Emotional Counseling

The CARE Project (TCP) provides emotional support for families with children who are deaf and hard of hearing through use of counseling tools, family retreats and advocacy experiences.

Video Experiences

Across the years, TCP Media Director (Xris Kessler) has filmed many family stories for the purpose of sharing experiences The-CARE-Project18 with new groups of parents who become involved in TCP’s retreats, workshops and support groups. These film segments bring a sense of comfort to parents with the realization that they are not alone, not broken, not isolated, that their child is not unique and that there is support to be found amongst those families who share in these experiences.

Learn more about Video Experiences

Journaling

A key and critical tool utilized by TCP with parents is journaling. Parents are encouraged to record their daily thoughts and emotions as a means of documenting their emotional journey. In turn, these recorded thoughts allow for reflection and problem solving for the parents as well as a means of sharing with TCP Staff the day-to-day experiences. Journaling can be done in a variety of ways:

Keeping a written journal: each person/parent is able to write down each day (if possible) the day’s experiences and emotions. Parents as given simple instructions/guidelines to make the writing flow more smoothly:

•  What happened?
•  How did you feel?
•  What did you do about it?
•  What do you hope for?

Video journaling: each person/parent is encouraged to utilize a video camera to record their experiences by talking to the camera. This is an activity offered to any parent who attends one of TCP’s retreats as well. Virtual journaling: parents are invited to utilize email to communicate with TCP Executive Director (Johnnie Sexton) ongoing to share the day-to-day experiences and emotions. Some parents choose to share only “significant” issues and events in their The-CARE-Project20 lives. This process allows for Dr. Sexton to respond to any parent at any given time to provide feedback and validation.

Parent to Parent

Family support is another key ingredient in helping parents move forward. TCP has organized local/regional support groups for parents and local service providers in partnership with other agencies who serve the families (such as the NC EHDI Program). To date, there is no tool more powerful or impactful than that of parent-to-parent communication, support and networking.