Counseling

Through a systemic lens and team-oriented approach, we work to coordinate and collaborate with your referring provider in order to provide care that is integrative and holistic. To determine the best fit based on your presenting concern, please contact the individual therapist of interest directly.

• Individual Therapy (pre-adolescents, adolescents, adults, and aging population)
• Couples Therapy
• Family Therapy
• Group Therapy
• Telemental Health (Distance Counseling via online and/or telephone)
• Discernment Counseling
• Pre-marital Counseling using the Prepare-Enrich assessment

Areas of treatment focus include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Addiction
• Depression
• Anxiety
• Stress management
• Adjustment to life transitions
• Marital, family, and relationship distress
• Pre-marital Counseling
• Discernment Counseling
• Infidelity
• Grief and loss (including pet loss)
• Parent-child difficulties
• Co-parenting skills
• Work-related distress
• Women’s health issues (including pregnancy and postpartum-related)
• Adjustment to illness and injury
• Caregiver distress
• Difficulty with making lifestyle changes (i.e. weight management, smoking cessation)
• Trauma

Mediation

What is Mediation? Mediation is described as a nonadversarial process; an “assisted communications for agreement” (Melamed, www.mediate.com). It is a process by which a neutral third party facilitates discussions between parties surrounding possible ways in which to settle a dispute. The neutral third party does not have decision making authority or rights to impose a specific settlement upon parties involved in the process. On the other hand, the neutral does focus upon the needs and interests of the parties rather than rights and positions.
Key Qualities of the Mediation Process include the following:

• Voluntary
• Collaborative
• Controlled
• Confidential
• Informed
• Impartial, neutral, balanced, and safe
• Self-responsible and satisfying (Melamed, www.mediate.com)

If you are presently experiencing conflict as a result of incompatible goals, interests, principles, and/or feelings, Mediation may be your best route to pursue.

Speaking Engagements

Community Speaking Engagements and In-Service Training to Medical and Mental Health Professionals. Topic areas may include but are not limited to the following:

• Preventing Stress and Burnout
• Working with Special Populations – Families
• Abuse and Neglect Reporting
• Grief and loss
• Recognizing and Treating Anxiety within the Primary Care Setting
• Effective Communication
• Affective Mood Disorders

Post-graduate supervision-Services Provided by Kara Z. McDaniel Phd, LPC, NCC, DCC

Since 2005, I have had the great opportunity of incorporating a very important service that I am passionate about in my practice as a mental health professional – educating, supervising, and mentoring graduate level and Associate Licensed Mental Health Professionals. I am often approached and/or contacted by graduate level trainees to inquire about my specific professional journey, what it is like to be in the mental health profession, and establishing and sustaining a thriving private practice. I thoroughly enjoy providing guidance and mentorship, not only to novice therapists but also to those who may have been in the field for many years. As you begin or continue your professional journey to work toward licensure in the state of Georgia, it would be my honor to walk beside you.

Consultation-Services Provided by Kara Z. McDaniel Phd, LPC, NCC, DCC

Since 1995, I have had the wonderful opportunity of working within numerous professional and diverse settings, including foster care, juvenile justice, clinical, medical, and academic. Even as professionals, we never stop growing and learning. Thus, I offer consultation services to those within the mental health and medical profession in an environment that is both warm and collegial. Areas of topic may include:

• a specific client/patient case
• practice management
• ethical questions/challenges

Distance Counseling

Distance counseling is a very specific type of counseling approach that incorporates the best practices of traditional counseling in addition to its own exclusive advantages. In order to increase the level of access to mental health services within the community, Lifescapes Counseling Services, LLC is now offering distance counseling via telephone and online.

Discernment Counseling

If you or your spouse are considering divorce but uncertain as to whether it is the best path, there is no doubt that you are faced with an extremely difficult decision.

Discernment Counseling is designed to assist couples where one partner is “leaning out” of the relationship (i.e. uncertain that marriage counseling would help) and the other partner is “leaning in” (i.e. interested in rebuilding the marriage). It is an opportunity to slow down the decision making process and closely explore options for your marriage, whether it may be to try to restore your marriage back to a healthy state, take steps toward divorce, or to take time out and decide at a later date.

Ultimately, the goal for Discernment Counseling specifically is for persons to gain more clarity and confidence about a direction which stems from a deeper level of understanding of your relationship as well as its possibilities for the future.

The number of sessions are typically a maximum of five, however, could extend to seven sessions total. The initial session is usually two hours and the subsequent sessions are anywhere from 1.5 or 2 hours. The following are certain situations in which Discernment Counseling is not suited for:

• When one spouse has already made a final decision to divorce
• When one spouse is coercing the other to participate
• When there is danger of domestic violence

Pre-marital Counseling

The decision to get married can be a very exciting as well as stress inducing life transition. Making the commitment to go through pre-marital counseling is one of the most important and valuable gifts that new couples can give to themselves. Using the Prepare-Enrich assessment, we help couples identify their strengths and growth areas. These growth areas may include: communication, resolving conflict, identifying and managing stressors, exploring issues within families of origin, discuss issues pertaining to financial planning and budgeting, and developing a relationship that is more balanced.