Frazzled Family Relief

Your Savvy resolution for September: to get help when you need it.
Are the toddlers running the show? Preschoolers still having uncontrollable outbursts? Stepkids giving you the hairy eyeball? Are you at your wits’ end?

In the recent past, there were two approaches to solving these sorts of problems: 1) suck it up; or 2) haul the family in for therapy.

Now there’s a third solution: get help from Family Matters, an Ottawa family coaching and counselling service run by registered social workers Kathryn Owens and Anne Walzak.

The service is a welcome and innovative new approach for families experiencing periods of difficulty. Rather than seeing clients in a stiff and formal office setting, Owens (or her partner) goes to their homes, where everybody feels more comfortable and she can get a close-up, natural view of family dynamics.

Family Matters is designed as a short-term solution for specific family and parenting challenges, but Owens says if she finds the problems are rooted in something more serious—for example, if it seems a parent is clinically depressed, or a child may have a learning disability—she can also offer clients longer-term counselling or refer them to other appropriate professionals for assessment or treatment.