PRESME Clinical Services offer assistance and guidance in the face of difficulties or issues related to mental health, in the form of assessment, diagnosis, monitoring and treatment.
We serve both adults as well as children, adolescents and their families.
Being able to talk to somebody about mental health issues and concerns related to emotional well-being, be it your own or those close to you, can be frightening. However, these types of problems are very common.
Psychological treatments focus on working together to facilitate understanding the root of the problem, as well as acquiring new resources that enable changes that improve the individual’s emotional well-being and quality of life.
Services for children, adolescents and their families
Exercising parental responsibilities can be very stressful, but it is especially so when children have emotional, behavioural or learning difficulties, or when the family unit has gone through transformations (divorce, adoption, loss …). Adolescence is also a time of change that can sometimes shift and alter the family system. These difficulties can be worrisome or long-term and can appear at different evolutionary moments for the family or for minors.
Attention to children and adolescents is carried out through:
- the diagnostic and treatment service
- the psycho-pedagogical care service
- Assessment Service for Parents (ASP)
We offer diagnosis and treatment to children and adolescents as well as guidance to families. Treatments can be psychotherapeutic, psycho-pedagogical and/or speech therapy. In adolescence we also offer orientation to help build the individual’s personal, academic and professional project.
We encourage parents to seek help as soon as possible. Numerous studies show how early intervention can have positive effects on children’s overall development. It is known that intervening in childhood by working with the parents can help to avoid more serious subsequent difficulties and increase children’s ability to benefit from educational opportunities.
Diagnostic and treatment service
Our services are accessible to girls and boys from before birth, as we know that pregnancy can be stressful and difficult in itself, and that the first few months of a baby may not be easy for the entire family.
As children grow up, new difficulties may arise: the arrival of siblings, starting nursery school, facing new learning experiences and school life…
Adolescence is another time when families can often experience the need for a space where it is possible to discuss their concerns about their child, to contrast their educational ideas, and to seek information and/or orientation.
The procedure that is usually followed consists of one or two interviews with the parents, and if necessary, a diagnostic process that usually involves three or four visits with the child and ends with a return interview and assessment, in which assistance strategies (monitoring, psychotherapeutic or psycho-pedagogical) are decided.
If required, and families request it, we work in coordination with their schools.
Psycho-pedagogical care service
One of the main goals of PRESME is to promote mental health through education. Learning experiences and school experiences should be able to enhance and enrich both cognitive and emotional growth. But this is not always the case. Often, school and learning are a source of suffering and some students cannot sufficiently benefit from educational opportunities.
At PRESME we have a great deal of experience in the diagnosis and treatment of difficulties related to children’s and adolescents’ learning.
Once their difficulties have been established, this service offers treatments aimed at improving:
- Adaptation
- Cognitive and emotional competencies
- Children’s and adolescents’ academic performance
Speech therapy treatments are also offered.
The procedure that is usually followed consists of one or two interviews with the parents, a diagnostic process that usually involves three or four visits, followed by a return interview and assessment, in which a decision is made on what the assistance strategies should be.
If required, and families request it, we work in coordination with their schools.
Assessment Service for Parents of the PRESME Foundation (ASP)
This is a service aimed at families to prevent emotional, behavioural or learning problems. The ASP aims to guide and help families in the upbringing of their children, to detect possible difficulties at the onset and to assist families to better understand the symptoms of imbalance in children. It offers brief interventions (between 10 and 12 sessions) focusing on cases in which behaviours that concern the family and / or the school environment have begun to be exhibited. It helps families to understand their children’s difficulties and make joint decisions that allow them to respond to different problems.
This service, registered in the Register of the Department of Social Welfare and Family Affairs of the Catalan Autonomous Government (SO 6765 and SO 7893), is offered free of charge to families with limited resources within the framework of projects financed by different administrations or by donations.
The procedure that is usually followed consists of one or two interviews with the parents, a process of observation and diagnosis that usually involves three or four sessions followed by a return interview and assessment, after which a decision is made on what the assistance strategies should be, and by a process of monitoring the evolution of the intervention.
If required and families request it, monitoring is carried out in coordination with their school.
Attention to adults
A great deal of research shows that being able to talk to an expert can promote change and improvement and be very effective in:
- A wide range of emotional problems, such as depression, stress or anxiety, phobias, obsessions, eating disorders and compulsions.
- Crisis situations related to events such as grief, divorce, retirement or unemployment.
- Difficulties resulting from difficult childhood experiences and relationships.
- Difficulties in establishing or maintaining relationships, to sustain a life project or cases in which people wish to grow on a personal level.
The treatment is based on the therapist’s understanding of the patient; the therapist adapts his/her work to the process of elaboration and self-knowledge that the patient develops.
The treatments are psychodynamic and integrative. They begin after 2 or 3 sessions aimed at understanding the problems of each person, and assessing their needs and personal characteristics, as well as the context and objectives of the possible treatment.