We can be helpful with most families with a son or daughter who is not making the progress desired in areas of behavior, maturity, responsibility or education. This includes families with children with psychological or psychiatric problems.   It also includes families with children who are simply shy, immature, or just not quite as successful as parents believe is appropriate.  A small but increasing number of our clients are students who must leave a school due to a serious disciplinary incident that is not characteristic of them and need a new school placement as a result. 

The son or daughter in our client families tends to be between elementary school age and mid-twenties,  although we have gone older and younger.  In a few cases we have gone very much older. 

Most families tend to contact us when a son or daughter has not made adequate progress after some effort has been made to solve problems at home. Others contact us on advice of a clinician who either wants our input in finding an effective strategy to make changes or simply believes that local resources are not adequate.  Some contact us just because they are uncertain about making parenting decisions when there does not appear to be a serious problem.  Some just want their son or daughter to attend a better school. 

At the other extreme, we deal with both serious behavior problems and/or serious mental health issues.  Some of our clients have been under intensive mental health care. Some are behaviorally out of control.  Some are simply rigid in their behavior, or constantly  into computer games or drugs or pornography.  Very few are into criminal behavior, but we have dealt with that as well.  Some families simply experience a power struggle with their son or daughter.

But others are simply kids who fall short of expectation in ways that are far less profound or dramatic but local resources aren't resolving the problem.  We can work with that.

We would prefer otherwise, but some families contact us only when their son or daughter has become a threat to themselves or other family members.

We do not need a clinical diagnosis in order to become involved.  Some families we work with succesfully report:

• Anger problems/ Rage attacks
• Depression
• Disciplinary problem at school and/ or with juvenile authorities
• Fighting
• Poor decision making
• Power struggle
• Refuses help
• Runaway
• School failure or inadequate progress
• Sexual misbehavior
• Social awkwardness
• Substance Abuse
• Unusual fears and anxieties
• Violence

However, the following diagnostic categories and specific behaviors are very common in our experience:

• Adjustment issues related to adoption
• Anxiety disorder
• Asperger's Syndrome
• Autism
• Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (Including non-hyperactive variant)
• Bipolar disorder
• Borderline Personality Disorder
• Computer/TV addiction
• Depression (including Dysthymia)
• Eating disorders
• Gambling addiction
• Intermittent Explosive Disorder
• Learning disabilities
• Narcissistic Personality Disorder
• Non-verbal Learning Disability
• Pervasive Developmental Disorder
• Oppositional and Defiant Disorder
• Reactive Attachment Disorder
• School phobia
• Schizophrenia
• Sexual Reactivity/ acting out
• Substance abuse, dependency and addiction

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Disclaimer: No  program review, no matter how positive, is a blanket endorsement. No criticism is a blanket condemnation.  When we express our level of confidence in a school or program, that is our subjective opinion with which others might reasonably disagree.  When we assert something as fact, we have done our best to be accurate, but we cannot guarantee that all of our information is accurate and up to date. When we address compliance with our guidelines, you need to remember that these are only OUR guidelines -- not guidelines from an official source.  We have also set the bar very high, and do not expect any school or program to be in total compliance.  It is not appropriate to draw a conclusion of impropriety (or even failure to live up to conventional wisdom) from our lack of confidence in a school or program or from less than perfect conformity to our guidelines.  Some will say we expect too much. Readers are responsible for verifying accuracy of information supplied here prior to acting upon it. We are not responsible for inaccuracies.

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Last revised August 27,,2012