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Healing Happens Here

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Healing Happens Here

The Arlington Youth Counseling Center (AYCC) is a welcoming and inclusive mental health clinic and the leading provider of outpatient and school-based child and adolescent mental health services in Arlington. Located in the historic Whittemore Robbins House, we are committed to delivering outstanding, equitable and accessible mental health services.  Our mission is to ensure all youth and families have access to culturally sensitive and high-quality care, regardless of their ability to pay.

Spotlight

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Kym Goldsmith's Tip

Meet Kym!  Kym Goldsmith is a middle school based Licensed Mental Health Clinician (LMHC), who specializes in working with adolescents and their parents with a relational, strengths-based focused clinical style that infuses humor, talk, art, writing, and meeting people where they are at on their journey of growth.  Kym earned their Masters of Arts in Clinical Mental Health with a Holistic Studies Specialization from Lesley University in 2009, and has continued developing their skill set through training in gender identity, ADHD, ASD, anxiety, depression, and trauma treatment using IFS, CBT, DBT, art, and mindfulness-based therapies.

Kym's Tip:  Five things for parents to know about IFS (Internal Family Systems) so they can use this language at home with their child/adolescent:

  • We all have parts

We have parts and we react differently depending what part is present, activated or triggered at that moment. This is as true for our children as it is for us. This is why our children can react very differently at one moment than at the next. It’s a different part of their internal system that is reacting.
This is normal.

  • Parts take on burdens

An important part of the IFS view is the distinction between our parts and their burdens:
A part holds anger but is not the anger.
A part holds the solution of shutting off, but is not the wall it is creating.
And so on.
This is why we don’t want to get rid of, ignore or fight our parts. Instead we want to get curious about them to  help them release their burdened beliefs and thus create felt safety and choice from a flexible and present space.

  • Trauma is the cause of burdens

Something traumatic or not is not so much about what happens to us, as much as it is how overwhelming what happens to us is. When we are met, held and witnessed in difficult situations, the pain does not stay stuck inside of us, but is able to move.  When we are seen with loving eyes, met, believed and comforted after extreme or difficult events, the pain can move much more easily instead of staying stuck as burdens.

  • You make sense

No matter how bad things can seem sometimes — inside of us and in our relationships in the family — there is always a meaning and a positive intention behind behavior, symptoms, feelings and reactions...What is helpful is getting curious about ourselves and/or our children. 

  • Self; The Inner Parent

Just as our own children need to be able to lean into the secure attachment of us, their caregivers, our inner children, or parts, need to be able to lean into the Self inside of us. Slow down. What do I notice? Bring curiosity. What’s important? Choice through Self-Leadership.

Hear from our Clients

“When your child is struggling and getting into trouble, you cannot help but feel responsible, sometimes guilty, sometimes ashamed and very helpless. Other parents of “normal” kids may socially drift away and even your family and closest friends may have trouble really understanding how scary and challenging things are. The parent support group at AYCC was a place where we could put down our heavy weights of worry and shame and be listened to and supported and held.”

- Former Parent Group Member

”AYCC helped me through some of the darkest times in my life. I hope that when AYCC reaches its 100 birthday, they will have helped and given hope to so many youths like they did for me so many years ago.“

- Former AYCC Client

“Thank you AYCC for helping bring love and laughter back to our family. Your wonderful clinicians were just right for my children and for me as we made our way through dark times. We are unbelievably lucky to have this resource in Arlington.”

- AYCC parent, Arlington Mom

“Sometimes your friends and your family can’t help you because you can’t explain what is wrong. My therapist at AYCC helps me talk about and manage my anxiety and things don’t seem so terrible any more. In fact, they’re pretty great - even during Covid!! Thank you AYCC!”

- Current AYCC client, Arlington teen

“AYCC gets it! When one family member struggles, we all struggle and with the help of your incredible team, we found our way to the other side. Thank you for helping us all navigate this road together.”

- Parent of former AYCC client