Family Relationship Counseling in Austin, Texas

My name is Chesley Swanson. I provide counseling services in the Austin, Texas area as a individual, couple, and marriage 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 also have advanced training in family mediation.  Most of my work is in Travis and Williamson counties. Although I work with individuals, most of my work is with couples and their children, including those in transition through the divorce process.

I specialize in the use of clinical Social Work skills and methods and mediation expertise acquired during my education and experience (see resume-link) to assist divorcing parents with the negotiation and creation of parenting plans that minimizing the negative effects of divorce. I achieve this objective through:

individual therapy with either parent or an involved child or adolescent,

couples therapy dealing with issues inhibiting parent's ability to effectively co-parent such as; working on communication skills,
resolving conflict with each other and/or their children and information about child development.

working as a Parenting Coordinator

working as an allied mental health professional in Collaborative Law cases. 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.  Two other possible roles are child specialist and neutral expert.

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.

Although my focus is as mentioned above; I also do work with individuals, couples, and families regardless of their marital status on the following issues:

* Relationships
* Communication
* Conflict resolution
* Emotional distress
* Life planning (goals & how to achieve them)