Are you going through interpersonal or emotional challenges that make your daily life more difficult? Our professional counseling team is here to help. Our counselors can help you deal with depression, anxiety, trauma, behavior issues, relationship problems, attachment issues, grief, domestic violence, adjustment to illness, post-adoption emotions, and many other issues. We offer professional counseling for individuals, couples and families, and we work with children age 5 and up.
What does therapy entail?
The counseling process begins with a short period of assessment that may take up to 2-4 visits. In this time the therapist is becoming familiar with you and your goals and the barriers you are encountering. After this, you and the therapist work together to develop a treatment plan that outlines your goals and the steps we will take to achieve these. In other words, we are asking, “What do you want? And how will we know when you achieve that?” The treatment process may be brief (6-10 sessions), or extend longer if you feel that more work is needed to resolve your problems to your satisfaction.
How long are counseling sessions?
Generally, sessions are held weekly or twice a month, and each session lasts about 50 minutes.
Many people resolve their concerns in a few sessions. Most treatment is short-term with 10 or fewer sessions.
Is this religious-based counseling?
No. Our professional, licensed counselors provide the same type of counseling you would receive at a non-Catholic facility. You do not need to be Catholic — or even Christian — to receive services at our Counseling Centers.
We offer assistance to people in need regardless of religion or ethnic background; we do not proselytize. If your faith is important to you, it’s certainly something we can talk about in your counseling sessions, but we won’t bring up the subject unless you do.
Do you accept my insurance?
We accept most private insurance as well as Medicaid and Medicare. Please talk with our office staff to see if your plan is accepted. Please check with your insurance provider for the specific details of your plan’s coverage.
What if I don’t have insurance for mental health care?
We use a sliding scale to make treatment more affordable for those who don’t have insurance or whose insurance doesn’t cover mental health services.
How do I schedule an appointment?
If you are interested in pursuing counseling at Catholic Social Services, the next step is to call our office. For our Dayton office, call (937) 296-1007 and speak with our office administrator, Shelia Wright-Davis, at extension 2136. To make an appointment at our Sidney office, call (937) 498-4593.
MEDICARE SAVINGS PROGRAM (MSP)
& LOW INCOME SUBSIDY (LIS)
Consumers receiving Medicare who have limited income and assets may qualify for Extra Help with the cost of their prescription drugs. The Social Security Administration (SSA) and Medicare work together to provide this extra help through the Low Income Subsidy (LIS) — also known as the Extra Help program.
Prescription drug costs continue to increase. The insurance maze of tiers, generic vs. non-generic, co-pays and donut holes can be confusing. Some consumers skip doses or just stop taking the medicines that their doctors recommend because they simply cannot afford them. Not taking a prescribed medicine or not taking it as directed can lead to additional health problems.
The Medicare Savings Program (MSP) and Low Income Subsidy (LIS) may be the answer for some struggling seniors.
Those who are eligible for the low income subsidy will get help paying for 75% or more of their monthly Part D premium, yearly deductible, and prescription co-payments. They will also have no gap in coverage = No Donut Hole.
Our agency can assist individuals with the application process. The application is completed electronically with the Social Security Administration (SSA).
Contact our Northern Counties office at (937) 498-4593 or (833) 289-0227 for more information.
Our Family Stabilization & Support (FSS) staff coordinate an ongoing series of classes and informational sessions that are free for anyone to attend.
Most sessions focus on wellness and stress management, financial empowerment, health and nutrition. Some are led by CSSMV staff, while others have guest presenters from the Ohio State University Extension Office, Day Air Credit Union, and other community partners. The selection of topics is driven by the interest level of our clients and community members.
Attendance is not limited to CSSMV clients. Other agencies are welcome to share our event schedules with their own clients, and anyone from the general public is welcome to attend any session that’s of interest. We only ask that those planning to attend RSVP in advance so we can plan accordingly, and so that we can notify them of any unexpected changes in the class date or time.
Classes offered by other programs within CSSMV, such as Parenting, are also included in our class listings when they are free and open to the public.
Adoption is a life-long process and each adoption is unique and special. Catholic Social Services of the Miami Valley offers expertise in adoption services including general adoption information, post-legal services, and birth options counseling. We also support adoptive families through the SAFE Counseling program, educational programming, and support for adoptees.
Whether you’re pregnant and considering making an adoption plan, you’re an adoptee looking for information on your birth family, you’re looking for information about how to adopt a child, or your family includes an adopted child, we have expertise to assist you. The CSSMV counseling program is always available to adult and child adoptees and their families.
From the moment of birth, when a baby struggles to find the first breaths of life, the people and the environment surrounding the child are important to his or her survival. When a child’s birth or early developmental experiences are filled with problems, behavioral issues can arise and begin to magnify as the child grows. A child who has endured trauma may develop an attachment disorder. Children who have been abused or neglected and/or had multiple foster care placements prior to adoption are particularly “at risk” of developing attachment and bonding difficulties.
