Today we’d like to introduce you to Madeline Hawkins.
Hi Madeline, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
As a child, a therapist helped me cope with mental illness within my immediate family. Since then, I’ve been driven to provide the same support, kindness, and guidance I received to other children in need. I pursued a bachelor’s degree in psychology at Clemson University and went on to earn a master’s degree in social work from the University of South Carolina. (Yes, I went to both schools, but go Tigers!).
After graduate school, I worked for Greenville’s community mental health center as a school-based therapist. In my time as a school-based therapist, I recognized that no matter how hard I worked to help students, it was very difficult to effect real change without significant family involvement. Consequently, I began pursuing training in the family therapy modality Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT). PCIT is a highly effective, evidence-based, parent-training model in which parents wear an earpiece and are coached on positive parenting techniques by a therapist in an adjacent room.
I started using PCIT with my students and their families and was amazed by how quickly and profoundly their relationship and interaction improved, transforming children’s behavior and functioning. After recognizing the immense value of and a great need for PCIT in the Upstate area, I decided to take a leap of faith and opened Bloom Behavioral Therapy in 2018. We now have over 20 clinicians and serve over 500 families per week. I am so excited to continue to help children and families Bloom through PCIT and the other services we offer!
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Our growth has been driven by the dire need for effective and accessible mental health therapy in the Upstate. I’ve been extremely lucky with the staff and clinicians that have joined Bloom and made this rapid growth possible.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
I’m Madeline Hawkins and I am the founder and director of Bloom Behavioral Therapy. Bloom is proud to be the only provider of Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) in the Upstate.
PCIT is a highly effective therapy modality designed for children ages 2-10 with challenging behaviors. In PCIT sessions, parents receive individualized skills training and live coaching through an earpiece from their therapist in an observation room as they learn to implement new strategies to most effectively interact with and discipline their child.
Parents score their child’s behavior each session to track significant improvements over time until the child’s behavior is considered typical for their age. We also provide an array of other evidence-based therapies for all ages to treat depression, anxiety, trauma/PTSD, and many other emotional challenges. Are you ready to Bloom? Give us a call today to get started!
Contact Info:
- Email: madeline@bloombehavioraltherapy.com
- Website: bloombehavioraltherapy.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bloombehavioraltherapy/
