Children and Adolescents with Special Needs
The clinical team serving this program has extensive experience in the diagnosis and treatment of children, adolescents, and families with a wide range of presenting issues. They work within an attachment, trauma and ASD informed model to allow families to reset relationships, develop a common understanding of needs and move forward in a positive and connected manner.
Unique to our program is the opportunity for a family to do intensive clinical work and at the same time have fun together on a wonderful vacation, far away from distractions. This factor is also useful bringing more reluctant clients into the process.
Common presenting issues:
- Families with a child with Reactive Attachment Disorder
- Families with a child on the Autistic Spectrum
- Families with a child with ADHD
- Families with a child diagnosed with Oppositional Defiant Disorder
- Parents struggling with collaboration in parenting
- Parents staging a child for transition into or out of residential treatment
Dr. Stewart and Jan have many years of experience in the treatment of children with a wide range of special needs including: Autism, Attachment issues, PTSD, OCD, ODD and ADHD. These seasoned clinicians are well aware of the many challenges faced by families with a child, or children with issues such as attachment, poor emotional regulation, adaptive rigidity, Depression, anxiety and limited social awareness. Supporting families (parents and siblings) who are divided in their understandings and response to these children is an area of focus. Attending the program with, and sometimes without, the special needs child, FTV has helped many families move to a more accepting, collaborative and supportive relating.
Parent-Child Reunification After Separation or Alienation
Parent-child reunification after separation is our newest program and can be accessed as an elected, or court ordered service. Similar to all of our programs this service utilizes an attachment informed model to support the healing of barriers that have arisen in the relationship between parents and children. At the core of this work is a focus on the process of forgiveness, creating of new narratives, the making of amends and the thoughtfully paced opening of the door to emotional intimacy and associated vulnerability. No matter what circumstances have led to parent-child estrangement the child is always viewed as the more vulnerable party within the process. This program generally involves extensive parent and child contact through in person, or video meetings prior to coming on site.
Due to the complexity of this work, acceptance of families into the program involves an application process to determine the goodness-of-fit for our model. Costs associated with the program are also determined on an individual basis and may run two to three times the normal rate.
This program, as with all of our programs, may be run at one of our two settings, or at a site mutually agreed upon by all stake holders. This highly sensitive clinical work is always done with a focus on the best interest of the child or children.