WHAT WE DO

Counseling

Individual Counseling for People with IDD and Their Family Members

The Arc Williamson County offers individual counseling for children, teens, and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their family members.

Counseling services at The Arc Williamson County are $30 per session, payable to The Arc Williamson County at the time of the session. The Arc accepts Visa and Mastercard, checks, or cash payments.

At this time, counseling services do not accept insurance.

Shae Herrick providing play-based counseling to a child

Counseling for Children and Teens

Shae Herrick, LMSW

Shae Herrick is a Licensed Master Social Worker with more than a decade of experience working with children of all abilities in various settings, including Williamson County Schools.

Shae hopes to provide support and coping skills for younger clients to help them live healthy and whole lives. She specializes in working with children with autism, ADHD, intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD), and trauma.

Shae works with young people to help them develop strategies for emotional regulation and executive functioning using play-based therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), and Developmental, Individual-differences, and Relationship-based therapy (DIR).

Shae is currently accepting clients ages 3–17.

Counseling for Adults and Family Members

Katy Clouse, LMSW

Katy Clouse is a Licensed Master Social Worker (LMSW) in the state of Tennessee providing clinical services under the supervision of Heather Kamper, LCSW. Katy holds a master’s degree in social work from Middle Tennessee State University.

She uses a person-centered, strengths-based approach to counseling. She is trained in positive psychology, EMDR, and trauma-informed care. She specializes in working with people affected by disability, either through their own diagnosis or someone close to them.

Katy firmly believes that any person can benefit from therapy, regardless of ability.

Katy offers individual counseling and group counseling.

Please contact Katy at katy.clouse@thearcwc.org for more information.

View the efficacy of Psychotherapy.

A bit about the research into the efficacy of psychotherapy with people with IDD:

Psychiatric disorders are much more prevalent among people with intellectual disabilities (ID) than the general population (Gobrial & Raghavan, 2012, Gentile & Jackson, 2008). People with ID and co-occurring mental illness (IDMH) are often referred for psychiatric evaluation due to problematic behavior, which can be caused by psychological reasons or medical reasons (Gentile et al., 2014). Most mental health treatment for people with IDMH focuses on managing those behavioral symptoms or teaching social skills rather than addressing the psychological cause of the disturbance (Howells et al, 2000; Kalb et al, 2019). People with ID face barriers to accessing psychological treatments for their mental health concerns. Traditional psychotherapy involves thinking and talking; for a person with ID, this means asking the patient to do work in the area where they may be the most limited (Razza & Tomasulo, 2005). Quite often, psychotherapy providers are not comfortable providing treatment to an individual with ID. Practitioner confidence (or lack thereof) affects the therapeutic alliance between patient and clinician, which then affects patient outcomes (Hronis et. al, 2018). There is also concern of diagnostic overshadowing which occurs when a clinician cannot discern the mental illness due to ID symptoms “overshadowing” mental health symptoms (Razza & Tomasulo, 2005; Hronis et al, 2018). The existing research supports that individual and group psychotherapy models can be effective for people with IDMH if the sessions are designed to individuals’ specific needs.

The studies of treatment approaches show that clinicians can successfully use psychological interventions with people with ID and co-occurring mental illness. Most of these approaches require some modification based on the person or group’s specific communication or adaptive skills/needs. Common modifications are extra time and patience, perseverance, creating a sense of safety for the client, and establishing a strong therapeutic alliance.

References:

  • Gentile, J. & Jackson, C. S. (2008). Supportive psychotherapy with the dual diagnosis patient: Co-occurring mental illness/intellectual disability. Psychiatry, 5, 49-57.
  • Gobrial, E. & Raghavan, R. (2012). Prevalence of anxiety disorder in children and young people with intellectual disabilities and autism. Advances in Mental Health and Intellectual Disabilities, 6(3), 130-140. https://doi.org/10.1108/20441281211227193
  • Hronis, A., Roberts, L., & Kneebone, I. (2018). Assessing the confidence of Australian mental health practitioners in delivering therapy to people with intellectual disability. Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, 56(3), 202-211. http://doi.org/10.1352/1934-9556-56.3.202
  • Razza, N. & Tomasulo, D. (2005). Healing trauma: The power of group