Who We Serve

Children and adolescents often lack the learned skills needed to process emotional trauma through effective communication. As a result, they may act out behaviorally. Our approach is to work slowly with this age group, recognizing that building trust and developing a relationship are vital in creating a therapeutic relationship. We have found that one of the main factors in achieving a therapeutic relationship is meeting on their turf and participating in activities they enjoy. For many children and teens, working in an office may feel scary or uninviting. Working in an environment of their choice makes our work together seem more like a friendship and helps create more of a mentoring relationship. We often engage with the children and adolescents while walking on the commons, playing basketball, or playing on the playground.

Being a college student can be both an exciting and scary time in one's life. Leaving your family and social networks while entering a totally new environment—combined with the challenge of meeting educational expectations—is a difficult transition for everyone. Many students have difficulty adjusting to their new lives while at the same time discovering who they are, or who they would like to become.

For these reasons, we find it important to be readily available for this population and offer crisis intervention. Crisis intervention involves not only being available to answer a phone call or text, but also meet with the student in short notice. We are willing to meet college students at both Cornell and Ithaca College campuses. Additionally, our office at 318 N. Aurora St. is located by the bottom of Cascadilla Gorge, within walking distance of Cornell’s campus.

Adulthood is when many clients recognize the need to address past issues that they thought could be ignored, or they may have new realizations about the power that a past stressor has over them.  Adulthood can also be a trying time, filled with increased responsibilities in long-term intimate relationships, financial responsibilities, old habits catching up with us, or dealing with inevitable changes that we have little control over such as aging, destructive behaviors of our loved ones, falling out of love, etc. 

It takes time and patience to resolve these issues and come up with coping strategies. We follow the lead of the adults that we work with. We encourage them to guide the therapeutic process while offering insight, direction, and skills to resolve the identified stressors. We provide you the space and freedom to work through these issues, while guiding the process of discovery and solutions.