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Counseling & Advocacy

Whether you are dealing with the traumatic effects of living in an abusive relationship, need help healing from past abusive relationships, experienced a sexual assault recently or as a child, our advocate counselors will encourage you to explore your options and make your own decisions for yourself. Client-driven, trauma centered care working in partnership with each person and family. Our advocacy is focused on safety and support. Each client leads the process, while advocates help identify immediate needs, establish goals, connection to community resources and develop on-going safety plans through a strengths based and psycho-educational approach.

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Here's how we can support you.

Counseling

Advocates provide supportive counseling to people who have experienced trauma and their families. Service plans are identified by the client and can be built with flexibility. Advocates can provide coping mechanisms, resource navigation, support making difficult decisions, strategic safety planning and overall case management.

Support Groups

People who have experience trauma share their experiences, practice new relationship skills, discuss concerns for their families, and encourage each other. Each participant will be able to give and receive support and understanding from people who have experienced similar violence. All groups are facilitated by an advocate counselor and are free of charge. All genders and gender identities are welcome. Also respecting each person’s trauma experience gender specific groups are available.

D.O.V.E.

DOVE is an 8-week class designed to educate participants about the impact of domestic violence and its effect on the family. You will learn about domestic violence, the effects on yourself and your children, and how to develop healthy boundaries in relationships.

*Gender specific groups include a Female, Male, and Gender non-conforming

*Languages available: English and Spanish

Domestic Abuse

A safe place for people who have experienced domestic violence, abuse, intimate partner violence. Share your experiences, learn about others and join a supportive new community network.

Sexual Assault

A place where people who have experienced a sexual assault may gather and share. Group provides support, understanding and share coping skills. This group is offered out of our Waterbury and Southbury locations.

Financial Wellness Class

The purpose of this class is to examine key components of financial wellness through this four-part program. Class offerings will cover budgeting, credit, fraud and retirement topics to help attendees develop confidence and successfully strategize their financial relationships.

Arts & Healing

Creating crafts in a variety of media including drawing, sculpting, painting, collage, sewing, quilting, or knitting. Arts and crafts offer survivors the opportunity to express themselves, and relate aspects of their traumatic experience or healing process without having to use words. Additionally, arts and crafts can enhance skills of self-care, connection with others and a sense of accomplishment.

College Trauma Support

We offer a safe space to share personal experiences, feelings and coping strategies. This group is well suited for easing trauma survivors’ emotional stress, including feelings of isolation, loneliness, depression, helplessness and hopelessness, with a focus on creating a sense that victims are not alone, with a special focus on the specific circumstances of college students.

Alternative Therapies

Meditation, yoga, connection to nature, art and music can help people process traumatic information in positive and nourishing ways. Advocates and specialized providers provide clients a connection to ancient healing methods of care to assist with self-regulation, reconnecting with the body, connecting with others, and learning basic techniques for relaxation. Through these creative endeavors, clients are able to address their emotional, psychological, cognitive, physical and social needs and can find a creative outlet that allows them to move forward in their healing process.


*To be referred to one of our alternative programs you must be referred from a Safe Haven Advocate, unless approved by facilitator.

A black and white drawing of a crate with a plant growing out of it.

Horticulture

Participants may gain coping skills, self-care techniques and reconnect with their bodies by connecting with the natural world through interaction with plants. Dependent on the season, instructor and funds available.

A woman is sitting in a lotus position on a yoga mat.

Yoga

Certified Yoga and trauma counselor facilitates yoga classes in-person and virtually. Participants of all bodies will be guided through a gentle, trauma-informed yoga class during which they will have the chance to explore and strengthen their relationships with their bodies.

A black and white icon of a palette and brush.

Art Therapy

The creative process of art making is often a catalyst for healing by breaking through verbal resistance and gaining deeper insights into unspoken aspects of oneself. Art Therapy supports self-discovery, self-healing and self-love.

A black and white drawing of a person 's head with a flower in it.

Mindfulness

Mindfulness is a type of meditation. It is when you focus on your mind and body. It is a way of paying attention to the present moment. Learn how to listen to your inner voice, body signals, and find presentness in your day to day.

family services

Understanding alternative therapy options for children and teens.

Get in touch for support.

Art Therapy for Children & Teens

The art allows for a non-verbal telling, which can make individuals feel safer and more likely to share their experience. Those who have experienced trauma may also lack the vocabulary to share how they feel, so the image created can allow them to bring their feelings to life. Particularly in cases of physical and sexual abuse, victims may be cut off from their bodily senses. As the use of art to express emotion accesses both visually stored memory and body memory, and not only enables individuals to create images, but the use of art materials such as clay and paint can help the individual to reconnect to physical sensation.

Child Advocacy Center

The Greater Waterbury Child Advocacy Center, formerly know as the Child Abuse Interdisciplinary Team (“CAIT”) is a group of professionals working together to investigate and prosecute cases where child sexual abuse or serious physical abuse is alleged or suspected. Coordinates the efforts of all professionals involved in the investigation and prosecution process of child abuse, including but not limited to, the police, DCF, prosecutors, treatment providers and medical professionals. When additional services are required, contacts are made with appropriate providers and programs. Safe Haven Advocates provide supportive counseling, education and referrals for the child and the parent.

Teen Advocacy

Teenagers who either have witnessed domestic violence within their family and/or have been in dating relationships in which they were harmed. In addition to the services we host onsite at Between Friends, we also provide counseling at local high schools.

Play Therapy

Children play out their feelings and needs in a manner or process of expression that allows adults to better understand their emotions. In a therapeutic setting, children have the opportunity to reveal their emotions through the act of the play, and a therapist can interpret the child’s feelings in an interactive and healthy way.

Child Counseling

Home is not always a safe or happy place for children who witness domestic violence. As many as 3.3 million children in the United States witness their loved one being verbally abused, pushed, hit, kicked, thrown down the stairs, or even murdered. Witnessing domestic violence can cause physical and emotional harm to children, the effects of which can be devastating and long-lasting. Children often feel a sense of guilt, that it was somehow their fault. They may feel pressure to choose which parent to love, or feel torn between love and anger toward the abuser.

Through counseling, children can learn that the violence is not their fault. They learn coping skills to help them lead healthy and safe lives and how to break the cycle of violence.

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