Kenneth Cunningham, Ph.D, LISW-S, LMSW, ACSW

 

 

                                                                 Services Provided

 

 

Children Treatment

 

Children are clearly different than adults, and their needs for treatment are likewise unique.  There is limited understanding in the field among many clinicians just exactly how to treat children, and play therapy is underestimated.   Many think children cannot understand goal directed treatment, but they can.  Some even suggest that once children are in the office playing, they would never want to stop the process; this is not the case.  Actually, children are very direct in telling a therapist they no longer need to be seen and feel their problems are better.

 

Children require diversion from higher order thinking, and their world is play.  Children, although bright, are often simple thinkers.  As children are given toys, the world of creativity is diversionary, and as their attention is shifted into play, the therapist is trained to see what is real, true and burdensome.  Via toys, children become connected to others, including a therapist.  As children show their concerns by symbolic play, and the therapist listens, observes, the truths of the child's needs and personality naturally rise forth in the session.   It is clear that children are influenced in their development by positive experiences with adults, and their own imagination to play.  And, the talking cure takes its course as children play.

 

Adolescent Treatment:   

 

Adolescents require special care as well, and an understanding that in scientific brain development studies the adolescent is different than the adult in terms of his/her reasoning and skill.  Adolescents have entered what we call "formal operations" in brain development,  the beginnings of being able to think, to argue, to solve problems, to develop identity, to have relationships, to ponder concepts like life/death and God, and to continue becoming a person; this is a delicate time in life in which the human personality and life system becomes more permanent and adolescents often complain of being bored.  Relationship conflicts can develop as the adolescent asserts his/her own thoughts, and the collision with each other and the adult world can transpire, thus adolescent problems are unique.  Adolescent treatment requires unique skills on the part of the therapist, as the therapist remembers what is was like during his own adolescent years.  Therapists who do this work well understand the need for adolescents to be heard, while hoping to influence or help the adolescent toward positive functioning and development. Parents can often use a hand in developing "tools" to help them guide their growing adolescent.

 

Adult Treatment: 

 

Clearly there is no other place in life where an adult can sit with another adult and tell thoughts and feelings, expressing the deepest and most conflictual experiences that have happened.  Relationship based treatment provides opportunity for expression, structure, and as relationship forms, adults become more functional, utilizing their natural skills to conduct life in a more contenting manner. 

 

Couple Treatment:

 

We all are born into a family where we bring our biological dispositions, and our learning about living with others takes its course. We attach to others as well in the course of life, and problems can be enacted related to feeling safety, enjoyment and balance with another person. Talk therapy offers the hope to try to reveal who we are in the context of living with another person.   Therapists help couples find new direction and balance with one another so that harmonious living can hopefully be maintained, renewed and restored. Sometimes people decide as well they are incompatible in the course of couple therapy.

 

Family Treatment:

 

Family life can be difficult and roles within a family often become established situating natural conflicts with others to develop.  Family therapy is a modality of care in which the entire group or parts of the family enter treatment in order to achieve better balance and functioning within the family unit or household. These interventions on the part of the therapist are structural and strategic, and come from some of the most refined family therapists in the world. Therapists who work with families are educated about social roles, dynamics and inherent structure in living in a family. As family dynamics are disclosed, the therapist is able to effect change in a relationship based style via the "talking cure."

 

Group Treatment:

 

Sometimes the most effective route to revitalizing or restoring hope is to sit in the company of another or with others who truly understand what we have lived.  Group therapy offers the chance to receive input from others while in the company of a therapist who facilitates this process.

 

Mediation Services:

 

Mediation is a technique offering participants the power to mutually decide what is best for their life, and to produce a document which confirms the same.  Sometimes this work takes place between couples, sometimes in business, sometimes between juveniles and parents.  Mediation has been developed by way of a belief that people can and will find productive direction in life and resolution of their own conflicts without outside intervention.  The Mediator is an outside, neutral party who facilitates this process.

 

Custody Evaluation:

 

Sometimes people cannot stand back from the feelings and thoughts they have to determine what is right in the best interests of their children.   Courts refer these types of matters to a seasoned clinician who can listen, observe and draw conclusions based upon the presentation of the participants.  A formal evaluation is written with proofs, and submitted to local courts.

 

Sexual Abuse Evaluations:

 

Children who have been violated are capable of developing a relationship with a therapist and in turn tell that which has happened to them.  Therapists who do this work well take qualitative recordings, may video tape, and help clarify what has happened.  This kind of evaluation also entails reporting details to child protection agencies.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

              What oxygen is for the lungs such is hope for the meaning of life.