For the professionals at HeadFirst Counseling, fostering healthy lives through treatment and counseling is their priority.
Child and adolescent therapist Laura McLaughlin is the company’s founder, and she began her career working with child survivors of domestic violence and abuse. “My heart has always been drawn to helping children who’ve experienced substantial traumas,” she says.
HeadFirst provides the best in evidence-based treatments. “All of the therapy interventions we provide have been validated through research to demonstrate positive impact and reduction of symptoms for clients,” says McLaughlin.
Her organization is a collaboration among experienced therapists from diverse backgrounds, training, and licensure. Clients get the benefit of a team approach, whose focus is children, adolescents, and teens.
Those patients come from many backgrounds, too. McLaughlin says the typical client may suffer from a mix of environmental factors or “triggers” due to a significant event such as a change in schools or divorce, coupled with a pre-existing tendency or predisposition toward anxiety, depression, ADHD, mood disorders, or other behavioral concerns. With the recent expansion of qualification criteria for autism spectrum disorders, HeadFirst has seen more of those cases. “Our team has worked to increase training in this area so we can continue to offer expertise in all childhood and adolescent mental health concerns.”
The HeadFirst staff is dedicated and unique, presenting a diversity of specialties like Registered Play Therapists, Licensed Marriage and Family Therapists, and therapists with knowledge of trauma, anxiety/OCD, ADHD, LGBTQ populations, divorce, autism spectrum disorders, and depression and self-harming behaviors.
Their holistic focus is centered on the “entire child,” not simply current symptoms, says McLaughlin. “There is much therapeutic benefit to seeing the strengths and positives in a child or situation, even when things seem grim. This simple reframe can have a significant impact in terms of outcomes.”
McLaughlin believes mental health issues have intensified. “The pandemic exacerbated things, particularly for marginalized populations and low-income families,” she says. As the need for services increased, the ability to pay for those services decreased, creating an unprecedented demand for therapy.
In 2022, McLaughlin founded the HeadFirst Mental Health Initiative, a nonprofit within the practice. Today it is a standalone 501(c)3 providing free mental health services and counseling to children, adolescents, and families who could otherwise not afford it. HMHI has already provided more than 175 free counseling sessions, and McLaughlin expects that number to grow with more fundraising.
HMHI is hosting its first mental wellness pop-up late this month. The event is designed to reduce the stigma associated with mental health by creating experiences that are fun and imaginative, “to get us talking to one another about our mental health.” It will include multiple programming events and various companies connected to mental wellness. HeadFirst Counseling is a partner, planning and coordinating speakers, experts, and vendors, while HMHI is the beneficiary.
For McLaughlin, the goal of the pop-up is to create a memorable experience. “We believe that having real conversations about mental health will continue to reduce stigmas and enable people to take control of their own mental wellness and that of their family,” she says. “If the primary caregivers in a household are mentally well and supported, the rest will fall in line.” McLaughlin encourages Park Cities residents to volunteer and contribute financially. Proceeds from pop-up ticket sales go directly toward the nonprofit, providing free counseling to children and families.
McLaughlin’s vision includes additional community collaborations and partnerships to increase reach and impact. “Ideally, our private practice will continue to be a resource for families and parents in the Park Cities area for systemic change.”
She acknowledges progress but says there is more work to do. “In 10 years, if a child who needs services has access to and receives the services they need and can talk openly about their personal experience with mental health treatments without feeling any sense of shame, inadequacy, judgment, or embarrassment, then that’s a pretty good place to be.”
HeadFirst Counseling / HeadFirst Mental Health Initiative
469.571.3470
headfirstdallas.com / hmhidallas.com
“All of the therapy interventions we provide have been validated through research to demonstrate positive impact and reduction of symptoms for clients.” —Laura McLaughlin
“We believe that having real conversations about mental health will continue to reduce stigmas." —McLaughlin