Alpha Connection

Counseling can be an incredibly useful experience for those who are in the process of recovering from trauma or addiction. It can also be a useful process for anyone who is looking to sort through personal issues or who simply feels like they need help moving forward in their lives. With that said, it can be difficult to speak to a counselor for the first time, especially if you’re going in without outside supports. That’s why it’s vital to have a plan to prepare for your first counseling session.

Steps Toward Counseling

The first step to take is to think about the reason why you are attending counseling. For some, those reasons will be crystal clear from the first moment. For others, though, it will take a bit of digging to figure out why you are looking for help. It’s entirely appropriate to go to counseling simply because you’re not sure what else to do because you want to get your life on track, but it never hurts to spend a bit of time interrogating your reasoning for speaking with a counselor.

The next step is to prepare yourself for what an actual counseling session is like. While there are many depictions of counseling in media, most of them are quite inaccurate. It might be useful for you to call the counseling office to find out what to expect for your first session. In some cases, you’ll simply complete some minor intake paperwork and spend a bit of time on introductions. In other cases, you might get right to work. Knowing what comes next can calm your nerves and better prepare you for what comes next.

No matter what you do, you should also remember that meeting with a counselor is ultimately your choice. You have the power in this situation, so you are taking a positive step to improve your own life. If you are ready to speak with someone about the problems that you are encountering, you should give yourself credit for taking an action that will ultimately give you more options as to how you will move forward to a better future.

May is National Foster Care Month, which means that a light is being shined on those children and adults who have made their way through the foster care system. Though this system is routinely criticized, the truth is that it also functions as an absolutely vital lifeline for children who often find themselves in situations that are unhealthy or unsafe.

Providing Safe Environments & Reconciliation

While foster care may have a reputation for separating families, the truth is that it is largely designed with reconciliation in mind. In fact, the goal for most children who go into the system is to reunify them with their families once their parents or guardians are able to provide a safe and nurturing environment for them. For others, though, the point of foster care is to help those children find safe environments that will allow them to grow in ways that their birth homes never could.

Supporting Children in the Foster Care System

National Foster Care Month also serves as a reminder that there are many children and adults who have gone through the system and still require support today. Whether their experiences in the system or before entering it have left them with trauma is irrelevant – what matters is that the trauma certainly exists and that many of those in the system still have issues coping with those traumas. As such, this month represents a chance to acknowledge the personal hardships that are all-too-often results of being in this system.

Whether you’re looking at children who are temporarily in foster care or those who spend many years in the foster system, it’s important to remember what a vital role foster care plays in child welfare. Though the experience can be traumatic for many, it’s still one that is designed to ensure that every child is given a chance to grow up in a place that’s designed with their welfare in mind.

The right environment can be a make or break part of treatment for anyone. When it comes to adolescents, though, the environment is even more important. Though there are certainly many places that an adolescent can recover, many do recommend group homes. Though the experiences in a Short Term Residential Therapeutic Program may vary, there’s no doubt that these programs show their value in specific ways.

Creating the Right Treatment Environment

First and foremost, Short Term Residential Therapeutic Program allow adolescents who are undergoing treatments some sense of normalcy. While the environment may not be what they were used to at home – and indeed, in many cases, should not be – the STRTP environment does provide the least restrictive possible environment for them. There is something to be said for getting to about one’s life in a setting that feels more like the real world, especially when undergoing any type of rehabilitation.

STRTP also help to provide adolescents with a sense of structure that can help them in the transition out of treatment. Though there are still rules in place and a kind of metaphorical scaffolding built around these homes that helps with recovery, it is a step towards returning to the real world. Those who are in group homes are given a chance to cope and grow in an environment that, while still therapeutic, may not provide the same kind of safety nets as a clinical facility.

Being able to gradually step back into their day-to-day lives

Short Term Residential Therapeutic Program are a fantastic tool for those young people who are in treatment. Though no two Short Term Residential Therapeutic Programs are the same, they all do well to further the mission of recovery. Whether those inside need the nurturing that can only come from a home-like environment or they need the safety that comes with being able to gradually step back into their day-to-day lives, these STRTP serve an important role in the recovery process.