Parent and Family Services

Family Sessions

At Queen City Counseling & Consulting, we recognize that the families of our adolescent and young adult clients are greatly affected by challenges that our clients face. Throughout their clinical experience, our therapists have seen benefits from incorporating family sessions into teens’ treatment plan. Family sessions are utilized to help adolescents improve their communication with their parents, particularly when addressing uncomfortable and difficult topics. In addition, incorporating family sessions helps parents gain insight into their teen’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors while the therapist assists parents in gaining additional ways to support and encourage their teen. Throughout these family sessions the teens remain the primary client unlike traditional family therapy in which the family is the client.

Family sessions are typically 90 minutes and are scheduled based on clients’ treatment plan and discussed during the initial assessment. If you are looking for more traditional family therapy, we are more than happy to make a referral to trusted providers in the community. 

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Parent Support Services

Parent Consultation

Our customized parent consultation and support services are designed to provide parents with the tools, support, and understanding they need to successfully navigate through the various levels of the mental health system. These consultation services are tailored to fit parents’ unique needs and are designed to help guide families through the next steps including assistance with locating and securing appointments with therapists and/or psychiatrists that specialize in areas that best meet children’s needs, guidance and advocacy with IEP/504 plans including attending meetings, and parent coaching and support to assist in the development of skills to effectively parent adolescents/young adults through their symptoms. Whether you need a one-time appointment to gain knowledge or education or you need several consultation appointments to secure more individualized treatment plan for your child, we are available to help and have several packages available.

Parent Support Groups

We offer monthly parent support groups to give parents and caregivers of children with mental health needs an opportunity to connect with other parents in the community with similar experiences. Our parent group is designed to help support and provide education for parents around their child’s mental health. During the 90-minute session, our clinicians will address specific topics around adolescent mental health such as self-care and self-blame as a parent, how to support children, learning how to de-escalate crises, setting boundaries with teens, and helping your child use coping skills. This group allows a safe space to process your own struggles and needs as a parent and allows time for you to ask our skilled therapists any questions that have been on your mind. On occasion, we may have speakers focusing on navigating the school system, medications, and other topics of interest.

When: Third Friday of the month, virtual 11 to 12:30 PM

Cost: Free

Next Group:
May 16th

Topic: Check out our Facebook page for upcoming topics 

Attachment-Based Family Therapy (ABFT)

Attachment-Based Family Therapy (ABFT) is an evidenced-based brief structured therapy designed for families of adolescents with depression. Therapists meet with the family together and the teen and caregivers separately to lead the family through five treatment tasks to enhance the bond, safety, and trust within the caregiver-child relationship. Parents learn emotional coaching skills, and adolescents work on improving communication skills to better identify and talk through their experiences and emotions with their caregivers. ABFT has been shown to reduce depression symptoms and decrease family conflict. The average timeline for completing ABFT is 12-16 weeks, making this form of family therapy much more brief than traditional family therapy. All Queen City Counseling & Consulting clinicians are trained in providing ABFT and will work with your family to tailor this model to fit your unique needs.

Family sessions are typically 90 minutes and are scheduled based on clients’ treatment plan and discussed during the initial assessment.

Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions (SPACE)

SPACE is a therapeutic model geared towards parents of children and adolescents with anxiety, OCD, and other anxiety related problems. Parents who participate in SPACE will learn skills and tools to help their child overcome anxiety and OCD. In most cases it solely involves the parents’ participation, and the child or adolescent does not need to attend the treatment sessions.

The treatment focuses on the parents’ OWN behaviors and on changes that parents can make to promote resilience in their child rather than attempting to make their child change. The two main changes that parents learn to make in SPACE treatment are how to respond more supportively to their anxious child and how to reduce the accommodations they have been making to the child symptoms that inadvertently increase the anxiety and maladaptive behaviors. 

The Parallel Process for parents of adolescents and young adults in Residential Treatment

These sessions are geared towards parents of teens or young adults CURRENTLY in residential treatment program. While your child is in treatment these sessions will assist you in learning how to attune to your childs’ needs, set healthy limits and boundaries, and not “rescue” your child, instead allowing them to take accountability for their actions. Sessions will also develop awareness of our own personalities, patterns of behavior, and mindsets as parents that have contributed to the struggle in family dynamics and childs’ wellbeing. These sessions are designed to help you prepare for the changes that need to be made as your child returns home to make it the most successful transition possible.