Conventional parenting, standard school discipline or traditional outpatient therapy are often less than effective for “hard-to-reach” children with an attachment disorder. These children and their families need help, and it is available through Catholic Social Services of the Miami Valley’s SAFE Counseling program.
SAFE Counseling is designed to treat children and to educate parents of children who exhibit signs of an attachment disorder. SAFE Counseling offers help to parents of children who have serious issues that seem unsolvable.
Attachment therapy is an integrated treatment approach that uses elements of cognitive-behavioral, object relations, family and psychodynamic therapies to facilitate child-parent bonding and to measure feedback. In conjunction with these therapies, holding therapy is used to establish a safe place with safe people in which the child can safely talk about and experience the painful issues of the past.
The program seeks to jump start the attachment cycle aborted as the result of the child’s earlier trauma. SAFE believes it is essential to break through barriers of trauma before a child can develop healthy interpersonal relations built on trust. SAFE counseling aims to begin the attachment and healing process for the child and the adoptive or current family.
Birth options counseling is for any pregnant woman at any stage of her pregnancy who is trying to decide whether she is ready to become a parent, or if making an adoption plan would be the best choice. This service is also available to birth fathers and other family members seeking to help. A counselor can be reached 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
In this process, a CSSMV counselor will help you carefully weigh your options. The core of the process includes an exploration of facts and feelings. Other options beyond parenting and traditional adoption may include placing your baby with a relative or a family you already know.
If you decide to make an adoption plan for your child, we can help you. Our state-certified adoption counselor can give you information about open, confidential, and identified adoption options, as well as explaining what to expect from both emotional and logistical/legal perspectives. We work with Adoption Circle — a private, non-profit, Ohio-licensed adoption agency — to assist you with adoption placement. We are here to support the birth mother and her family as well as the birth father. Our caring counselors are here to offer ongoing support before, during, and after whatever decision you make.
If you decide to parent your child, we can help. CSSMV offers pregnancy and parenting supports. We can give you information and link you to resources for prenatal care, housing, financial assistance, home visiting services, parenting classes, support groups, childcare, and other services available in your community that will help you and your baby.
One of the more significant outcomes of the program has been the natural bond and subsequent support networks which emerge among the women. Their friendship, created through this shared experience, has made them stronger and more confident in their role as mothers.
In this unique program, CSSMV teams up with Lifestages Centers for Women. While Lifestages offers CenteringPregnancy® group prenatal care, CSSMV’s Family Life Coaches provide parenting preparation, nurturing parenting education, home visiting, and community resource case management to help build strong life skills for baby, mom, dad and family. Mothers Empowered is a wraparound support program, with expectant mothers receiving prenatal care in small groups with others whose due dates are in the same month. The groups meet regularly and include quality prenatal care by medical providers, plus educational and emotional supports. A Family Life Coach from Catholic Social Services is at every meeting, and also encourages parents to participate in one-on-one parenting sessions at their homes. Prenatal Centering® groups meet monthly at first, and as due dates approach they meet every two weeks. Once the babies are born, CSSMV’s Family Life Coaches facilitate ongoing group meetings focusing on peer support and parenting education, as well as ongoing one-on-one home visits.
It’s Preschool Power! Lincoln Academy students star in this video, produced by Preschool Promise.
Lincoln Academy is our early childhood education center, located on the grounds of the Dayton V.A. Medical Center campus.
Our outstanding program provides an age-appropriate curriculum, small class sizes with personalized learning, hands-on activities, a focus on academic achievement, and a curriculum that meets state standards for early learning content.
To get its preschoolers off to a solid start in a lifetime of learning, Lincoln Academy focuses on the two generations that must be involved: children and their parents. We have a comprehensive strategy for involving parents in their children’s progress.
A full-day preschool program is provided for children ages 2 1/2 to 5 who are fully potty-trained. Before- and after-school programs are available for children from kindergarten through age 12. Dayton Public Schools and some select charter schools provide transportation to and from Lincoln Academy in the morning and afternoon.
Lincoln Academy is licensed by the State of Ohio, holds a 5-star Step Up To Quality rating, and is accredited by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). We are also a partner in Head Start and the Preschool Promise program.
When the school year ends, Lincoln Academy continues serving area children with a great summer program that’s both fun for the kids and good for their continuing educational and emotional development. Call us at (937) 268-0336 for more information about this summer’s planned activities.
Lincoln Academy’s toddler and preschool classes use Creative Curriculum/Teaching Strategies Gold, which is aligned with Ohio’s Early Learning and Development Standards in All Essential Domains of School Readiness.
School-age classes use Building the Primary Classroom curriculum, which is aligned with the Ohio Common Core Standards.
Each of our lead teachers holds a degree in Early Childhood Education or a related field, and every teacher and assistant continues their professional development on an ongoing basis. Every staff member participates in a minimum of 20 hours of additional child-focused training per biennium.
