GREAT FALLS — Great Falls is about to get a new counseling practice with current and trending ways to help kids.
Connected Counseling has a Sensory Motor Arousal Regulation Treatment (SMART) room that lets kids play with a variety of things, and then counselors use whatever they are drawn to to help guide the counseling.
They also have a Parent Child Interaction Therapy room (PCIT) that lets kids play with other toys with their parents.
The practice was created to be more of a specialty practice, and they say the need in Great Falls is as evident as ever, according to clinical director Deanna McCulloch.
She explained, “There’s play therapy and art therapy, and things like that. They don’t work for all kids. Some kids’ bodies are so disregulated from the trauma that they’ve experienced. What the Smart room does is it helps their bodies regulate in a situation where they’re having playful engagement with a safe person. And then they’re calm enough to be able to work through and process the things that they’ve been through.”
The practice is starting out small with limited staff, but they plan to expand and offer service to anyone who might need it and offer unique ways to help people through counseling.
Kim Bodily is a licensed clinical counselor at Connected Counseling and is excited to be part of something new that she thinks will benefit Great Falls.
“Not only do we have a huge need for mental health providers, but we also have a big need for new and innovative treatments just to keep up on the research and what we know about the brain and how we can help kids” Bodily said. “I’m really looking forward to the community being able to experience something different, the community feedback, what’s helpful what’s not helpful. But I think this is going to be really good for Great Falls and our community.”
Connected Counseling plans on serving up to ten patients in the first month, and will gradually expand their case load from there as they hire new staff.
They are located at 600 Central Avenue, in suite 225. For more information, call 406-201-1485.
