Rachel specializes in “Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT),” a type of psychotherapy in which negative patterns of thought about the self, others and the world are challenged in order to alter unwanted behavior patterns or treat mood disorders such as Generalized Anxiety Disorder, or Major Depression Disorder.
On working with us at Hanna she said, “One thing I’ve noticed about the Hanna kids, who often have similar backgrounds to kids I’ve worked with in the Foster Care system, or Juvenile Hall, or other sites, is that our kids have parents who want to be involved, in many cases, they just don’t know how. So we can work with the kids, but we can also do family therapy to focus on strength building and enhancing their ability as parent/child to communicate with one another. Helping to navigate conversations that start with “I don’t know how to tell my parents this” is really important.” She added, “we also work on addressing the stigma of mental health services. Some kids are taught what happens in the family stays in the family but we know that their trauma isn’t going to go away. We have to get them to talk about it so they can move it around in their brain and take it’s power away. These kids have often been avoiding their trauma for a long time.”
Here’s a great resource from Mental Health America with ideas on how to start conversations with youth about mental health: HERE
