In Tune™: Our Confidence-Building & Experiential Group Counseling

The Center for Family Well-Being’s In Tune™ group therapy program — now in its 14th year — offers mindfulness-based and relationship focused clinical groups for kids, teens, and young adults. The benefits of combining psychotherapy with mindful awareness are clear: reduced anxiety, increased focus and attention, happier relationships, and greater calm, creativity, and well-being.

What are In-Tune groups like?

We offer a variety of groups for specific ages, ranging from elementary-aged kids to young adults. Each group is tailored to its participants’ individual needs and grounded in growing skills of emotional range, regulation, and agility; self and social awareness; and compassion for self and others. We always emphasize positive coping and relational skills and developing a mind-body foundation and focus. We draw on a range of activity-based therapeutic tools, including expressive (art, play, sand), “talk,” and Polyvagal, CBT, and DBT interventions aimed at growing participants’ courage and confidence.

How long is each In-Tune group session?

Our ongoing In-Tune groups typically run from September through June. These sessions meet once a week after school and last around 11 weeks. We also offer several shorter groups throughout the year, including our Pikler-informed infant/parent group, “refresher” groups, and summer groups. 

What is your In-Tune schedule?

You can see and register for our current groups here. If you don’t see a group that meets your needs or have any specific questions, please contact us!

A note and update from Kate Kelly, Center Director, about our evolving In-Tune groups:

When I began our “Girls In Tune” groups almost 14 years ago, my emphasis was on female empowerment. I wanted to help girls grow their voices, confidence, and courage, while also expanding their mind-body-spirit tool kit and relational skills — all within the powerful container of a group of their peers.  

I’d worked with many girls and teens experiencing anxiety, mood, friendship, and relationship challenges, who needed our best psychotherapeutic tools and mind-body skills. My intention was that they would not wait until adulthood (like I did!) to learn to resource themselves fully and connect more deeply with others at precisely the developmental moment when societal forces conspire to send girls’ voices underground.

I’m delighted to say that we’ve since expanded our vision to include Boys In Tune groups, in recognition of the unique challenges boys face psychologically and culturally — including ingrained societal messages about shutting down their emotions and limiting expression of their feelings.

Now, with our understanding of gender evolving, we want to broaden our use of language here at the Center to attune to the range of gender expression in our clients.  You’ll now hear us referring simply to our “In Tune” group therapy offerings — while we continue to offer our “Girls In Tune” and “Boys In Tune” groups under the “In Tune” umbrella.

For us, it’s a both/and: We can, and do, recognize and welcome a wider range of gender expression in our kids, teens, and families, while also recognizing that there are male and female-identified issues — both psychological and cultural— that can manifest as individual struggles (such as fears about speaking up in class, or not having a language to talk about emotions). We welcome those who identify as non-binary to our groups, and commit ourselves to being very thoughtful — during our intake process — about client needs and goodness of fit. If one of our “In Tune” group offerings is not a fit for a particular client, we’re happy to share our robust referral resources.  

Our aspiration at the Center is to serve the whole human family in its many diverse forms. May it be so!

Heart-to-heart,

Kate