Our Tailor-Made Solution to Counseling
Traditional mental health providers may often be ill-equipped to handle the specific needs facing people with disabilities. Barriers to adequate and accessible mental health care include communication, e.g., disabilities that impact speech, hearing, sight, lack of reliable transportation, and ableism (dehumanizing stigmas of being treated as "less than" and needing to be "fixed").
This may inadvertently contribute to the perceptions of people with disabilities as diseased, broken, and needing fixing, which can negatively impact the counseling relationship.
Our Tailor-Made Solution
Counseling Directions operates with counselors who have personal/lived disability experiences and is adept at assuring necessary adaption of materials and program elements in ways most relevant to our unique population. Therefore, we provide a highly influential peer model that promotes the following Independent Living (IL) practices:
Empowering individuals to set and achieve life goals
Participant-directed services
Informed choice
Community integration
Dignity of risk
Advocating for disability rights/justice
Counseling Directions offers the support and tools necessary for people with disabilities to achieve and sustain mental wellness and prevent unnecessary institutionalization.
A Multidisciplinary Health and Well-Being Solution
We provide confidential individual and/or group mental health sessions that may include guidance, support, and strategies related to:
Self-confidence and self-acceptance, particularly concerning disability and identity issues
Mental health issues such as depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, and PTSD
Communication and interpersonal skills
Stress management and decision-making
Personal, emotional, and social issues
A journey of self-discovery and learning self-advocacy
Core elements focus on self-discovery, preventive care, and autonomy and include behavior change, integrative health, a sense of purpose, stress management, and social support
Counseling Directions empowers individuals to gain and maintain a strong sense of self and motivation, no matter what obstacles they face. We focus on helping individuals eliminate barriers, take control of their own lives, and reach their self-identified independent living goals.
Program Availability
Direct is the first Center for Independent Living (CIL) to offer this unique approach to mental health services – mental health counseling grounded in Independent Living/Disability Rights philosophy, by a Licensed Counselor who also has a disability. We currently serve Cochise, Graham, Greenlee, Pima, and Santa Cruz counties (primarily via telehealth due to the COVID Pandemic).
Cost
Although Counseling Directions has a fee schedule, we currently provide primarily pro bono services for low-income individuals with disabilities who are uninsured, under-insured, or could not find services within the traditional system to meet their needs. We currently offer up to 12 free sessions for those with low income.
