The Counseling & Family Development Center (CFDC) is a program of The Wellspring. Established in 1998, the CFDC is one of the area’s premier providers of counseling and mental health services. The clinical team is committed to achieving the center’s mission: To enrich lives by helping individuals and families overcome challenges and realize possibilities. Our counselors can assist with personal growth, self-esteem, empowerment, grief, relational difficulties, depression, anxiety, family violence, sexual assault, child abuse, and trauma.
Counseling Services
We understand that there may come a time in anyone’s life when circumstances present challenges that seem overwhelming or beyond one’s ability to manage alone. Life events, related decisions and their impact may lead to a place where we need the safety of a trusting relationship with a counselor. At the CFDC, we strive to respect individuals as the author of their own lives. We work with our clients to meet their goals and actualize their full potential.
Child Services
Our therapists work to meet children where they are. Verbalizing feelings and thoughts can be difficult for children. Within the trusting and accepting counseling relationship, therapists use various expressive techniques, including play therapy, to facilitate communication and understanding with young clients.
Play is not only how younger children communicate, it is how they solve problems. Often children come to counseling having exhausted their own problem-solving tools. Play therapy builds on the natural way children communicate and interact with others and the world around them. Through play therapy, children learn to express feelings, modify behaviors, develop more effective problem-solving skills and experience alternative ways of relating. The effectiveness of play therapy has been demonstrated for children whose problems are related to usual life stressors such as divorce, grief, peer relationships, as well as the impact of trauma and abuse. Through play therapy, problems can be safely confronted and lasting resolutions can be discovered, rehearsed, mastered and become lifelong strategies. The CFDC employs several licensed clinicians who are also Registered Play Therapists.
Relational Services
Recognizing that families may encounter a multitude of challenges, the CFDC offers a full range of relational services to support families as they work to strengthen some of the most important relationships in their lives.
Family Counseling involves multiple family members in an effort to address dynamics that may be disrupting relationships or having an impact on the home environment. The goal is to improve communication, solve problems, and facilitate better understanding among family members resulting in improved relationships and a healthier home environment.
Premarital Counseling can benefit any couple considering long-term commitment. While this is often a joyous time for couples, there may also be some fear or anxiety. Taking time to engage openly about the future can be beneficial. Goals of this work often include creating realistic expectations and goals for the marriage, learning conflict resolution skills, practicing effective communication, dismantling fears about marriage and identifying any “seeds” of future marital stress.
Marital/Relationship Counseling brings couples together as they work toward understanding the way their interactions may be contributing to identified concerns in the relationship. Understanding one another, increasing awareness around communication styles and patterns, and committing to the relationship are among the goals of this relational work.
Transparenting is an educational seminar for parents to help children cope with divorce or separation. This four-hour nationally acclaimed seminar focuses on the needs of children during the stressful experience of their parents’ divorce.
Divorce Mediation is one of the most frequently used methods of negotiating a divorce settlement. Often, a significant concern for divorcing parents is the impact of the divorce on their children. We know that the most harmful part of divorce for children is ongoing conflict. Choosing the more cooperative route of mediation gives parents the opportunity to move through divorce in a way that promotes the well-being of their children. This process supports each party in their efforts to determine what is best for their family.
Parent Coordination services may be court ordered in cases of high conflict divorce. A Parent Coordinator assists parents in establishing and maintaining a healthy co-parenting relationship by reducing parental conflict and the risk factors that influence a child’s post-divorce adjustment. Children and parents benefit from agreements to put the child’s needs and experiences at the center of post-divorce considerations. The overall emphasis is to offer children the opportunity to grow in a home environment free from the devastating stress of being caught in the middle of parental conflict.
Custody Evaluations are objective assessments conducted by a Licensed Professional Counselor during divorce litigation. These assessments involve all relevant family members, explore the concerns of all parties, and provide the court with custody and visitation recommendations based on the applicable laws and standards.
Survivor Services
Violence, trauma and abuse are areas of deep specialty for the CFDC clinical team. Survivors benefit from our victim centered, empowerment based, trauma informed services.
Domestic Violence
As a program of The Wellspring, the CFDC is dedicated to addressing the emotional needs of those experiencing or impacted by domestic violence, dating violence and stalking. Counselors support survivors on their journey towards healing, understanding and empowerment.
Supervised Visitation
With a primary focus of keeping adult survivors and their children safe, the Supervised Visitation Program facilitates visitation between non-custodial parents and their children when families have experienced domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking. Private visitation supervision is also available for families where concerns are associated with experiences other than those listed above.
Sexual Assault
As the accredited Sexual Assault Center for this region, the CFDC is dedicated to meeting the needs of survivors of sexual assault. Services including counseling, advocacy, and a support group are provided in a non-judgmental environment fostering trust and safety where survivors are supported on their path towards emotional healing and trauma resolution.
Crisis Lines
Staff trained in crisis intervention specifically around domestic violence and sexual assault answer our phone lines 24 hours a day 365 days a year. Callers are afforded the opportunity to speak openly about their experiences, receive assistance in meeting immediate needs, explore safety planning and identify appropriate resources.
For more information, call (318) 323-1505 or visit 1904 Royal Avenue, Monroe, LA.