Family Counseling

Recipient of Service:
Family counseling is for families of Casa residents. In extreme circumstances, this service is also offered for Seal Beach and Los Alamitos residents as well as for the families of Los Alamitos Unified School District students who have nowhere else to turn.


Schedule:
Family counseling is provided at Casa Youth Shelter Monday through Friday between the hours of 9 a.m. and 9 p.m.


Provider:
Family counseling is provided by Casa's paid and volunteer staff counselors. Minimum qualifications for staff counselor positions include enrollment in a graduate studies program leading to a degree of Master in Psychology, Counseling, Social Work, or a closely related field. Many staff counselors exceed the minimum qualification by possessing a Masters degree and State of California registration as a Marriage, Family, Child Counselor Intern or are California Licensed as a Marriage and Family Therapist (MFT).


Description:
Family counseling brings the family in contact with a trained professional in a structured, timed, closed, and confidential session. Each family meets in this venue twice a week while the youth is in residency and usually once per week in After Care. All family members living in the home are invited to attend and extended family members who live close by and have an influence in the behaviors of the family are also encouraged to attend. Ideally, family counseling is provided 2 to 3 months following the youth's exit from the shelter.


Goals of Service:
Family counseling helps us to meet our primary goal of reunification of a youth with his or her family. A goal of family counseling is to lower the focus on (and anger at) the "identified patient" (usually the youth in residence) and work on improving the family dynamics that spawn the symptoms. Many times a focus of family counseling is to investigate how the family unit is structured and to help the family realign that structure based on their own values.