Your Texas Counseling & Supervision Contact

 SCHEDULING:

• All current clients can log in to their client portal through their email to request any future appointment.

• Our staff provides various services, based on their individual certifications, trainings. and licensures.

• All new clients and scheduling can be made through our secretary Jeanette. If you reach out to her and she is on the other line, please leave a message so that she may return your call the very same business day.

• If you have an emergency during or after business hours, you may dial 988 for the national hotline or 911 for your local law enforcement agency.

  Grace & Guidance PLLC

  832-242-9970

  25329 Budde Rd. Ste 401

  The Woodlands, Texas 77380

  graceandguidance@counselingmail.com

  *If you are attending an evening hour session with one of our staff, you may utilize the following gate code to enter #2742.

  • COUNSELING

    Counseling is defined as professional guidance of the individual by utilizing psychological methods especially in collecting case history data, using various techniques of the personal interview, and testing interests and aptitudes. We offer both in person and virtual sessions for our client’s convenience.

  • EMDR

    EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is a psychotherapy that enables people to heal from the symptoms and emotional distress that are the result of disturbing life experiences.  Repeated studies show that by using EMDR therapy people can experience the benefits of psychotherapy that once took years to make a difference. It is widely assumed that severe emotional pain requires a long time to heal.  EMDR therapy shows that the mind can in fact heal from psychological trauma much as the body recovers from physical trauma.  When you cut your hand, your body works to close the wound.  If a foreign object or repeated injury irritates the wound, it festers and causes pain.  Once the block is removed, healing resumes.  EMDR therapy demonstrates that a similar sequence of events occurs with mental processes.  The brain’s information processing system naturally moves toward mental health.  If the system is blocked or imbalanced by the impact of a disturbing event, the emotional wound festers and can cause intense suffering.  Once the block is removed, healing resumes.  Using the detailed protocols and procedures learned in EMDR therapy training sessions, clinicians help clients activate their natural healing processes.

    More than 30 positive controlled outcome studies have been done on EMDR therapy.  Some of the studies show that 84%-90% of single-trauma victims no longer have post-traumatic stress disorder after only three 90-minute sessions.  Another study, funded by the HMO Kaiser Permanente, found that 100% of the single-trauma victims and 77% of multiple trauma victims no longer were diagnosed with PTSD after only six 50-minute sessions. In another study, 77% of combat veterans were free of PTSD in 12 sessions. There has been so much research on EMDR therapy that it is now recognized as an effective form of treatment for trauma and other disturbing experiences by organizations such as the American Psychiatric Association, the World Health Organization and the Department of Defense. Given the worldwide recognition as an effective treatment of trauma, you can easily see how EMDR therapy would be effective in treating the “everyday” memories that are the reason people have low self-esteem, feelings of powerlessness, and all the myriad problems that bring them in for therapy. Over 100,000 clinicians throughout the world use the therapy.  Millions of people have been treated successfully over the past 25 years.

    EMDR therapy is an eight-phase treatment.  Eye movements (or other bilateral stimulation) are used during one part of the session.  After the clinician has determined which memory to target first, he asks the client to hold different aspects of that event or thought in mind and to use his eyes to track the therapist’s hand as it moves back and forth across the client’s field of vision.  As this happens, for reasons believed by a Harvard researcher to be connected with the biological mechanisms involved in Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep, internal associations arise, and the clients begin to process the memory and disturbing feelings. In successful EMDR therapy, the meaning of painful events is transformed on an emotional level.  For instance, a rape victim shifts from feeling horror and self-disgust to holding the firm belief that, “I survived it and I am strong.”  Unlike talk therapy, the insights clients gain in EMDR therapy result not so much from clinician interpretation, but from the client’s own accelerated intellectual and emotional processes.  The net effect is that clients conclude EMDR therapy feeling empowered by the very experiences that once debased them.  Their wounds have not just closed, they have transformed. As a natural outcome of the EMDR therapeutic process, the clients’ thoughts, feelings and behavior are all robust indicators of emotional health and resolution—all without speaking in detail or doing homework used in other therapies. (Definition provided by the EMDR Institute)

  • CISM Debriefing

    Critical Incident Stress Management, or CISM, is an intervention protocol developed specifically for dealing with traumatic events.  It is a formal, highly structured and professionally recognized process for helping those involved in a critical incident to share their experiences, vent emotions, learn about stress reactions and symptoms and given referral for further help if required.  It is not psychotherapy.  It is a confidential, voluntary and educative process, sometimes called 'psychological first aid'.

