Family Relationship Counseling in Austin, Texas

My name is Chesley Swanson; I provide counseling services in the Austin, Texas area as an individual, couple, & marriage and family therapist.  I also work with parents in the divorce process as a parenting coordinator, collaborative divorce neutral and family mediator.  I have a master’s degree in Social Work—child and family concentration and am licensed in the state of Texas.

I use clinical Social Work skills and methods, mediation expertise, as well as other specific techniques acquired during my education, specific trainings, and experience (see resume-link) to assist anyone wanting to have more successful relationships and/or make positive changes in their lives.  I achieve these objectives through:

Individual therapy using techniques depending on the client’s needs and desires

Couples therapy and/or marriage therapy (in couples therapy, including therapy dealing with parenting issue; I meet with each individual once before seeing the couple together—to see what each person brings to the process)

Family therapy (in family therapy, I also typically meet with each individual including children over 7 years of age before seeing the parents and/or the entire family together)

Resonance Repatterning (previously called Holographic Repatterning) A process for identifying and transforming unconscious patterns, which are experienced as any problem you may be having. These unconscious patterns stop you from achieving your potential as a human being.

Working as a Parenting Coordinator (see article)

Working as an allied mental health professional in Collaborative Law divorces (see article). The primary role of the allied mental health professional in these cases is divorce coach (communication specialist). As a divorce coach, I assist everyone in the process to communicate effectively in joint meetings with the parties, their attorneys, and a neutral financial professional. I also meet privately with each party and with the couple together as needed to help deal with the predictable emotions that come up through the divorce process and to spend time developing their parenting plan.

Serving as a family/divorce mediator. A family and/or divorce mediation is a process in which a mediator, an impartial third party, facilitates the resolution of family disputes by promoting the participants’ voluntary agreement. The family mediator assists communication, encourages understanding and focuses the participants on their individual and common interests. The family mediator works with the participants to explore options, make decisions and reach their own agreements.

Issues dealt with in counseling session with me include but are not limited to; family systems, relationships, communication, conflict resolution, emotional distress, life planning (goals & how to achieve them), and identifying unwanted life patterns and promoting positive change.