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Treatment Philosophy

Services for Children, Adolescents and Parents

“Too often clinicians fail miserably in their bids to connect with young clients. They try to be warm and trustworthy, and they wonder why they often get minimalist shrugs and loud sighs of boredom in return. Adolescents have a hard time reconciling needs for help with needs for autonomy….few teenagers come willingly to therapy.

What’s left, I have discovered, is an enormously underutilized resource in working with adolescents – candor. When teenagers walk into our offices, we need to offer them authenticity as immediately and unmistakably as possible, or we’ll lose forever any chance to influence them…. Kids are far more sensitive than adults to any form of disingenuousness. They are like canaries brought into the mines; they’re the first to react to bad air – and the least tolerant of it.”

Janet Sasson Edgette

Portland Relationship Center 

503.234.4440

4511 SE 39th Ave
Portland, Oregon 97202

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At Portland Relationship Center, we believe that children and adolescents deserve a therapeutic experience that is uniquely tailored to their developmental stage. In our work with young children, we focus on correcting problem behaviors, developing social skills, improving school performance and resolving grief and losses. We teach adolescents from a strengths perspective recognizing that most “pathology” can be traced to misguided attempts to satisfy a healthy desire for connection, attention and inclusion.

Because we value the bond between you and your child we offer services for parents and guardians such as parent training, parent support group, and educational presentations on child-rearing topics. Our mission is to reinforce the bridges between family members by increasing communication and compassion on the part of both the parents/guardians and the child. Family therapy and ongoing group work as well as periodic weekend workshops are also available to augment and compliment individual treatment.

Our child and adolescent services include:

  • Play therapy for 4-11 year olds
  • Social Skills Building
  • School Retention and Success
  • Behavioral therapy
  • Adolescent therapy for 12-18 year olds
  • Coaching for your College-Bound child
  • Parenting support and training

Our child and family therapist, Lisa Walcott, MSW, is trained in Love and Logic Parenting and has extensive experience using cognitive behavioral therapy. We also team with adolescent therapist Nicole Carroll, MSW, LCSW to provide services for ill and disabled teens and Imago™ relationship coaching for parents and family therapy.