Lincoln Academy is located on the beautiful grounds of the Dayton V.A. Medical Center campus. This picturesque setting allows the children to safely go for walks, explore nature, and build a sense of community within their environment.
Our three-story building has been fully renovated to meet the needs of our students and allow our staff to provide the best possible experience. We are equipped with large classrooms with windows, a conference room for parent meetings and trainings, a parent resource room, an indoor multi-purpose room, and a large eat-in kitchen. We provide breakfast, lunch and an afternoon snack daily.
Lincoln Academy has a large outdoor play area with developmentally appropriate equipment. In the summer of 2017, we added an American Heart Association Teaching Garden on our grounds, giving children the opportunity to get their hands dirty planting vegetables and then seeing their work come to fruition.
Lincoln Academy early childhood education center was established in 1979 as a project of Catholic Social Services of the Miami Valley, with help from United Way. Originally known as the Miami Valley Family Care Center, its purpose was to provide high-quality, affordable day care services to working families in the Dayton community.
The center’s first home was at St. James Church until 1985, when we outgrew all available space there. As enrollment continued to increase, a task force was formed to look into the possibility of moving to a larger facility. With the help of interested parents, teachers, civic groups, and community leaders, we were able to move to our current location on the Dayton V.A. Medical Center campus. We reopened our doors on September 3, 1985 with the capacity to serve more children, representing a wider segment of the Dayton population.
Renamed Lincoln Academy in 2017, the center continues to operate a preschool/pre-K program for children age two-and-a-half to five. Before- and after-school care is offered for children from kindergarten through age 12.
Lincoln Academy is governed by the Board of Directors of Catholic Social Services of the Miami Valley, is State licensed and Star-Rated by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, and is accredited by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC).
If you are interested in enrolling your child or children at Lincoln Academy, we invite you to give us a call at (937) 268-0336, or submit our Parent Inquiry form and we’ll get in touch with you to follow up on your interest.
Dayton Counseling Center
*Not currently accepting new clients*
Years in Practice: 20+ years
Population: Adult, Children, Families, and Groups
Specialties: Anxiety, Depression, PTSD, Complex Trauma, Adoption related issues, Reactive Attachment Disorder
Therapeutic Approach: Psychodynamic, Mindfulness, Trauma informed, Attachment therapies, Cognitive approaches
Degree: MSW from University of Michigan
Licensing: Licensed Independent Social Work, with supervisory credentials (LISW-S) Certified in EEG-Neurofeedback (BCN)
Licensed by: Counselor, Social Worker and Marriage and Family Therapist Board
Sidney Counseling Center
Years in Practice: 20+ years practice working with children, couples, families, individuals, and developmentally disabled population
Specialties: Treatment of emotional and social issues, depression, anxiety, trauma, and adjustment issues; focus on mental and developmentally disabled individuals, marriage and couples issues, spirituality, early childhood intervention, and parenting skills
Degrees: AA in Communication from Sinclair College, BA in Psychology from University of Dayton, MSEd in Social Agency Counseling from University of Dayton, and Post Graduate in Clinical Counseling from University of Dayton
Licensing: Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor, with supervisory credentials (LPCC-S)
Licensed by: Ohio Counselor, Social Worker, and Marriage and Family Therapist Board
Dayton Counseling Center
*Not currently accepting new clients*
Years of Practice: 5 years
Population: Children, Adults, Families, Groups
Specialties: Pregnancy Counseling and Decision Making, Post-Legal Adoption, Individual, Family, and Group therapy, Autism
Therapy Approach: Client centered approach with a focus on client self-determination and person-in-environment perspective
Degree: Bachelor’s in Social Work and Master’s in Science in Social Work from University of Louisville
Certification: Tier I Adoption Accessor in State of Ohio
Licensing: Licensed Social Worker
Licensed by: Counselor, Social Worker and Marriage and Family Therapist Board
Sidney Counseling Center
Years in Practice: 2 years practice working with children, adolescents, and adults
Specialties: children and adolescents, especially those with criminal records; disabled population
Degrees: BS in Psychology from Morehead University; MS in Criminal Justice from Tiffin University; MS in Mental Health Counseling from Wright State University
Licensing: Licensed Professional Counselor
Licensed by: Ohio Counselor, Social Worker, and Marriage and Family Therapist Board
Dayton Counseling Center
Years of Practice: 11 years
Population: Adults, Couples, Adolescents 16 yrs. and above
Specialties: Community medical and behavioral health integration, victims of domestic violence, planning and linking to community resources, depression, anxiety
Therapy Approach: Client Centered, Solution Focused, Cognitive-Behavioral, Psycho-Educational
Licensing: Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor, Licensed Social Worker
Licensed by: Counselor, Social Worker and Marriage and Family Therapist Board
Dayton Counseling Center
Shelia has been with the Dayton Counseling Center for an incredible 38 years. When you visit or call the Dayton location, Shelia is the friendly face (or voice) who will greet you, help answer your questions about our services, and set you up with an appointment with a counselor who best meets your needs.
