TSWSC workers strive toward the restoration of dignity & respect, safety & trust, as well as power & control for the individuals we serve. With services driven by individual needs, TSWSC workers and clients collaboratively design individualized treatment plans to promote growth in a culturally responsive, trauma-informed, and compassionate environment. Our services are accessible to individuals of all ages, cultures and faiths.
Keeping our client’s needs at the heart of the treatment, Tidwell Social Work Services and Consulting, Inc. (TSWSC) workers strive toward the restoration of Dignity & Respect; Safety & Trust; Power & Control. In doing so, we foster personal growth in a culturally-responsive, trauma-informed and Compassionate environment. TSWSC provides mental health services in the form of individual and family counseling or therapy, to adults and children. We also provide Community-based Rehabilitation Services (CBRS); Targeted Service Coordination/Case Management services (TSC/CM); Peer Support Services and ancillary services in the form of Community Mental Health Advisors and Massage Therapy. We do not provide Medication Management Services but make referrals to appropriate services when indicated. Current Programs/Services include:
Counseling or Psychotherapy
Our clinician’s come from diverse backgrounds and draw from a wide range of expertise and training to provide counseling services that support individuals is improving their quality of life. We utilize innovative models of intervention that are holistic in their incorporation of the individual and ecological components of recovery and resilience. These interventions include:
-Dialectical Behavioral Therapy
-Mindfulness
-Psycho-education
-Cognitive behavioral therapy
-EMDR
-Expressive therapies (art/sand tray/narrative)
-Play therapy
-Parent-child psychotherapy
-Positive psychology
-Referrals made to Animal assisted/equine assisted therapy when indicated
Targeted Service Coordination (TSC/CM).
Targeted Service Coordination is a brokerage model of Case management which is community-based and involves a behavioral health professional assisting clients who are at risk of being underserved in their effort to identify, access and utilize medical, behavioral health and social services. Case Management services vary in intensity, frequency, and duration and are customized to support the client’s ability to utilize behavioral health and medical services, manage functional difficulties, and realize goals for recovery/resiliency.
Community-based Rehabilitation Services (CBRS)
Community Based Rehabilitation Services are home or community-based services available to adults who are recovering from a Severe and Persistent Mental Illness and children with Emotion Regulation disorders. Services aim to promote recovery/resilience, facilitate community integration and provide the necessary support to empower individuals in improving their quality of life.
Community Based Rehabilitation Services utilize credentialed CBRS workers to help individuals develop skills needed to increase their capacity to succeed in their home, employment, school or social environments. Services target skills that have been lost due to mental health conditions. Community Based Rehabilitation Services vary in intensity, frequency, and duration. They are customized to support clients in managing functional difficulties. TSWSC CBRS/CM program has over the years helped dozens of people from around the world establish new lives in the Treasure Valley. At this time, we have several CBRS workers on our team who have experienced the refugee/immigration process first hand. Based on the principles of trauma-informed practice and the provision of equitable services, our program aims to:
– Provide culturally relevant services by reinterpreting conventional practices to better suit the needs of our refugee clients who are often resilient trauma survivors.
– Counselor-CBRS/TSC worker collaboration is fundamental in this treatment model.
– Referrals are very specific in outlining what skill sets clients need to develop/improve on in order to enhance their quality of life, facilitate recovery and strengthen resilience.
Peer Support Services (PSS)
These are services lead by people in recovery. It is based on the philosophy that people with shared experiences of mental illness and/or substance abuse can give each other encouragement, hope, assistance, guidance and understanding to aid in recovery. These are services that are delivered by certified Peer Support Specialist (individuals in recovery who utilize their lived experiences with to assist other individuals in recovery).
Group Therapy
This is psychotherapy delivered in a group setting, facilitated by a licensed/certified therapist in conjunction with adjunct community professionals, interns or volunteers. In this setting, a group of clients are encouraged to process shared experiences, explore challenges and use shared knowledge/experiences to provide constructive feedback about maladaptive behavior. Adaptive skills and healthy interpersonal interactions are taught in an effort to enhance individual participants’ overall functioning and quality of life.
