Family Counseling Services of Northern Illinois

Description

Family Counseling Services provides professional counseling with fees based on a sliding fee scale to children and adults experiencing a variety of problems that interfere with their functioning and quality of life. These problems can include:

w Emotional/mental health issues, for example:

• Depression
• Anxiety
• Post traumatic stress disorder
• ADHD
• Oppositional defiant disorder

w An array of psychosocial and behavioral issues -- problems that are a result of the interaction between social and psychological factors. For example:

• Marital or couples issues - e.g. communication, infidelity, threats of separation or divorce
• Poor self esteem
• Problems with children including poor school performance, truancy, bullying and problems with authority
• Issues surrounding divorce or separation when parents who are apart maintain highly conflictual relationships putting the children in the middle
• Creating new relationships in blended families
• Parenting issues including motivating and disciplining children
• Difficulty with getting along with others socially or at in the workplace or school
• Anger management and dealing with conflict
• Domestic violence and substance abuse

FCS has always seen clients who are socio-economically disadvantaged, however 2010 showed a marked increase of clients whose income was in the lowest ranges. For example, client with an annual income of $10,830 or below increased from 417 to 635 - an increase of just over 50%. Sixty-five percent of our clients had an annual income of less than $22,050 - in 2009 that figure was 51%. In 2009 24% of our clients paid our lowest fee which is about 20% of what it costs to provide their counseling - in 2010 the percentage of clients at our lowest fee grew to 50%! Less than 30% of the 1601 clients we worked with in 2010 had insurance.

FCS is known for quality services and has been honored with the Excelsior Award (2005) and Crusader’s Spirit of Caring Award (2008). We have master’s trained, state licensed or license eligible therapists with many years of clinical experience. We also have particular expertise in working with disadvantaged children and adults.