Therapy Counseling Services

What We Do/Services

• Therapy
  
• Counseling
  
• Marriage Counseling
  
• Family Counseling
• Sex Therapy
  
• Couples Therapy
  
• Domestic Violence
  
• Parenting
  
• Divorce
  
• Grief
• Depression
  
• Anxiety
  
• Self-esteem
  
• Stress Management
  
• Anger Management
  
• Internet Addiction
• Psychosocial Assessments
• Immigration Status Assessment
• Battelle Development Inventory
• Gastric Bypass/LapBand Surgery
• Employee Assistance Program
  
• Crisis Intervention
• Hynosis
  

Clinical Psychotherapy:  As mentioned earlier, therapy is a process of learning to discover new ways to confront events in life in a positive way.  It requires identification of emotional pain and the development of coping tools to lessened presenting symptoms.  Psychotherapy continues until the client has acquired coping tools and learned positive ways of dealing with stressors or until the client decides to discontinue with treatment. Sometimes, psychotropic medication is recommended in conjunction with therapy.

Sex therapy is a psychotherapy treatment approach that encumbers ethical boundaries for the professional to treat individuals with problems related to human sexuality.  It is an individual's right to find professional help with their sexual problems.  A clinical sexologists who is certified in sex therapy uses specialized clinical and theoretical skills to help individuals and couples deal more effecitvely with their sexual concerns.

Couples Therapy; About 50% of most marriages in the United States end in divorce.  Therapy for couples is focused on finding out what is wrong in the relationship and  help the couple gain new ways of relating to each other, solving conflicts, being more intimate/affectionate and developing coping tools to understand each other's personalities.

Domestic Violence  (DV) involves trauma for both the victim and the aggressor.  Researchers have proven that it is devastating for children and/or other family members to witness domestic violence.  There is no socio-economic or cultural barrier for DV.  The victim and the batterer have learned maladaptive behaviors and through therapy new behaviors are learned that will help both parties breakout of the Cycle of Violence.

Parenting: Are we instinctively hardwired to be a good parent? Well, it seems that most of us employ the parenting skills that we learned from our parents.  Do you consider your parents' skills to be good?  Most of us do not.  Parenting is something we need to learn.  It is my hope that in the future the school system would teach parenting to prepare our youngsters prepare for the role of being a parent.  TCS teaches parenting skills to educate parents in the developmental milestones, moral, discipline, behaviors and communication techniques with children and adolescents.

Divorce is a painful process where the individual feels a loss.  TCS offers individual therapy and also divorce groups (the latter is courtmandated).  With individual therapy the client would have a warm, safe and nonjudgmental place to process anger, resentment, emotional pain and gain improvement in general functioning.  For court mandated groups, it is more psychoeducational and especially geared for those who have children; to deal with conflicts between both parents due to different parenting skills, custody and conflicts about visitation, etc.

Grief of a family member, friend or coworker may be devastating.  Our mind has to accept the loss and grief has various stages to complete in order for the person grieving to attain acceptance of the loss.  Through therapy, the process is explained and various exercises help to gain emotional peace. 

Depression/Anxiety are disorders which, depending on the severity, can impede normal daily functioning.  Through cognitive/behavior therapy techiques and exercises, the client gains new thinking patterns and coping strategies  improving the client's level of functioning.

Stress/Anger Management are both treated by focusing on the triggers causing the stress and/or anger.  Various threrapeutic modalities are used to help control stress/anger.

Crisis presents as an overwhelming emotional  response to a situation that is threatening in which the person might not have the problem-solving skills or coping tools to help them be stable.  Crisis intervention is a special skill due to the danger of suicide/homicide or self-injurious behavior.  The assessment involves identifying cognitive, affective and behavioral states of the client.The focus is on encouraging the client to ventilate feelings, offer methods of coping, validate their feelings and provide support.

Hypnosis:  Is a process of using other levels of your mind to change.  There are many misconceptions about hypnosis.  In hypnosis you are aware of everything and would not be influenced in doing or saying anything that you do not want to say or do.    In hypnosis your focus of concentration would be more in the subconscious thoughts.  You feel like you are daydreaming.  Also, you would use other levels of thinking. For example, when you are driving your car home and get home wondering how you got there because your focus was on thinking of various problems at work or at home.  When you were driving your car home, you might have been hearing the radio, thinking of your concerns and also watching the baby.  You used various levels of your brain to accomplish this.  In hypnosis you would be using various levels of your thinking. 

Memberships 

• Member of The American Mental Health Counseling Association (AMHCA)
• Member of The Florida Mental Health Counseling
• Member of The American Association of Sex Educations, Counselors and Therapists (AASECT)
• Member of The International Association of Counselors and Therapists
• Alicia von Schirach, Ph.D., LMHC, CCS, Ch.t. is a Diplomate of the American Board of Sexology
• Member of Association for Comprehensive Energy Psychology
• Member of EMDRIA (Eye Movement Desesitization and Reporcessing International Association)

 What's New?

• Skype Counseling Available
• Trauma work for PTSD, Childhood traumas using EMDR Bilateral stimulation (insurance not accepted for this work)