming challenge.
The Children’s Place has long offered parenting support and education to adults raising a child who has experienced traumatic events through our Family Support Services program. Previously, when our Parent Educator identified that therapy might be a helpful step for caregivers to understand and support their child’s therapeutic journey, we referred the adults to other agencies. Now, they can receive services at The Children’s Place.
With greater recognition of mental health and wellness, we find that adults are reaching out to explore ways to recognize optimal mental wellness. By attending therapy, adults are learning how to recognize the continuum of their emotions, ways to regulate and manage negative feelings, and even seeing how their own childhood experiences may be influencing their parenting responses.
Family Therapy and Caregiver Groups
In addition to providing individual adult therapy, our Individual and Family Therapist is also trained in Theraplay®, a family therapy technique, and offers that to a selection of clients, helping the caregiver and child work through unmet needs, increase connection with each other, and practice calming and regulation together.
Our adult therapy program is offered in coordination with caregiver groups, with some caregivers choosing to participate in both individual therapy and groups and some involved in just one program or the other. Caregiver groups are offered in intervals throughout the year to give grownups a chance to connect with others who are raising children who have experienced traumatic events while learning advanced parenting skills together.
Through this wraparound service, we can help the entire family heal and develop the skills they need to grow and build relationships with each other.
We have already heard resounding feedback from the caregivers utilizing these services. Clients have told us they have learned more about trauma and its effects, gained confidence in their parenting skills, and built new self-regulation skills.
Funding for our caregiver therapy program was provided in part by The Research Foundation.
