Connections offers a full range of result-oriented therapy options. Short-term supportive therapy can help adults and children cope with painful life events and understand the enduring patterns of behavior that keep their day-to-day life in crisis. For example, our 10-week anger management program teaches our clients how stay in control when dealing with the frustrations of every day life. For those who suffer from depression, studies have shown that short-term cognitive behavioral therapy combined with medication might be the most effective therapeutic option. With our guidance, an appropriate treatment plan will be designed-- one that best suits an individual's needs.

Many times parents are asked by the schools to have their children evaluated for a variety of reasons, such as entry into a gifted program or failure to achieve a level of performance commensurate with potential. Psychological and educational testing includes intellectual, emotional and school achievement measures. The information from the testing is shared with all treating professionals who use it as a basis for formulating a full treatment program. This is any variety of testing procedures for measuring psychological traits and behavior, or for studying some specialized aspect of ability. Several forms of testing have arisen from the need to understand personality and its relationship to psychological disorders.

Return to top

Family therapy is a form of psychotherapy that includes some or all of the family members as opposed to an individual. Family therapy recognizes the role of relationships and changes in a family. Family therapy is the treatment of choice for children and adolescents with psychological problems. It is also used sometimes when an adult family member presents significant psychological problems that impact other family members.

Return to top

Group therapy involves sessions guided by a therapist and attended by a minimum of four to six clients who confront their personal problems together. This interaction is considered an integral part of the therapeutic process. Essentially, the clients work together to help each other work through real life interpersonal issues. Groups range from broad-based (such as depression) to narrow-focused (like eating disorder) and are effective in combination with individual therapy and medication management.

Return to top

The practice of Family law deals with family-related issues and domestic relations including:

• the nature of marriage, civil unions & domestic partnerships
  
  
• problems during the marriage including spousal abuse, legitimacy, adoption, child abuse and child abduction
  
  
• the termination of the relationship and ancillary matters including divorce, annulment, property settlements, alimony and parental responsibility orders (in the U.S., child custody and visitation, child support awards)

Psychodynamic Psychotherapy helps adults and children improve their lives and build healthier interpersonal relationships. It is based on the concept that we are often unaware of why we feel, act and think in our uniquely idiosyncratic ways. These factors play a role in creating the psychological symptoms we are familiar with in our day to day lives such as anxiety and depression. Since the factors that determine the symptoms are complex and long standing, the advice of family and friends, the use of self-help books or even the most determined conscious efforts to change often fail to produce results. Psychoanalysis/psychoanalytic psychotherapy is the most effective and strongest tool to develop individual self-awareness, reduce incapacitating symptoms and improve interpersonal skills and relationships. The role of child psychoanalytic therapy is the removal of symptoms and the emotional roadblocks that interfere with normal development and create the basis for a healthy adult life experience.

Return to top

The educational consultant gets to know you and your child with an emphasis on school-based issues. The evaluation process entails more than just the gathering of test scores. Consultants spend hours meeting with the student, teachers and family in order to gain a better understanding of the child's background and general interests. A consultant combines the knowledge gained through personal interviews with information from school transcripts, teacher comments and testing to form a complete picture of the child and their strengths and weaknesses. This individualized approach is crucial to finding the most suitable educational setting and the program within it.

Return to top

Language-based learning disabilities interfere with age-appropriate reading, spelling, and/or writing. This disorder does not impair intelligence; in fact, most people diagnosed with learning disabilities are of average to superior intelligence.

Children with language based learning disabilities often have problems:

• Learning new vocabulary that the child hears (e.g., taught in lectures / lessons) and/or sees (e.g., in books).
• Understanding questions and following directions that are heard and/or read.
• Recalling numbers in sequence, e.g. telephone numbers and addresses
• Understanding and retaining the dtails of a story's plot or a classroom lecture
• Slow reading and reduced comprehension of the material
• Learning words to songs and rhymes
• Telling left from right, making it hard to read and write since both skills require this directionality.

Children with auditory processing problems typically have normal hearing and intelligence; however, they often:

• Have trouble remembering and paying attention to oral information
• Have problems performing multi step directions
• Are poor listeners
• Need more time to process information
• Have poor academic performance
• Demonstrate behavior problems
• Have language problems (such as syllable confusion, poor vocabulary development and difficulty understanding language)
• Have problems with reading, comprehension, spelling, and vocabulary

Connections utilizes speech patholigsts and audiologists to help correct speech and auditory problems.

Return to top

Children commonly experience problems as they grow and mature. Conflicts can occur from toilet training, homework and bedtime. As children grow and establish their personal identity, and as pressures increase, trouble can arise with parents, peers and teachers. These behaviors tend to be short-lived and do not usually disrupt the child's life. Sometimes, a child's response to pressure may become extreme. When the child is unresponsive to their parents' attempts to help, professional intervention is warranted. Connections offers this assistance, with its full roster of practicing professionals who specialize in all aspects of child and adolescent intervention.

Return to top