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ANNUAL REPORT

• Clinical Services
• Education
  • Post Graduate Training Program
  • Professional Education Seminars & Conferences
  • Psychoeducational Classes & Support Groups
• Outreach
  • Sliding Fee Scale
  • Public Speaking
• Research
• Balance Sheet
• Case for Support
• List of Donors
• List of Board of Trustees

CLINICAL SERVICES

Council for Relationships is the oldest relationship counseling and training center in the country. In pursuit of its mission and to address the mental health needs of Philadelphia residents, Council for Relationships provides clinical services, community education, post-graduate training and research. Our clientele includes individuals, families and couples involved in traditional and non-traditional relationships of all ages. Approximately 85 full and part-time therapists and 40 interns and externs provided more than 45,000 hours of clinical service last year at fourteen locations throughout the Delaware Valley, including twelve offices in Pennsylvania and two in New Jersey.

In September 2006, Council for Relationships opened our fourteenth office, CFR at Einstein. The office is located at the Outpatient Psychiatry Center of the Moss Rehab Building at 1200 West Tabor Road in Philadelphia. CFR at Einstein allows Council for Relationships to more easily reach an underserved population in North Philadelphia. We have also been able to increase our outreach to other non-profits in the neighborhood.

Services

Because life's challenges are often complex and diverse, Council for Relationships offers a wide range of counseling services. We provide expert individual, couple and family therapy by a large group of highly experienced, multidisciplinary professionals. Some of our areas of expertise include:

• Relationship Issues 
• Financial Issues 
• Family Therapy 
• Parenting 
• Co-parenting (after separation or divorce) 
• Children and Teens 
• Children with Special Needs 
• Anger Management 
• Addiction 
• Infertility 
• Adoption 
• Divorce/Mediation 
• Remarriage/Blended Issues 
• Diversity Issues and Intermarriage 
• Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Issues 
• Sex Therapy 
• Gender Issues 
• Depression and Anxiety 
• Trauma 
• Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder 
• Grief 
• Chronic Illness 
• EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization Therapy) 
• Sexual Abuse 
• Eating Disorders 
• Chronic Illness 
• Psychiatry 
• ADD and ADHD 
• Spiritual Psychology

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EDUCATION

Post-Graduate Training Program
Council for Relationships' Training Program was established in 1948, as one of the first of its kind to educate post-graduate students in individual, couple, family and sex therapy. To this day, we remain a leading educational center and offer a unique training experience that brings together course work, clinical practice, research and supervision at one of the nation's most respected couple and family therapy centers. Council for Relationships is unique among counseling organizations in that it provides professional training and research to enhance its clinical work. The Training Program in Couple and Family Therapy is one of only seventeen post-degree programs accredited by the American Association for Marital and Family Therapy in the US. This program is a Division of the Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at Thomas Jefferson University Medical College and affiliated with Widener University. Council for Relationships staff serve as instructors and supervise the clinical work of interns.

Options for training include full-time, part-time, and course work only alternatives. Social workers, psychologists, psychiatrists, other mental health professionals and clergy attend our program. Council for Relationships Training Program course options include the Postgraduate Couple and Family Therapy Program, the AAMFT-Approved Supervisor Training Program, and the Graduate School Externship Program.

Our training program targets individuals seeking post-masters education and training in the area of marriage and family therapy. We also have a division of our training program designed for clergy members of all denominations. This program educates clergy to work with couples and families in their own congregations.

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Professional Education Seminars & Conferences
Council for Relationships continues its strong commitment to professional training and education through workshops, seminars and conferences for mental health professionals. Council for Relationships is approved by the American Psychological Association to offer continuing education credits. We offer continuing education workshops & seminars monthly for psychologists, social workers, marriage & family therapists, and other mental health professionals. We also host an annual Treating Couples Conference with keynote speakers who are well known and published in the field of mental health. In addition, we host a series of clergy seminars to help clergy of all denominations reinforce their existing counseling services to individuals within their communities.

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Psychoeducational Classes & Support Groups
Forty years ago, Council for Relationships began offering classes geared to prevention and early intervention. Our classes have grown and developed over the years into an essential hallmark of our services at Council for Relationships. We provide classes, because CFR recognizes the need for group education, discussion and support. Our popular courses are led by senior therapists and offer a very beneficial and cost-effective complement to counseling. Here's a small sample of what participants have said:

"This class helped our relationship heal, grow and evolve."
"The safe environment and laid-back atmosphere helped me open up."
"My outlook has changed in ways too numerable to list!"
"I learned so much about myself!"

