How We Work

Most of Inward Bound’s therapeutic and counseling programs can be adapted for families outside the Denver Metro area.  While not technically a therapeutic service, the Phone Consultation program affords families across the United States the opportunity to engage in clinical consultation related to adoption, foster care, trauma, and attachment issues.  Some out-of-geographic-area families require on-going support, so Phone Consultation services can transition into a monthly or bi-weekly Coaching Call.

Intake:

You’ll complete a short Intake Form prior to your first meeting at Inward Bound.  It helps us get a quick snapshot of how we can help and lets us get acquainted with your goals for your family.

The First Meeting:

At the first session, necessary paperwork and treatment consent forms are discussed and signed.  Generally, Inward Bound practitioners meet with parents without their child to discuss their child’s history, behavior patterns, and goals for treatment. We’ll get to know each other a bit, and make a plan for how we should move forward in our work together.

Rolling Up Our Sleeves:

At Inward Bound, we strongly believe we will be of most help to your child if we (the practitioner and parents) are a solid, united front.  This usually means that the practitioner will ask to meet with parents alone at first.  This can be tricky for parents who are anxious for their child to begin therapy, but these “grown-up meetings” allow the practitioner to provide psychoeducation about basic brain development, the formation of the regulatory system, and the impact of disruptions/trauma on a child’s functioning in all areas, including behavior and relationship.  This understanding helps parents develop the necessary lens and “common language” with the practitioner to be successful partners in the child’s therapy.  Tried and true, this process sets a stable foundation for a child to join us in the work, and we do not often deviate from it when meeting families for the first time.

Parents will continue meeting with the practitioner without their child(ren) present.  Following the initial parental report and psychoeducation period, parents need to be made ready to participate as active members of the treatment team (in collaboration with the therapist).  This occurs through thorough assessment of the parental system, which includes, but is not limited to: narrative family of origin exercises used to highlight/understand current family dynamics, collaboration with other treatment providers/professionals to ensure continuity of care, and working together to re-frame the child’s attachment challenges in the context of the family as a whole.                

When we determine together that we are ready, as a team, to welcome the child into the formal therapy process with us, parents are almost always present for the child’s treatment.

And, away we go!