PTC

Richard Halpern, M.A.

Professional Counselor

As a parent you try your best, yet sometimes feel overwhelmed. This roller coaster ride can be both amazingly fun, or utterly exhausting. My goal is to work together to identify new tools for your "parenting toolkit" which you can use immediately to positively impact your child's behavioral issues.

Services

Individual Therapy
Couples Therapy
Family Therapy
Adolescent/Teen Therapy

Individual Therapy
Couples Therapy
Family Therapy
Adolescent/Teen Therapy

My Approach

I bring a very practical and down to earth style, with a focus on incorporating parenting strategies which are easy to apply right away. We identify your unique parenting style and some of the current challenges you are trying to navigate. This includes how parenting overlaps many areas in our lives. I greatly empathize with the stress of raising children in the digital age, and providing structure for how to deal with screen over-use (video games/social media) is a niche I'm well versed in. To help ease your parenting anxiety, we develop a structured plan forward, while emphasizing your strengths and choices. One parenting step at a time! If you are a single/sole parent, we take a supportive tact with that in mind. For separated, divorced, or cohabiting parents, we focus on positively co-parenting as a team. Yes, you can learn to team up for your children even after a difficult breakup. Affirming to ALL parents: grandparents, LGBTQ, foster, adoptive, and step parents.

My Background

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. I worked with parents on every issue that may come up at school. I directed a Youth Diversion Program for children age 11-17 arrested for minor offenses. In this alternative program, we met with every parent to develop a response that taught empathy. I currently teach the class: Helping Children Cope With Family Change for Multnomah Family Court. This is exclusively for separating and divorcing parents. I hold a Masters Degree in Counseling from the University of Montana, and a B. A. in Psychology 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). Most importantly, my experience includes being a divorced father, who positively co-parented 2 wonderful kids with their mom.