These programs use group process to help participants understand the dynamics of healthy relationships, build interpersonal skills, prevent problems, and address issues before they cause permanent damage. Council for Relationships offers classes in couples communication, relationship skills, sexual enrichment, and reconnecting.

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OUTREACH

Sliding Fee Scale
Council for Relationships is an independent agency that has chosen not to participate in a managed health care system nor subscribe to the limitations such systems place on services. Since its inception, Council for Relationships has sustained a commitment to serving all in need regardless of financial circumstances, providing clinical services on a sliding scale fee basis. Last year, we provided approximately 6,000 hours of low-cost counseling.

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Public Speaking
Council for Relationships' staff are talented and sought-after public speakers. We regularly contribute to television and radio programming, as well as speak at corporate and non-profit engagements. We routinely speak to business, religious and school groups to help educate participants about various topics.

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RESEARCH

Council for Relationships is a center for clinical research in couple and family relationships. Through the decades, we have published articles, professional text, and conducted research in many areas, including relationship formation, healthy marital functioning, sexual function and dysfunction, and the process of therapy. Our most recent research project, "Transcending Trauma: Exploring Psychological Mechanisms of Survival," focuses on successful psychological coping and emotional adaptation following traumatic events, with specific reference to Holocaust survivors and their families. The Transcending Trauma Project has embarked on an ambitious effort to achieve a comprehensive understanding of how survivors of extreme trauma manage to rebuild their lives.

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BALANCE SHEET

Council for Relationships Statement of Financial Position 
For the Twelve Months Ending June 30, 2006 

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CASE FOR SUPPORT

"Relationships of all types are probably the most important thing in life."
     ~Emily Hartshorne Mudd, Founder and Director,
The Marriage Council

Relationships are one of the few genuinely universal needs. Regardless of our race, religion, education or lifestyle, our ability to form and sustain relationships impacts every aspect of our life-personal and professional. Yet most of our skills are learned "on the job." For seventy-three years Council for Relationships has been a haven for people seeking to improve their relationships and lives.

A Legacy of Service
Founded as the Marriage Council of Philadelphia in 1932, Council for Relationships is the oldest relationship counseling and training center in the country. The founders, led by Dr. Emily Hartshorne Mudd, envisioned and created an institution that continues to gain a collective strength through the synergy of academic theory, research, and practical application. Based on a commitment to provide services for all people, regardless of background or ability to pay, they established a policy of providing low-fee services that we continue today. They also established the core values that have guided us for over seventy years and will continue to sustain us:

healing, excellence, dignity, integrity, diversity, scholarship and, confidentiality.

A Commitment to Professional Excellence 
When relationship counseling was new, few therapists were trained in couples work. Council's Post-Graduate Training Program in Couples and Family Therapy grew out of a need for the specialized clinical skills necessary to handle this work effectively. Today, it is one of only seventeen national programs accredited by the American Association of Marriage and Family Therapists (AAMFT). It is affiliated with Thomas Jefferson University's Medical College and Widener University. 

Council for Relationships' national reputation has helped attract some of the regions best trained and skilled therapists representing a broad scope of professions, including social work, medicine, education, religion and the behavioral sciences. More than one hundred therapists provide services in thirteen locations throughout the Delaware Valley. Most have post-graduate degrees and many serve as faculty for the training program. 

We regularly host conferences and seminars to enhance the skills of professional staff and to provide opportunities for public dialogue. Council for Relationships currently sponsors the Transcending Trauma project that is examining the coping skills of trauma victims based on the experience of Holocaust survivors and their families. Individual therapists also publish articles and books.

The Challenge for the Future
Council for Relationships has developed the finest quality counseling and training programs available in relationship counseling. As a non-profit, it has always been committed to providing quality service on the basis of individual need, not an individual's ability to pay. Our challenge now is to sustain this commitment and to meet the expanding mental health needs of the region. 

After seventy four years, we know we have so much more to give to the community, but no more resources to stretch. We know that many low and limited income people need our services but are unable to pay full fees, including children and the elderly. We want to help more families stay together and mitigate the human and financial devastation caused by failed relationships. We want to provide more preventative programs and share our experience through research. For all of these reasons, we continue to be very grateful to those individuals and organizations who have supported CFR from July 1, 2005- June 30, 2006.

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