WELCOME TO HEARTLAND COUNSELING SERVICES
CHILDREN 8+ AND ADOLESCENTS
Peer Relationships
Parenting Skills
Family Therapy
ADD/ADHD
Anxiety Disorders
PTSD/Panic Disorders
Child Therapy Techniques
Oppositional Behaviors/Conduct Disorders
Anger Management
School Issues
Divorce & Custody Issues
Mood Disorders
Coping Skills
LGBTQIA+
Obsessive-Compulsive (OCD)
Self Esteem
Self-Harming
ADULTS
Mood Disorders
Bipolar Disorder
Grief & Loss
Eating Disorders
Co-Occurring Disorders
Impulse Control Disorders
Separation & Divorce
Childhood Trauma
PTSD/Panic Disorders
Adult ADD & ADHD
Obsessive-Compulsive (OCD)
Agoraphobia
DBT/CBT Therapy
Coping Skills
Pregnancy, Prenatal, Postpartum
Life Coaching
Life Transitions
Hoarding
Codependency
Men’s and Women’s Issues
LGBTQIA+
THERAPY APPROACHES
Heartland Counseling Services uses evidence-based approaches to therapy that are grounded in theory and research to have positive outcomes.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a type of psychotherapy. This form of therapy modifies thought patterns in order to change moods and behaviors. It’s based on the idea that negative actions or feelings are the result of current distorted beliefs or thoughts, not unconscious forces from the past.
CBT is a blend of cognitive therapy and behavioral therapy. Cognitive therapy focuses on your moods and thoughts. Behavioral therapy specifically targets actions and behaviors. A therapist practicing the combined approach of CBT works with you in a structured setting. You and your therapist work to identify specific negative thought patterns and behavioral responses to challenging or stressful situations.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy
Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) provides clients with new skills to manage painful emotions and decrease conflict in relationships. DBT specifically focuses on providing therapeutic skills in four key areas. First, mindfulness focuses on improving an individual's ability to accept and be present in the current moment. Second, distress tolerance is geared toward increasing a person’s tolerance of negative emotion, rather than trying to escape from it. Third, emotion regulation covers strategies to manage and change intense emotions that are causing problems in a person’s life. Fourth, interpersonal effectiveness consists of techniques that allow a person to communicate with others in a way that is assertive, maintains self-respect, and strengthens relationships.
Cognitive Processing Therapy
Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) is a type of cognitive-behavioral therapy found to be effective for treating post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). With PTSD, you may find yourself thinking very differently about yourself and your environment, particularly in the following five areas.
Safety: You may doubt your ability to protect yourself and others. Trust: You may question your judgment and/or the judgment and intentions of others. Control: You feel unable to control your own life and/or to influence the lives of those you care about. Esteem: You view yourself and/or others differently, perhaps seeing yourself as broken or others as evil. Intimacy: You may feel incapable of connecting with or being understood and accepted by others.
These thoughts lead to negative emotions, such as fear, anxiety, guilt, and anger, and can halt your recovery. CPT focuses on teaching a set of skills that will help you challenge these negative thoughts and gain control over the impact they have on your life.
Motivational Interviewing
Motivational interviewing is a counseling method that helps people resolve ambivalent feelings and insecurities to find the internal motivation they need to change their behavior. It is a practical, empathetic, and short-term process that takes into consideration how difficult it is to make life changes.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) is an action-oriented approach to psychotherapy that stems from traditional behavior therapy and cognitive behavioral therapy. Clients learn to stop avoiding, denying, and struggling with their inner emotions and, instead, accept that these deeper feelings are appropriate responses to certain situations that should not prevent them from moving forward in their lives. With this understanding, clients begin to accept their issues and hardships and commit to making necessary changes in their behavior, regardless of what is going on in their lives, and how they feel about it.
Integrative Therapy
Integrative therapy is a progressive form of psychotherapy that combines different therapeutic tools and approaches to fit the needs of the individual client. With an understanding of normal human development, an integrative therapist modifies standard treatments to fill in development gaps that affect each client in different ways. By combining elements drawn from different schools of psychological theory and research, integrative therapy becomes a more flexible and inclusive approach to treatment than more traditional, singular forms of psychotherapy
COUPLES AND FAMILY
The Gottman Method for Couples
The Gottman Method for Healthy Relationships is a form of couples-based therapy and education that draws on the pioneering studies of relationships by psychologist John M. Gottman and clinical practice conducted by John Gottman and his wife, psychologist Julie Gottman. Nearly 40 years of research have led John Gottman to identify the elements it takes for relationships to last—among all types of couples across all phases of life. There are nine components of what the Gottmans call The Sound Relationship House, from partners making mental maps of each other’s world to learning how to break through relationship gridlock. One of the reigning insights of the science-based approach is that in the dynamics of relationship systems, negative emotions like defensiveness and contempt have more power to hurt a relationship than positive emotions have to help a relationship. As a result, the structured therapy focuses on developing understanding and skills so that partners can maintain fondness and admiration, turn toward each other to get their needs met (especially when they are hurting), manage conflict, and enact their dreams—and what to do when they mess up (because everyone does).
Gottman therapy involves:
1) Each partner establishing a relationship with the therapist through sharing their history, their relationship philosophy, and their goals for treatment
2) Undergoing a thorough assessment of the marriage, including engaging in discussion of a topic on which partners disagree
3) Learning the research-derived components of healthy relationships
4) Bolstering the fondness and respect that first brought partners together
5) Learning and practicing skills for each element of a good relationship, from developing trust to repairing attacks and other regrettable incidents
6) Direct coaching from the therapist in the use of interaction skills
7) Acquiring tools for checking and maintaining relationship health beyond therapy.
Therapy focuses not only on providing skills for managing relationships but delivering deeper insight into why partners create the relationship dynamics they do.
Internal Family Systems
Family systems therapy is a form of psychotherapy that helps individuals resolve their problems in the context of their family units, where many issues are likely to begin. Each family member works together with the others to better understand their group dynamic and how their individual actions affect each other and the family unit as a whole. One of the most important premises of family systems therapy is that what happens to one member of a family happens to everyone in the family.
Many psychological issues begin early in life and stem from relationships within the family of origin, or the family one grows up in, even though these issues often surface later on in life. Families in conflict, as well as couples and individuals with issues and concerns related to their families of origin, can benefit from family systems therapy. This treatment approach can be helpful for such mental health conditions as depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety, personality disorders, addiction, and food-related disorders. Family systems therapy has also been shown to help individuals and family members better control and cope with physical disabilities and disorders.
During family systems therapy, the family works individually and together to resolve a problem that directly affects one or more family members. Each family member has the opportunity to express their thoughts and feelings about how they are affected. Together, the family works to help the individual in distress and to help relieve the strain on the family. Family members explore their individual roles within the family, learn how to switch roles, if necessary, and learn ways to support and help each other with the goal of restoring family relationships and rebuilding a healthy family system.