Mental Illness Awareness Week

Pfeiffer Institute Reach will offer FREE first sessions during Mental Health Awareness Week (October 5-11).

According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), one in four adults and one in five children and teens experience a mental health problem every year. Unfortunately, there are long delays--sometimes decades--between the time symptoms first appear and when people get help. Early identification and treatment can make a difference, but only if a person can get it. 

Barriers to seeking services include lack of awareness, financial burden, lack of transportation, and stigma about acknowledging the need for help. YOU can bring down those barriers by increasing your awareness about mental illness symptoms and treatment at www.nami.org. Pfeiffer Institute Reach helps bring down barriers by providing accessible and affordable individual, couple, and family therapy to members of the community. All of us can work to break down the stigma by encouraging those we care about to get help when needed, and being willing to reach out ourselves. Reach for a better tomorrow at Pfeiffer Institute Reach!

Parenting and Prepare/Enrich

Does this picture look familiar: Angry and frustrated parent trying to get across to a child who seems to be resistant and disrespectful? If that's you - or if you worry that could be you in the future - Pfeiffer Institute Reach has a few ways to help.

1. FREE Parenting Workshop: On Saturday, September 20, there will be a FREE Parenting Workshop focused on appropriate discipline and building a positive relationship with your child. At the same time, there will be a workshop for children ages 6-12 where kids can learn about emotional regulation in a fun and creative environment. Call 919-941-2900 today to reserve your place at the workshop.

2. Couple or family therapy focused on kids and parents: You can schedule an appointment with a Therapist Intern who is trained to talk to you, your-co-parent, and your kids about how to make family life better. No matter the issue - going to bed at a reasonable hour, getting homework done, relationships with siblings or peers, communication among family members - sitting down with someone trained to help can be a great investment of time and money that really pays off in the near and distant future.

3. Prepare/Enrich, the online relationship assessment tool, has a new version specifically to help couples with parenting issues. Maybe you and your partner have different parenting styles, maybe you're creating a blended family, or maybe you need to strengthen communication with your children and partner. Remember, Pfeiffer Institute Reach has nine Therapist Interns trained as Prepare/Enrich facilitators. You can meet with them to go over your Prepare/Enrich Parenting Version results and decide what's going to work best for your family in the future.

Don't have kids yet? You can take the "regular" version of Prepare/Enrich and find out more about your own approach and your partner's.

Make the first step to improve your family relationships - Call Pfeiffer Institute Reach today!

More Therapist Interns Trained in Prepare/Enrich

This past weekend, four Therapist Interns participated in a training workshop which qualified them as Prepare/Enrich Facilitators. This brings us to a grand total of NINE trained facilitators. What does this mean for you? I'll let the creators speak for themselves (this information is copied from the website; emphases mine).

     PREPARE/ENRICH is the leading relationship inventory and skill-building program used nationally and internationally.  It is built on a solid research foundation and significantly improves a couple's relationship. PREPARE/ENRICH is custom tailored to a couple's relationship and provides couple exercises to build their relationship skills.
     The main component of the program is an online survey you each complete in about 30-45 minutes. PREPARE/ENRICH is not just any survey. The items you respond to are based on research and are intended to help you identify the unique strengths and potential growth areas of your premarital or married relationship. You'll meet with a facilitator trained to provide feedback by helping you understand your results and learn important relationship skills. Built on a solid research foundation, PREPARE/ENRICH has been improved and refined over the years to become one of the best, most effective, easy-to-use relationship assessment tools available.
     PREPARE/ENRICH is a customized couple assessment completed online that identifies a couple's strength and growth areas. It is one of the most widely used programs for premarital counseling and premarital education. It is also used for marriage counseling, marriage enrichment, and dating couples considering engagement. Based on a couple's assessment results, a trained facilitator provides 4-8 feedback sessions in which the facilitator helps the couple discuss and understand their results as they are taught proven relationship skills.

Did this sound interesting to you? At Pfeiffer Institute Reach, you can work with a Therapist Intern trained as a Prepare/Enrich Facilitator for a low per-session cost ($30, with a sliding scale for those in need). There are even specialized versions of Prepare/Enrich for couples considering adopting or fostering a child, and for any couples who are parents. The assessment itself is $35. A minor monetary investment in a priceless relationship!