Family Vistas

We believe that every family is walking their own path in life, with different challenges and a unique vision for their lives. Using our clinical model, Family Vistas, our specially trained clinical staff helps families deal with the behavioral health challenges that are keeping them from functioning well together. 

Our therapeutic environment is designed to:

• Address trauma and other behavioral symptoms.
• Teach coping and social skills that can support the child in healing and along their life journey.
• Empower the child and family to use supports available in the home and the community to help them succeed.
• Engage the whole family in the child’s care, including parents, other caregivers, siblings and foster parents, for children in foster care.

Strengthening Family Relationships

Relationship building is key to a child’s healthy development, healing and growth, and it is a key part of the Family Vistas model.  Our clinical staff partners with the whole family to develop supportive, nurturing relationships that can help the child heal while building skills needed to help the family move forward together.  These skills include:

Communication Problem solving

Conflict management Anger and stress management

Core Treatment Methods

Family Vistas is a family-centered, trauma-informed clinical model, using two core treatment methods to help families heal and choose a positive new direction for their lives.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) helps families understand the need to make positive changes in their lives and helps them plan the steps needed to move forward. During CBT, a child and family will learn to:

• Set positive, realistic goals for their lives.
• Solve problems, such as learning how to communicate their needs.
• Manage stress and anxiety.
• Identify situations that cause anxiety or serve as triggers for problems in the home and learn to deal with them in a positive way.
• Be more involved in social and recreation activities they enjoy.

Motivational Interviewing

Using Motivational Interviewing (MI) principles and interventions, we assess the entire family’s readiness to make positive changes in their lives and support them in taking steps to move forward in a positive direction. Depending on each child’s behavioral health needs and treatment goals, other interventions may be used with CBT and MI, including:

• Trauma-focused therapy – Children who have experienced trauma have therapy sessions with a Alabama MENTOR therapist who is specially trained in trauma issues. Learn more about our services for children with trauma.
• Family Systems thinking – The child and family learn how they work together as a family, how changes in life can cause changes in the family, and how they can deal with these changes in a positive way.
• Intensive case management – In cases where a child needs to be placed in foster care, we help the child make a smooth transition with all needed community supports in place, such as being enrolled in school, medical care and participating in community activities.
• Skills training – The family works with their treatment team to build skills such as communication, problem solving and stress management that can help them strengthen their relationships and handle crisis in a positive way.
• Behavior modification – The family learns to change negative behaviors that are keeping them from moving forward together.