Advekit Helps Connect Families to Mental-Health Treatment
Brought to you by AdvekitAs a parent, you never stop worrying about the wellbeing of your children. You want them to be healthy, loved, well nourished, accomplished, and so much more – but what about their feelings? How many of us truly know what to do when our child is feeling “off” or “unsettled” emotionally?
Native Angeleno and Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist Alison Fussell speaks to the importance of normalizing feelings in children. Fussell states, “It is crucial that parents listen to what their child is sharing, and not only listen, but ask follow up questions as well. It is extremely effective to demonstrate that you are trying to understand what they are struggling with, so that you can determine how to best support them.”
Fussell is the Co-Founder of a new mental health start-up, Advekit, which is currently exclusive to the Los Angeles area. Advekit is a platform that connects people with therapist referrals best suited to their needs. Advekit is specifically designed to make the process of finding a mental health professional easier and more convenient for anyone seeking support.
Fussell acknowledges that it is a common trait within parents to want to resolve every issue within their child and alleviate any pain. However, she shares that sometimes children are struggling with issues beyond the parent’s scope. Sometimes, she explains, a child can benefit from speaking to a professional: “If a child is struggling, it is not always going to be an issue that the parents can fix themselves. It is OK to ask for the support of a mental health professional.” She expands, “It is always a bit disheartening to me when parents are resistant to this sentiment, but they do not flinch when their child needs stitches from a bad fall. Why is it that we have been taught not to value and nurture emotional wellbeing in the way that we have been taught to value physical wellbeing?”
In an effort to de-stigmatize mental health treatment and make it more accessible to all, Alison and her co-founder Arielle Garellek created Advekit as a modernized solution to finding a therapist. Check out their website here, and receive therapist referrals suited to you or your child’s needs. It is both cost-free and anonymous to find a therapist referral via Advekit. So far, more than 500 referrals have been made via the platform in only a few short months of the company’s launch in mid 2017.