    First developed for use with military combat veterans and then civilian first responders (police, fire, ambulance, emergency workers and disaster rescuers), it has now been adapted and used virtually everywhere there is a need to address traumatic impact in people’s lives. There are several types of CISM interventions that can be used, depending on the situation.  Variations of these interventions can be used for groups, individuals, families and in the workplace. Debriefing is a proactive intervention involving a group meeting or discussion about a particularly distressing critical incident. Based on core principles of crisis intervention, the CISD is designed to mitigate the impact of a critical incident and to assist the persons in recovery from the stress associated with the event. The CISD is facilitated by a specially trained team which includes professional and peer support personnel. Also called Critical Incident Stress Debriefing (CISD). Ideally it is conducted between 24 and 72 hours after the incident but may be held later under exceptional circumstances.

    Defusing is an intervention that is a shorter, less formal version of a debriefing. It generally lasts from 30 to 60 minutes but may go longer and is best conducted within one to four hours after a critical incident. It is not usually conducted more than 12 hours after the incident. Like a debriefing, it is a confidential and voluntary opportunity to learn about stress, share reactions to an incident and vent emotions. The main purpose is to stabilize people affected by the incident so that they can return to their normal routines without unusual stress. Where appropriate, a formal debriefing also be required.

    Grief and Loss Session is a structured group or individual session following a death and assists people in understanding their own grief reactions as well as creating a healthy atmosphere of openness and dialogue around the circumstances of the death.

    Crisis Management Briefing is a large, homogeneous group intervention used before, during and after crisis to present facts, facilitate a brief, controlled discussion, Q & A and info on stress survival skills and/or other available support services.  May be repeated as situation changes.

    Critical Incident Adjustment Support provides multi-faceted humanitarian assistance to individual, families or groups for coping with the aftermath of an incident and overcoming the ongoing impact of a death or injury.

    Pre-Crisis Education provides a foundation for CISM services.  It includes incident awareness, crisis response strategies and develops stress management coping skills that can prevent major problems should an incident occur.  It takes the form of an employee handbook, e-book and/or workshops and training seminars.

    (CISM information provided can be found at https://www.criticalincidentstress.com/what_is_cism_)

  • CIDP

    Critical Incident Desensitization Protocols are interventions that can be used in the wake of a crisis, natural disaster or other critical incident to reduce distress and symptoms associated with the traumatic experience. They ARE NOT therapy; they are a form of “psychological first aid” that can be helpful in decreasing an incident’s vividness and disturbance through the use of eye movements or other forms of bilateral stimulation (BLS). They are broken down into two separate protocols: (CID) Critical Incident Desensitization and (ATIP) Acute Traumatic Incident Processing. Both protocols use short bursts of eye movements, or other forms of BLS, to desensitize the distressing event. Critical Incident Desensitization Protocols are helpful to individuals who have had a recent exposure to a crisis, natural disaster or other critical incident. Critical Incident Desensitization is intended for more immediate use following exposure to an event, typically in the minutes and hours after the initial exposure. Acute Traumatic Incident Processing can be used after the immediate exposure has passed up to several hours or days following exposure to the traumatic incident. These protocols are not therapy, and therefore are not appropriate to use on traumatic incidents that are not recent in nature. Anyone who has encountered a crisis, natural disaster, accident, assault or other critical incident and has experienced some distress or other symptoms associated with the experience may benefit from these protocols. Individuals who may be experiencing emotional, psychological or physical distress may experience a reduction or elimination by implementing one of the Critical Incident Desensitization Protocols. Critical Incident Desensitization Protocols were designed to be implemented by paraprofessionals, although the person implementing these protocols may be a clinician, they may also be a volunteer, first responder, or other helping professional. CIDP can be implemented in variety of ways within a first responder agency. Because CIDPs are intended for immediate use after a critical incident, trauma or stressful experience it can be useful to have team members involved in Critical Incident Stress Management Debriefings trained on these protocols; this offers individuals an opportunity to decrease their distress without having to "talk about" the incident on an individual basis. (It is also beneficial to have members who are involved in peer teams trained on these protocols; we recognize that peer support is an essential element in supporting our first responders, they are often more comfortable approaching peers with challenges or impacts they are noticing in relationship to a critical incident.)Therefore, having peers that are already trained in these models creates an environment where individuals are empowered to reach out in a way that feels safe and comfortable to them, in addition to empowering peers to have a tool that will actually assist in decreasing images and emotions without getting caught up in the context of what happened. In fact, any provider within the department whose role includes assisting responders with maintaining their mental and physical health and well-being can benefit from training and experience with CIDPs; this includes both clinician and non-clinical staff. (Definition provided by: Libby Murdoch)