Child and Family Services
Mission
The Sitka Counseling Family Center provides clients and their families with a variety of therapeutic services to children and youth 21 years of age and under who exhibit severe behavioral, emotional, or social disabilities. The Family Center’s focus is early intervention in the school, community, or home; clinical support for the client and family; and family skills development, where families are offered training and support to create more successful family communication and healthy home living environments. Services are designed to enable children and their families to live successively in their community.
Services are provided in a structured, safe, secure, and nurturing environment where children learn to express and manage their emotions. This allows them to develop essential skills needed to better function at school, home, and in the community. All services are based upon child goals, objectives, and interventions as agreed upon by their clinician and parents or guardians. Family Center services are offered year round, including a summer program.
— FS Client
Individual Skills Development
This service provides clients with one-on-one coaching to work on emotional awareness and regulation, anger management, life skills, social development, verbalizing emotions, and expressing needs and wants. The purpose of this service is to help clients build self-esteem and self-confidence in order to interact with adults and peers in an appropriate manner.
Group Skills Development
This service provides a client with a small group setting to practice and learn social skills related to peer interaction, as well as gives the client an opportunity to practice skills that have been developed through individual skills development and Individual counseling.
Individual Counseling
This service, provided by our clinician, provides clients with an opportunity to work through emotional issues with a trained professional. Individual counseling provides clients with an opportunity to express issues and concerns in a safe environment, as well as learn and develop tools to work through those issues productively.
Family Skills Development
An eight week or longer course designed to work with families in the Family Center and then at home to strengthen essential skills such as positive behavioral modifications, consequences that work for children and family, following through with consequences, and holding children accountable for behaviors. This service provides a family with the support necessary to develop skills to work with a child who is experiencing behavioral problems. Our staff provides parents with tools to use with children exhibiting behavioral or emotional issues, as well as provides parents with modeling, coaching, and education for those specific tools.
Other ways the Family Center supports our clients
Family Center staff is available to offer support to clients within schools and daycares to teach children how to use positive behavioral modifications on their own to become successful in school.
Family Center staff is available to provide complete services to our clients, assuring our client’s behaviors are being addressed similarly throughout the various venues a child would typically experience.
We can provide transportation to and from the Family Center, so our clients receive uninterrupted services on a routine basis. We are willing to work around schedules of any other agency who is working with the child.
Our staff is willing to provide education about behavioral disorders as well as tools, tips and strategies.
Referral to the Program
Referral to the program is quite simple, and generally only takes a phone call from the parent to the agency. As soon as the initial contact is made, parents can expect support from one of our staff through the intake and assessment process to make sure service delivery can begin as quickly as possible.
I am able to understand things more. I trust my counselor."
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— FS Client
The help was immediate, really fast within a couple days. I felt I could be completely honest. I don't feel I was ever judged. You all came together to support all of us."
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— FS Client
Staff were in school with me, helping me feel safe and not feel so much anxiety and stress."
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— FS Client
My child is better able to get along with peers in a normative degree and is more capable of utilizing coping strategies."
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Parenting with Love and Limits (PLL)
Parenting with Love and Limits® (PLL) is an Alternative to Placement and Reentry program for 10-18 year olds that is brief and effective, for families. The program teaches each youth and their family new skills, building on the strengths that each member already has. PLL will ultimately help caregivers establish both “Love and Limits” within their homes.
This entertaining and informative program uses video, activities, and discussion to show you ways to raise responsible, cooperative children who are able to resist negative peer pressure. You’ll leave each session energized and motivated to make changes in your own family’s daily routine that will lead to greater happiness in every room of the house (and the car, too!).
PLL is a proven practice that has demonstrated effectiveness in reducing aggressive, rule-breaking, and oppositional/defiant behaviors, as well as improving family communication and overall family satisfaction. For families who complete PLL, there have been significant reductions in youths’ future involvement with the law.
For more information about PLL click here