Portland Therapy Center
Richard Halpern, M.A.

Richard Halpern, M.A.

Professional Counselor

Parenting is amazing + challenging! Let's create a "parenting toolkit" you can use right now to positively impact your child's behavior.

Client Status

accepting clients

Contact

541 490-1551

2304 E Burnside St.

Portland, 97214

10211 SW Barbur Blvd.

Portland, Oregon 97219

Email Website Schedule Now

At a Glance

Me

Rate: $70-$100

Provides free initial consultation

Provides telehealth services

Practicing Since: 1996

Languages: English

Faith: Atheism, Judaism

Services

  • Individual
  • Family
  • Relationship
  • Teen

Insurances Accepted

  • Out of Pocket
  • Out of Network

My Approach to Helping

In keeping with social distance during this pandemic, all sessions are via video. I bring a very practical and down to earth counseling approach, with a focus on parenting strategies which are easy to apply right away. We work together to identify your unique parenting style and the challenges you are navigating. I empathize with the stress and opportunities of raising children in the digital age. To help ease your parenting anxiety, we develop a structured plan forward, while emphasizing your strengths and choices. You deserve a life feeling balanced, energized, and fun. For separated, divorced, or cohabiting parents, we focus on positively co-parenting as a team. It's possible to team up for your children even after a difficult breakup. For sole parents, we focus on self care and community resources. Affirming to ALL parents: grandparents, LGBTQ, foster, adoptive, and step parents. It starts with a deep breath, free session, and cup of tea or coffee. Sliding fee scale.

My Personal Beliefs and Interests

My career has traversed working with parents in a huge variety of settings. I coordinated a public School Counseling program K-12 for 16 years and am a licensed School Counselor in Oregon. I worked with parents on the many issues that impact kids at school. I also coordinated an alternative program for children age 11-17 arrested for minor crimes. We worked with parents to teach empathy to their child. I currently teach the class: Helping Children Cope With Family Change for Multnomah Family Court. This is exclusively for separating & divorcing parents. My Masters Degree is in Counseling from the University of Montana; my B. A. in Psychology is from the University of Tennessee. I'm also a Certified Positive Discipline Parent Educator (a philosophy I integrate), and a Master Trainer with the Oregon Registry (workshops for child care professionals). As a divorced father, I positively co-parented raising 2 wonderful kids with their mom.

Techniques I Use

Specialties

  • Couples Counseling External link

    For married, separated, or divorced parents, I integrate a couples counseling approach to positively learn how to co-parent as a team. Developing positive habits around communication with each other, how we talk to our children and maintain consistency (in one home or if living in separate households), and modeling healthy ways to deal with conflict and resolution.

  • Intervention External link

    My focus is offering practical interventions as a strategy to reduce the likelihood of conflict. Example: If a child is prone to (what feels like) too many temper tantrums, what can we do to help both the child and parent see a pattern in the behavior, and practice self regulation techniques? Solution = stop the tantrum before it ever begins.

  • Humanistic  External link

    A Client Centered approach developed by Carl Rogers was the philosophical core of my Masters and I still bring it into my practice today. It emphasizes a nondirective, nonjudgemental, empathetic approach that empowers and motivates the client in the therapeutic process. This counseling is based on Rogers’ belief that everyone strives for and has the capacity to fulfill his or her own potential.

Issues I Treat

Specialties

  • Personal Growth External link

    The experience of raising children is an opportunity self-reflect and to explore your current beliefs about parent-child relationships. The intense personal growth which we can discover though being a parent (and learning from our children) can be affirming, challenging, and incredibly exciting! Personal growth is a constant compass bearing in my practice.

  • Parenting External link

    Kudos to you for being open to exploring ways to be better at parenting! This is a hugely rewarding endeavor, but did not come with an instruction manual. I can help! I'm Certified as a Parent Educator in nationally recognized Positive Discipline + Nurturing Parenting Programs. 25+ years experience working with parents, Currently am a Parent Educator for Multnomah Family Court. And, a dad myself!

  • Family Conflict External link

    I've been teaching the class: 'Helping Children Cope With Family Change' for 4 years as a Parent Educator for Multnomah County Family Court Services. I have met with hundreds of parents in a discussion group format, all of whom are moving through conflict which resulted in a separation or divorce. My approach is to offer practical solutions and experiential exercises to encourage communication.

  • Child or Adolescent Issues External link

    I coordinated a public school counseling program and was a K-12 School Counselor for 16 years. I met with students with personal, academic, career, and family issues (caseload 400+ students). I dealt with just about any problem you can imagine, and did so in an easy going yet structured way students related to.

Contact Richard

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