SERVICES

Higher Ground began as a small group of therapists specializing in teens in the juvenile justice system. Over the past few years, we have expanded by hiring expert therapists who work with adults and children from all walks of life. However, we still maintain an area of specialty with teens. We work with teens with various issues, including anger management, self-harm and suicidal thoughts, depression, grief and loss, anxiety, and behavioral problems. We have experience with those problematic behaviors that undermine home and school success. We can provide individual and family therapy for you and your child as needed.

Higher Ground has been helping youth and their families in the system for two decades. We are well connected within the juvenile justice system across many counties, including the Oregon Youth Authority (OYA). We have extensive experience working with mandated youth and are effective in providing top-level therapy to our clients. We are versed in every aspect of the system and pride ourselves in helping youth and families navigate it.  We work with youth who have been adjudicated or are being pre-adjudicated for criminal behavior, including sexual acting out.

To be able to provide sexual behavior specific treatment in the state of Oregon, a therapist has to be certified through the Sexual Offender Treatment Board (SOTB), which is part of Oregon Health Authorities state health licensing Board. Most of our therapists are SOTB certified to provide these specialized services. 

With the recent addition of the Sequoia Center at our Beaverton Clinic, Higher Ground is now able to do in-house clarification and reunification after the occurrence of intrafamilial sexual abuse. Normally abuse has taken place in the family, the kids involved are separated, with the youth who acted out usually moving in with other family members, if available, or into a foster placement or residential setting. To eventually reunify, both survivor and youth who acted out need a counselor of their own to move forward in the process. Traditionally and most often the survivor counselor and youth who acted out's counselor are at different clinics or community mental health agencies and contact between the two is challenging or worst, does not happen. This can often prohibit clarification and reunification. At Higher Ground, these counselors are in the same location, though they work out of different sides of the clinic (and with separate waiting rooms), so that contact between the two sides does not take place. The hope and goal of this setup is to help kids and (especially) their families get the help they need in the easiest way possible during this extremely difficult time.  

Higher Ground is able to provide risk and needs assessments for youth who are in the system. These type of risk assessments are often used by attorney's, probation officers, the juvenile court, DHS, school districts or other professionals to assess the individual, measure risk to the community and provide recommendations for future counseling or placement.

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The three assessment types are similar in scope but differ in length and depth. From the most exhaustive to most minimal - we offer Comprehensive, Concise and Basic assessments at the following cost: 

• Comprehensive: $1500

• Concise: $900

• Basic: $500

Higher ground has several members of our team that are certified to provide graduate internship and licensure supervision for LCSW, LPC, and LMFT. For those working with sexually abusive youth or adults, we can provide supervision for those seeking SOTB certification.

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Supervision Session rate: $150

Higher Ground has provided training and educating to a variety of  professionals in the mental health, child protection and Juvenile Justice fields. We have presented at various conferences and aim to be on the forefront of best practices in our field of specialty. We currently train and consult in the field of children and teens with sexual behavior problems and recovery from trauma. We also have trained others in family clarification, reunification and reconciliation work. We work with schools and other organizations that serve youth to better assist them in providing educated interventions to the kids they work with. Please let us know if we can help you or your organization with education and training. Our areas of specialty are:

• Consent training and boundaries

• Family reunification and the Clarification Process.

• Sexual reactivity, Problematic Sexual Behaviors and safety planning with children

• Sexual abuse and sexual acting out with teens

• Sexual abuse and harassment prevention, Good Lives

• Harm/risk assessment and reduction

• Offense specific treatment, polygraph and working within the Juvenile Justice System

• School safety planning

• One on one and group supervision for therapists

• Supervision for licensing (LCSW, LMFT, LPC)

• Training and education for programs and foster homes.