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The first order of business in child therapy is to help our clients feel comfortable. No child or teenager will be open unless she feels safe and secure and knows she is well liked and cared for. Therapists at Chicago Youth Service Bureau are expert in helping kids feel comfortable. We will build this positive relationship with you and your child however necessary - whether that be through playing together, talking about your child's favorite games or music, or jumping right into the problem areas. Our therapists are versatile and flexible to meet your family where you are at.
While developing the therapeutic relationship, counselors are also working toward understanding the nature of the problem that has brought you in for child therapy. We will inquire about your child's behavior at home and at school, sleep, appetite, and social and family relationships. Perhaps most importantly, counselors will seek to gain insight how your child understands herself and the world. Often children have negative beliefs about themselves such as "I'm not good enough." Beliefs like this can not only be painful and create anxiety, but lead to disruptive or withdrawn behavior.
After gaining a sense of the problem, we will work with your child to overcome her fears and anxieties, change her negative beliefs, and to increase self-esteem. Through the accepting counseling relationship and our therapists' expertise, your child will learn new ways to navigate her world more effectively.
There are many reasons to seek out child therapy . Below is a list of some of the most common:
Bullying
Isolation or difficulty making friends
Coping with divorce or family discord
Impulsivity
Difficulty managing emotions
Abuse history
Drug or alcohol problems
Self-injury
Low self-esteem
Adjusting to a new sibling, school, or other change
Whatever your reason for seeking child therapy, we are interested and eager to meet with you to see if we can help. Below are our clinicians the work with children and teens.
We start individual therapy with adults by learning what has brought our clients to therapy. This can take just a few minutes to a few sessions, as some presenting concerns are straightforward and others are multi-layered and complex. After gaining an initial understanding of what our clients are bringing to individual therapy, we typically provide a verbal summary of the primary issues.
While therapists are working toward understanding our clients' concerns, we are also seeking to build a warm and caring relationship. This is achieved through active listening, probing questions, and empathy. Furthermore, we value your feedback about how individual therapy is going and will periodically check in with you about this.
Our therapists see individual therapy as a healthy avenue to explore what is not working in one's life and what might work better. Within the safety of the therapeutic relationship, clients can learn to better handle their emotions, think more clearly, and to change unwanted behaviors. Our therapists will help you identify barriers to growth and work with you to overcome them.
There are many reasons adults seek individual therapy. Below is a list of some of the most common:
The loss of an important relationship
Worries about the future
Significant change in circumstances
Starting or ending school
Starting or ending a partner relationship
Becoming disabled or becoming a caretaker
Chronic feelings of emptiness
Lack of meaningful relationships
Stress and time management
Uncertainty about a partner relationship
Binge or restrictive eating
Frequent feelings of guilt and shame
Feeling down on yourself
Social Anxiety
A general sense of things "not feeling right"
Loss of faith or questions about faith
Difficulty sleeping
Substance, gambling, internet, pornography abuse
Trauma or abuse history
Anger and impulsivity
Whatever your reason for seeking individual therapy, we are interested and eager to meet with you to see if we can help. Below are our clinicians who work with adults.
If you and/or your partner have considered couples counseling, it is probably a good idea to get started soon. Most problems in relationships improve quickly the earlier they are addressed. Nevertheless, most couples wait until serious damage has been done to seek counseling. Usually the damage includes extended periods of stonewalling, chronic criticism, or even infidelity. If you and your partner have not suffered such consequences and are thinking about seeking help, it is a good idea before things deteriorate.
Whatever your situation, our therapists can help you. In couples counseling, we support and teach partners to communicate in new ways. We teach partners how to go from making criticisms about one another to lodging complaints about each other's behavior. Even this small shift can make a big difference. Often this work culminates in new language and new understanding.
We will help you identify when conversations with each other are productive and when they are not. Quite often, couples who are seeking help have gotten into patterns of ineffective communication. In fact, most unproductive arguments start off on the wrong foot and never recover. We will help you determine when this is happening and how to modify communication so that unproductive arguments can turn into productive disagreements, which can then turn into effective collaboration.
Finally, we challenge and guide partners to gain insight into how unfavorable views of one's self and one's partner lead to unhappiness and dissatisfaction. Therapists explore intergenerational patterns that impact the couple's relationship, and find new ways in which partners can be part of the extended family's fabric.
Whatever your reason for seeking couples counseling, we are interested and eager to meet with you to see if we can help. Below are our clinicians the work with couples.
Group therapy sessions typically last 80 minutes and sessions are held per week. Prior to joining, members meet with the therapist for a pre-group interview to determine whether the group is a good fit. Meridian insurance policies cover group therapy sessions. For groups that are not a specific number of sessions, the out of pocket fee is $150/month. Below are a list of groups that are currently offered.
This type of group is excellent for people who want to improve relationships, feel more connected, and get a more accurate sense of how they are perceived and experienced by others.
In process oriented group therapy, six to nine adult individuals meet weekly to talk about members' concerns. Starting with first impressions and evolving over weeks, months and even years, meaningful and intimate interpersonal relationships develop. Members learn each others' tendencies, defenses, emotions, and ways of relating. In the safety of the therapeutic container, our therapists encourage, support, and challenge group members to share their impressions of one another in the spirit of mutual growth. As the group grows, what unfolds is magnificent - productive conflict, a culture of accountability, unwavering support, and an atmosphere of honest feedback. Although group members often feel uncertain about when and how to share initially, these fears tend to diminish as trust and camaraderie develop
Our process groups tend to run at capacity so we always have a waiting list for new groups, which start once there are a sufficient number of interested participants. Also, new members are admitted to existing groups when current members complete their therapy. When adding a new member to a group, our therapists take good care to notify current members that a new person will be joining. Because group therapy members often need time to feel safe and secure with others, we take good care to prepare the group for new members.
The best way to learn more or to see about joining a group is to email us at chicagoyouthbureau@gmail.com to coordinates these groups.
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773-906-6690
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