New Counseling Practice Sets Goals For Workshop

By Nancy K. Crevier

“We want to give back to the community what we have to offer. That’s important,” said Pat Heinzer, one of seven counselors who make up CT Counselors, a practice new to the community. CT Counselors opened the Route 25 office to clients in November at 27 Hawleyville Road in a building that once was home to William Upton, inventor of the tea bag, and what was the site of the popular Upton’s Tea Room of the early 1900s. The building houses Santosha Yoga Center and CT Counselors. CT Counselors also maintains another practice in Danbury.

CT Counselors includes Ms Heinzer, a licensed certified social worker, Jennifer Beller, a licensed professional counselor (LPC), Karen Schaum, LPC, Lorena Tesbir, LPC, Isobel McGrath, a licensed alcohol and drug counselor, Audrey Cain, master’s in social work, and Margaret Pfeiffer, a certified addiction counselor. All of the women previously worked together at some point in other private practices.

“We are a diverse group, multicultural, with a wide variety of skills and experiences,” said Ms Heinzer. The group prefers a holistic approach to health, making its co-habitation with the yoga center an ideal situation. “Santosha means ‘contentment,’ and we like to think that applies to our practice, as well,” explained Ms Heinzer.

What the counseling practice is giving back to the community is a workshop entitled, “Meeting Your Goals in 2007.” It is one of several workshops the group plans to offer this year. The workshop, scheduled from 7 to 8:30 pm on Thursday, January 25, will be led by Ms Beller, Ms Heinzer, Ms Schaum, Ms McGrath, and Ms Tesbir and will focus on three main areas of setting goals, whether they be huge, life-changing objectives or ambitions on the day-to-day level.

The first area participants will address at the January 25 session is identifying realistic goals, said Ms Heinzer. “Clients will learn to identify workable parts of a goal,” she said.

What works and does not work in setting a goal is another aspect that will be addressed, said Ms Schaum. “Identifying what is not working and identifying what the gains could be, as well as asking ‘Will there be losses?’ are important pieces to a successful goals program,” said Ms Schaum. “When people set unrealistic goals,” she added, “they can feel like a failure.”

Participants will be led through a process of using “tools” that help ensure success, said Ms Beller. “You want to set yourself up for success,” said Ms Beller, “even in small ways.”

The second part of the program will focus on what tools work best and how to use them. “It’s almost like getting an imaginary toolbox of things that do and don’t work,” said Ms Heinzer. “Writing down goals, recognizing if they are short-term or long-term goals, is important.” Workshop participants will actually take home a journal in which they have identified their goals and to which they can add and track their progress, said the counselors. Another tool that will be introduced at the workshop is the visualization exercise.

“Positive affirmation is so valuable,” said Ms Schaum. “You need to get control of that internal dialogue for success to happen. We’ll be talking about how to put a positive spin on ‘slips,’ too, so that if a person gets off track on their goal, they don’t give up,” she said.

The third part of meeting goals is to identify roadblocks to reaching goals that people may subconsciously set up for themselves. “People may not be conscious of the blocks,” said Ms Heinzer. “They may be taking on too much at once, or have unrealistic or a non-long-term result,” she said.

“One of the things we’ll be looking at will be taking responsibility for choices,” said Ms Beller. “People make choices, then don’t want to take responsibility or will try to place the blame for why a choice isn’t working on someone or something outside of themselves. We want to help people become more aware of choices being made and how they can be used to maintain different goals,” she said.

The workshop will also serve as an introduction to the new practice, the counselors hope. “It’s a nice thing if someone is considering therapy to meet the therapists. The workshop can serve as a nice introduction to the therapists who will be here and might make it easier to pick up the phone and call if they can put a name with a face,” Ms Schaum said.

What is important, said the women, is that people are comfortable. “A group can be a nonthreatening environment. We try to provide a homey, safe environment,” said Ms Schaum.

If the women find that enough people who attend the workshop are interested in the same subject, CT Counselors will try to put together support groups that are geared toward that interest.

The “Meeting Goals in 2007” workshop, the counselors emphasized, is for all ages, men, women, and children. While the workshop is free of charge, space is limited, so reservations are requested. To reserve a space, call 279-9888 no later than Monday, January 23.

A sense of hope, a sense of feeling in control, and self-empowerment are the goals for the evening workshop, according to the counselors. “I would like people to walk away from the workshop with a sense of ‘I can,’” Ms Schaum said.