"I JUST WANT MY CHILD TO BE HAPPY."
The number of temper tantrums you face in a day seems out of the norm. Every little thing sends your child off into an emotional meltdown. You feel like you’ve tried EVERYTHING to help your child and yet nothing seems to be working. At least once everyday, you find yourself wondering, “Am I doing something wrong? Is this my fault?”
The adjustment to school is not going well. Although the behaviors at school seem to be okay, at home there is a whole different story. Your child comes home angry and is a walking emotional time bomb! You spend your evening walking on egg shells and wondering if you’re next request is going to lead to an explosion.
Your child is struggling at school. He just can’t seem to control his frustrations and is taking it out on the those around him. The number of calls from the school is increasing and you’re feeling PRESSURED to fix it, but you don’t know what to do, especially since you’re not a school with him.
Fears and anxiety seem to have overtaken your child. She worries about EVERYTHING and always thinks about the worst-case scenario. Going to bed is the worst, as that is when all the fears pile up. You’ve tried every trick in the book and nothing works to help her feel safe.
Your family is going through a rough time – maybe due to a loss, a separation, or a major life event. You want your children to be okay but you don’t know how to best support them through it.
As a parent, you just want your child to be happy and to enjoy being a kid.
LET’S WORK TOGETHER TO GET YOUR CHILD SUCCEEDING!
At Swabey Family Counselling we value the role of parents and therefore want parents involved in the process every step of the way. We help parents build their toolboxes so that they feel more confident in supporting their children through big emotions and behaviors. We know that children need support in using the tools they learn, and the parent-child relationship is the biggest tool there is for building the brain, core life skills, and healthy relationships.
We’ll take time to truly understand your child’s behaviour so that you can use parenting strategies that actually work. We’ll help you create daily routines that bring calm and cooperation to your household – Yes, CALM and COOPERATION can happen! We’ll help your child learn easy to use strategies that lead to better choices and increased self-esteem. And we’ll support you in getting all the professionals working together to ensure your child is succeeding at school and in the community.
HOW WE WORK WITH CHILDREN
First Steps:
Learning All About Your Family
We always meet with parents first as we want to learn the ins and outs of your family’s dynamics, routines, strengths, and challenges. In the first few sessions your Family Counsellor will:
- provide information about the counselling process including what to expect, risks and benefits, rights and responsibilities, and confidentiality,
- gather detailed information about the concerns that brought you to counselling and develop a clear understanding of your needs,
- explore preliminary goals for counselling,
- determine when to meet your child
Second Steps:
Meeting Your Child
When meeting your child your Family Counsellor’s focus is to:
- provide information about the role of a Family Counsellor, what happens in sessions, how and when parents are involved, client rights and responsibilities, and confidentiality,
- gather information into your chilld’s understanding of why they are coming to counselling,
- explore your child’s goals for counselling, and
- introduce different handouts and resources used in sessions.
It’s important to note that when children are attending sessions, they get to decide who is present for the session: some children want their parents in the room the whole time, while others want their parents to wait in the waiting room.
Next Steps: Creating Change
Once the Family Counsellor has met you and your child they will support you in developing a plan for change. This plan will guide the work done in sessions. At this point sessions are flexible and may be parent focused (you may request parent sessions at any time), child focused, or family focused (parents and child together). Your Family Counsellor will keep you informed of the next steps. In sessions your Family Counsellor will:
- inquire about positives and progress towards goals to assess what is working and to help highlight the many things that are going well,
- explore any roadblocks and challenges that might be getting in the way of meeting your goals,
- develop and strengthen various skillsets to help create and maintain change, and
- identify what to work on outside of session.
Fees and Insurance
Fees for services are $145 per 60-minute session, which includes email support between sessions. Accepted forms of payment include debt, credit, cash and e-transfer (e-transfers must be sent prior to session or immediately after). If you will be utilizing insurance to pay for services, it is your responsibility to verify with your insurance provider that services are covered. When checking with your insurance provider you need to ask which credentials they cover for counselling services, not just if you are covered for counselling. Some providers will specify that for counselling to be covered, you would have to see one of the following: Psychologist, Social Worker (RSW or MSW/RSW) Psychotherapist, or Clinical Counsellor. Green Shield is the only insurance provider that we bill directly to, for all other providers you must pay for services and submit your receipt. If you have questions about insurance coverage, please ask and we will do our best to answer your questions.