ADULT PROBATION OUTREACH PROGRAM

The Stamford Counseling Center, through the efforts of staff therapist Gary Stanek, LMFT, has initiated a new program in collaboration with the Probation Department of the Stamford Superior Court. The program provides short-term, solution-focused therapy for individuals on probation to help them alter maladaptive behavior and ways of thinking, assisting them in utilizing the strengths and resources of their families and community, and improving the quality of their relationships.

Clients will learn how to become better parents, more responsible partners and more productive members of the community. The goal is to transform the challenges of substance abuse, violence, crime, physical and emotional abuse and poverty into opportunities for growth. The vision is to use the solution-focused techniques of family therapy to encourage self-improvement and relationship healing and enhancement.

Clients referred by probation officers will be seen for ten counseling sessions in a room set aside for this purpose at the courthouse. The counselors will be advanced graduate students at Fairfield University and Fordham University doing their internship at the Stamford Counseling Center and working under the supervision of Mr. Stanek.

At the end of the initial ten-session phase clients may end their counseling or will have the opportunity to continue in counseling to address other issues, including financial, housing, employability and employment, legal, medical, educational and nutritional. Clients will be referred to local agencies providing services for addressing those needs.

The initial ten sessions will be at no cost. Follow-up counseling at the Center will be charged at a minimum fee of $25 per session or more based on the Centers sliding scale. Other agencies to which they are referred will determine the fees charged there.

The program is expected to establish a working relationship that will enhance the work of probation officers, improve services to probationers, and reduce recidivism to the benefit of probationers families and the community at large.