Ancillary Mental Health services
Community Mental Health Advisors (CMHA): The Program facilitates clients and their
- family members to access and utilize services, provide emotional support and encouragement, promote recovery and resiliency, and build upon current health literacy. The program aims to ensure mental health services correspond to the cultural norms and beliefs of individual clients and effectively reduce symptoms of psychological trauma and enhance psychosocial wellbeing. Services are rendered by community members (preferably from the same culture and language group as the client) with lived experience in successfully managing mental health conditions and challenges associated with the overall refugee resettlement experience. These culturally responsive peer support services identify and strengthen existing natural supports. Peer support activities might include: individual coaching; facilitating social and emotional support groups; organizing activities such as gardening, picnics, yoga, walking groups, parenting support; learning how to ride the bus; accessing resources, self-advocacy and budgeting.
- Massage Therapy: In recognition of the psychosomatic effects of Trauma and the importance of utilizing a holistic approach in treating trauma survivors, TSWSC contracts with a Licensed Massage therapist to work on clients with psychosomatic disorders and PTSD. This is based on the concept that the body is the medium of expression for many trauma survivors. This program aims to introduce ways to treat the body in hands-on, compassionate and caring ways that help individuals in their process of recovery. Clients are referred to this free service on a voluntary basis as long as they meet criteria for the above mentioned diagnosis. Massage therapy serves as a culturally responsive alternative to conventional psychotherapy and helps ease some of the emotional and physical burdens of trauma.
- Trauma-informed Yoga: This is an empirically validated, adjunctive treatment for complex trauma informed by both theory on the neurobiology of trauma and the ancient scientific wellness system of yoga. The aim of Trauma-Sensitive Yoga is to provide a safe and supportive environment for trauma survivors and empower them to autonomously choose their movements, breath, and poses.
- Art Therapy: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Training and Consultation Services
TSWSC offers training for families, students, paraprofessionals, and professionals in the social work and mental health fields. We also offer consulting services to government agencies and nonprofit organizations. Services include:
- Management consultation
- Mental health advocacy
- Case consultation
- Customized training
- Clinical supervision for LMSW and LPC
- Internship placements for BSW and MSW students
Community Building and Healing for Diverse Peoples
This is an inclusive community-oriented program designed to address the multiple barriers and unmet cultural and service needs of the local Refugee population. Based on innovative and recovery-oriented approaches, the program focuses on alternative ways of healing, learning and community-building in an effort to support refugees foster a healthy and productive life in their host communities. These efforts include the following initiatives:
- Women Empowerment
- Social Integration
- Pay it Forward
- Healing & Rebuilding our Communities (HROC)
The HROC Basic Workshop is fun and highly interactive. Each workshop has 20 to 25 participants who commit to attending for all three days. Participants are invited by a local organizer. On Day 1, participants join in community-building activities and discuss the benefits of sharing information about themselves and their burdens. They also discuss basic information about trauma: its definition, causes, symptoms, and consequences.
On Day 2, participants discuss good and bad ways of listening, as well as loss, grief and mourning. Participants share about and honor their losses. These might be the deaths of loved ones or experiences that affected them deeply. Because of chaotic conditions, participants may not have been able to mourn their losses earlier. The workshops encourage them to share their experiences with others who may have had similar losses. Participants also discuss phases of grief and how to help themselves and others heal. On Day 3, participants discuss constructive and destructive ways to handle anger as well as how to build trust both at personal and community levels. There is usually a shared meal on each day of the workshop, plus games and other fun activities.
Why is HROC Effective?
- Participants devote three days to learning about and beginning to heal from trauma, something they might not otherwise do
- They learn how they, their families, and their communities will benefit from healing
- People from different sides of conflicts and different backgrounds learn that all have suffered
- HROC relies on the wisdom of workshop participants; lectures are kept to a minimum
- Participants have a chance to grieve and honor their losses
- HROC is accessible to people of all educational levels, including people who are illiterate
- It’s fun! It uses games, music, and food to lighten difficult topics
- It’s community-based – the program builds leaders in the communities in which it works; community members make effective facilitators as they draw on shared experiences
Follow-Up and Advanced Training
HROC helps rebuild communities by developing grassroots leadership. If resources are available, follow-up gatherings and Community Celebrations are held so participants can re-connect and share post-workshop experiences. Celebrations also encourage buy-in from community leaders. Participants who show an aptitude and interest may attend a Healing Companions Training for roughly five days. Healing Companions are trained to listen compassionately and guide people through the personal trauma healing journey. Healing companions help reduce isolation and build peace in their communities. Workshop participants who are gifted leaders and presenters may attend a 3-week HROC Facilitators Training. In this intensive training, participants study all aspects of the Basic Workshop in depth, then co-facilitate a Basic Workshop under supervision.
