Looking Glass therapists (from left: Alex Yalon, Bethany Kaiser, Maiyra Espinoza and Kendra Orr) discuss how Looking Glass therapy programs work to help youth and families they see.
The 15th annual Healthy Kids, Healthy Futures breakfast fundraiser, held at Venue 252 in Eugene, focused this year on the Looking Glass Counseling Program. A panel of Looking Glass therapists did a Q&A with emcee Mary Reilly discussing everything from trends they’re seeing in the community, different therapy strategies and services offered and advice for parents of teens. This year’s event title sponsor was Hearing Associates and co-owner and Looking Glass Board of Stewards member, Colin Welch, spoke to the attendees about the importance of supporting Looking Glass and encouraged them to donate as well.
In addition to the panel of therapists, a video highlighted the therapy in schools provided by Looking Glass staff. Looking Glass has therapists embedded in almost 20 schools in the area, which provides crucial support structure for youth as well as staff and administrators. It removes barriers to seeking therapy and provides much needed coping skills and support for youth to help them focus on learning.
Among the comments from therapists to the audience during this Q&A:
“Therapy is not a one size fits all—it is different for each person.”
“Parents—remember to listen to your teens and do so without judgement or trying to fix things unless advice is requested.”
“Many of the youth I see have recently attempted suicide or had severe trauma and others are dealing with challenges at home or at school—it varies.”
“We provide a variety of different kinds of therapy services—skill building, group or family therapy, EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing ) and other techniques to help our clients.”
“Therapy is also not something that will just fix a problem with a few sessions—these are often ongoing challenges for our clients and we’re just providing coping skills and resources to help.”
“We provide several culturally-specific therapy services as well as many Spanish-speaking providers.”
This year’s event had many supporting sponsors as well including: Chambers Construction; Baker Tilly; OnPoint Credit Union; Twin Rivers Plumbing; B\VAL CPAs & Advisors; Heritage Bank; Hamilton Construction; Claim52 Kitchen; John Hyland Construction; Summit Bank, and Washington Federal Bank.
Looking Glass is incredibly thankful to all attendees and supporters of this year’s event! See some lovely photos from the event below.
