Cathedral Community Counseling Center

History

The Cathedral Community Counseling Center was founded in 1997 to meet the social and counseling needs of the three communities and its surrounding neighbors where the church is located – Perth Amboy, Plainfield and Asbury Park. The Cathedral Community Counseling Center is an inspirational and innovative church and community based counseling facility committed to sharing hope and healing with the whole person.

Mission

Our Mission is to provide culturally and spiritually sensitive professional and lay counseling services to those experiencing personal, social, and spiritual struggles. The Cathedral Counseling Center staff consists of individuals with diverse experiences and backgrounds such as pastors, licensed social workers, credentialed therapists and trained laity. Some of the approaches used include spiritual/psycho educational workshops and special issues support groups. Counseling Service Offering Pastor Counseling Explores and integrates personal, relational and spiritual struggles from a theological perspective in order to facilitate spiritual growth and emotional and personal wholeness. Services are provided by the pastoral staff. Professional Clinical Counseling Provides psychotherapeutic services to identify assess and process in-depth sources of emotional, relational, and psychological conflicts and issues. These services are provided by Master and Doctoral level therapists.

Individual and peer group workshops are provided. For instance, a counseling service targeted at individuals recovering from substance abuse is called, “On the Healing Side Recovery Program. Recovery involves various aspects of an addict’s life. This counseling program focuses on the physiological, psychological, relational, familial, spiritual and societal components of addiction and recovery. This program provides education, life skills, relapse prevention plans and re-socialization tools for its participants. We believe that effective treatment is comprehensive treatment. A peer group workshop targeted at young people is called, “Putting the Pieces Together” is a popular offering for our contract agencies as an Adolescent Group Treatment Service. It helps young people examine their lives in a safe learning environment. We believe that peer groups are one the effective tools in assisting young people in achieving lasting change in their lives. Life is about choices and this workshop assist participants in making wise choices and offers healthy ways to manage emotions.

Lay Support Services Dialogues of emotional support and spiritual encouragement will be provided by volunteers known as peer supporters. These individuals consist of a wide representation of Cathedral members who have participated in lay counseling training and will continue to receive clinical supervision.

Project ATLAS PROGRAM In the Fall 2006 the Cathedral Community Counseling Center launched the New Jersey Access Initiative (NJAI) Recovery Mentor Program called Project ATLAS. This program expanded the already existing counseling services to provide mentoring services for those clients referred from drug and alcohol treatment centers who were addicted to opiates. Partnering with the NJAI allowed for expansion of the Cathedral Community Counseling Center and its staff. The current Recovery Mentor staff will maintain a client load of approximately 8-12 clients per week. These will be referrals from the Cathedral, the three communities in which we reside as well as from partnerships with Addiction Services Department of hospitals, community and private clinics and private treatment facilities.

In an ever-evolving organization we have incorporated various components to enhance service delivery. The Recovery Mentor Program will be a welcomed extension to the current portfolio of already existing and well operating counseling treatment programs within the Cathedral Community Counseling Center. Contact us if you would like more information regarding the Cathedral Community Counseling Center call 732-585-4040 for Rev. Deniece Reid, LCWS, MATS, NCAPS II.

Current Hours: Perth Amboy Tuesdays and Thursdays from 12 PM to 9 PM at 732-585-4040. Asbury Park office on Wednesdays and Saturdays from 9 am to 5 pm at 732-775-1696.