Individual, Couples, Family, and Group Therapy

Counseling for individuals, couples, families and groups are the core services available to you and your family at YFSA. Regularly scheduled therapy, once a week with a trained counselor (also known as a clinician), is the most common practice at YFSA. Sometimes twice-a-month sessions are available, or if you are in crisis, you can be seen 2-3 times weekly until your life settles. However, YFSA is not equipped to handle clients who sustain multiple crises, such as needing hospitalization. If you are assessed to be at high risk, the clinician will help you with the proper referral.

YFSA offers a number of billing and payment options which will allow you to utilize your Medi-Cal benefits or commercial health insurance, or pay for services at an adjusted fee rate based upon your ability to pay.

Adult Individual Therapy: In individual therapy a clinician will help you assess your situation, offer diagnostic expertise, and set goals with you to work on in your therapy. Our clinicians are trained in specific methods of treatment (or modalities), to help meet your needs and preferences. They will help you understand what these modalities are and how they work. The modalities offered at YFSA include Cognitive Therapy, Psycho-dynamic, Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, and Rapid Trauma Recovery (EMDR).

Children’s Individual Therapy: Play, art, sand tray, board games, and physical activities are employed in children’s therapy as a part of the therapeutic process. The clinician provides a safe environment in which the child is encouraged, through art or play, to talk or otherwise express feelings about their worries and concerns. There are board games -- not usually available to the public -- that assist a clinician in teaching children about handling anger, talking about their feelings, or learning to focus. Art therapy allows a child to draw what they are experiencing on paper to express how they feel when words are not readily available to them. Sand play also allows a client to express their internal world and tell a clinician what is happening without having to conjure up words. Clinicians at YFSA are trained to employ the methods that are best for you and your family.

Parents are an important part of the therapy process for children up to age of 12. This means that parents participate in the sessions and are given a few minutes during each visit to discuss their concerns. Occasionally, family therapy is offered. Teens are afforded confidentiality, with parental consultations as the family desires, or when the clinician sees a need.

Couples Therapy: This form of therapy is offered when both parties are willing to engage in treatment. It offers couples the opportunity to overcome obstacles or to enhance their relationship. Couples therapy is not advisable if there has been any instance of physical altercation between the couple in the last year. Individual therapy is more suitable in cases involving recent domestic violence, with anger management as an adjunct therapy. Assessments are offered and referrals are made if couples therapy is not warranted at the first appointment.

Couples are able to work on communication, listening, spending time together, parenting, integrating blended families, dealing with ex-spouses and in-laws, sex, religion and other important issues. Couples often look to couples therapy when divorce is imminent, but this is not necessarily the best time to seek help. One or both individuals may be more willing to give up and get out than to stay and work on their relationship. The best time for therapy is when both people are committed to making the relationship work. Couples work is similar to individual therapy but both parties work out the issue with one another, rather than relying on the clinician to provide solutions.

Family Therapy treats the family as a whole. It is usually requested by a family member who calls YFSA. Or, as part of your child’s individual therapy (discussed above), your clinician may suggest this as an additional mode of treatment.

When family therapy is employed, the clinician takes a system assessment of the problem. This means the clinician assesses how each member interacts, thinks, and feels. Often the problem is identified, but is not related to one particular person. Each family member owns a part of the problem, so to speak. With the clinician as facilitator and keeper of the problem, family members can relax and view the problem and the solution differently. In order for family therapy to work and the problems to be resolved, the family as a system has to change – not just one person.

Group Therapy is offered at YFSA. Groups can be educational or insightful. There are groups for divorced families, women, men, and children with disabilities. Groups are an affordable and effective way to provide therapy. Some groups are ongoing; others are time-limited. Please see YFSA’s Quarterly Update for current group offerings.

Most insight groups have 6 to 8 members and meet for one and a half hours. Members find commonalities and are able to share and connect with one another. They are able to offer insight and support each other. In adult groups, members are able to work on, for example, childhood issues with one another in a place that is safe and confidential.

Children’s Groups employ similar methods found in Individual Therapy, but it provides the collective experience not found in Individual. You can tell some children they are not the only one who has a problem, but they won’t believe you until you prove it to them. If the problem is behaving, focusing in the class room or making friends, group therapy is best solution to work on these problems in an environment that is safe.

Link here to view a list of YFSA's Current Services

The Yolo Family Services Agency offers a wide variety of payment options. In addition to being a certified Medi-Cal provider, being on many private insurance panels and providing an adjusted fee schedule for services, YFSA also offers.

Employee Assistance Program is provided through the various employers in Yolo County. These counseling services are often free to the individual or family. Emphasis is placed on short term therapy – typically three to six sessions -- with the intention of assessing and referring the family to other resources. Individuals are also offered the opportunity to continue therapy at YFSA and receive treatment through coverage provided by their commercial insurance or on an adjusted fee basis.

Family Maintenance and Reunification is a contract that Yolo Family Services has with Child Welfare Services to provide 8 to 16 counseling sessions to the parent receiving assistance from Child Welfare. The two most common referrals are from parents who have their children in their homes but participate in Family Maintenance or are reunifying with their children through the court. Parents work on personal insight, responsibility, safety planning, and map their own childhood issues and choices that led them to their present circumstances.

Victims of Crime is a state-funded restitution program for victims and their families. YFSA is able to use this money to help victims recover from the trauma that occurred. Several clinicians are trained in Rapid Trauma Recovery (EMDR) that aids in the relief of anxious, depressive, or post traumatic symptoms. Through therapy, victims are able to set goals for the future, trust themselves and others that are trustworthy, and overcome emotional obstacles that were set in their way when the crime occurred. Families qualify for Victims of Crime through the State Board of Control; in Yolo County, the District Attorney’s office can assist with the application process.

Families Living with Developmental and Physical Challenges can seek therapy if they qualify for regional services. Clinicians have been able to help with mothers who are grieving the loss of a healthy child, develop functional family dynamics, allow children who are not as readily in touch with their feelings grieve the death of a family member, teach techniques to relieve anxiety or depression and improve communication and adjustment to group home residents, roommates, or couples. YFSA is wheelchair accessible. Clinicians are trained to meet the special needs of this population.

Allied Services for Kids is Yolo Family Services’ school-based program. Clinicians go to the school to provide individual therapy to the students who are in need. This program is particularly successful with parents who would otherwise not be able to access a mental health clinic setting after school or work. The clinicians offer individual or group therapy in the school, working on such issues as anger management, inattentiveness in the classroom and at home, social skills, separation issues, mood disorders such as depression and bi-polar, or anxiety issues.

Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) is a specific modality designed for parents with children ages 2-8. Therapy is conducted with the parent and child in a play room and the clinician observing their interaction through a one-way mirror in an adjacent room. The clinician actively coaches the parent through a hidden ear piece worn by the parent in order to increase the parent’s effectiveness in communicating with his or her child. The therapy is normally for 20 weeks, working first on changing negative behaviors by focusing on the positive, as well as, by increasing supportive communication with the child. In the last weeks of therapy parents are taught specific skills to effectively manage their child’s behavior