Why Choose An Educational Consultant
Assessing what’s best for your special-needs or troubled teen can be a difficult process. Oftentimes, parents are blinded by their own guilt or love for their child, and can miss the many positive benefits to be gained from placing their child in a residential program. To this end, educational and therapeutic consultants are available to work with you and your family and determine the best sort of residential program—whether temporary or long-term—that would benefit your child. Getting an educational consultant involved in your teen’s decision-making process may help open your teen up to the possibilities their future holds, and may help guide her towards a fulfilling and successful life. There are a lot of programs out there, and all of them have websites designed to promote their particular facility, curriculum, or treatment options. Schools even have their own “consultants” for hire, but any consultant provided by a school isn’t going to be able to offer a straightforward opinion. Hire an independent consultant, who can ably sift through all this information and provide your family with a nonbiased view on what’s really best for your teen. Find a consultant you trust, who seems genuinely interested in meeting your needs and getting to know you.
A licensed, experienced educational consultant will likely be extremely knowledgeable about therapeutic programs that might be a good fit for your child. Even if you undertake your own research into residential programs and their pros and cons, you will likely never amass the experience-based knowledge that comes from a career of working in the field. Hiring an educational consultant allows you to plug in to that wealth of information without having to do your own research.
Placing a child in a therapeutic program is a difficult decision for any family. It’s a big transition—a transition which can be frightening, emotionally painful, and challenging in other ways—despite the long term benefits that can be gained. Meet these challenges face-to-face with an experienced educational consultant on your side. He or she will be able to empathize as you walk through the process, recounting other parents’ success stories and helping you to let go of any guilt or worry you might feel. If you’re going to send your child to a residential program, you want him to go knowing you made the very best choice, and an educational consultant can help with that.
Oftentimes, a consultant will continue to monitor your child’s success after placement, intervening if needed. This has the potential to greatly reduce your anxiety. When you know someone you trust is helping you look out for your child, acting as a second pair of eyes, you can rest easy at home, secure in the knowledge that your child is having a meaningful, fulfilling experience. While trust is enhanced by a consultant’s ability to carefully listen to – and genuinely care – about each of their families, it is clearly critical that parents have confidence in their consultant’s knowledge base, experience, and training. Ensure he or she is licensed, and has credentials.
