I work for a non-profit called Gateway Community Services. At this non-profit, I am the clinical therapist and I work with youth and their families and hold individual, family and group counseling sessions. My office space is both traditional and non-traditional. Officially, my office is housed at the residential home of Gateway Community Services however, I often hold therapy sessions at the homes of my clients as well as in non-traditional places such as markets or parks. I believe in a person-centered approach so this means focusing on the needs of the client and allowing him/her/they to guide the session once they become comfortable. Therefore, there are times when being in the office does not work for them. As well, there are times when being in the office does not help with one of their goals. This is particularly so for group therapy sessions.

 

The population that I work with is comprised of youth between the ages of 12-21 and their families (which can include children as young as 8 and seasoned adults in their 70’s) who reside within a 50 mile radius of the Lansing area. Sometimes there is cross-generation conflict in the household where the youth previously resided (prior to joining the program). In this case, the youth may have family sessions with siblings, parents and even grandparents in conjunction with having individual and group sessions. The youth who I service are generally having some sort of conflict with their parents and/or family members and are either currently homeless or are on the brink of becoming homeless. Therefore, the program that they volunteer for houses them for short-term (and in some cases long-term) and provides them with case management and counseling.

 

Individual Sessions-These sessions are generally a once per week meeting with each youth in my case load (sometimes I have daily meetings with youth who ask or need more one-to-one time). During these sessions, we develop a goal/plan based on their needs and wants for their time in the program. My goal in these sessions are to help the youth obtain the goals that they specify on their individualized plans and to get them to a place where they are facilitating our sessions. I have used the following resources for these types of sessions: beck and dbt.  

 

Family Sessions-These sessions are generally once per week with each family. However, there are cases where the sessions can be twice a week or where there could be different familial dynamics which require more than one family sessions. For instance, there are some families where there may be one family session with the youth and his/her parents and another family session with the youth and his/her parents and siblings thus, two different types of family sessions in one week. The goal of these sessions are similar to the individual session where I am attempting to help the youth meet his/her goals as it relates to his/her family.

 

Group Sessions -These sessions are generally the ones that I enjoy the most. Not to say that I do not enjoy individual or family sessions but the group sessions allow for more innovation. These sessions are populated by the youth who are in the program so it can be group sessions for youth between the ages of 12-17, between the ages of 18-21 or all the youth in the program which would be youth between the ages of 12-21. As well, these groups can be gender specific and can be groups for all the females in the program or all the males in the program. Finally, the youth can even have their own youth-led sessions where I serve as a facilitator. So within these sessions there are many options and often this helps to facilitate conversation in the individual sessions that I have with the youth. So if there happens to be a youth who is not opening up in an individual session there are times when these sessions will help them open up which in turn influences how they participate during their individual sessions.

 

Overall, I believe my approach to therapy sessions aligns with my educational philosophy. It connects with my beliefs on being flexible with and for youth, promoting choice and empowerment and helping youth connect with themselves.