Brittney Werth, LMHC
  • Couples Counseling
  • Family/Child Counseling
Brittney Werth has been working with children and families for almost a decade and working with individuals in the mental health setting for the past five years. Brittney values the importance of the family system and believes we as individuals carry many strains, burdens, or experiences developed within that system throughout all areas of our life, specifically our relationships with others. Brittney enjoys the therapeutic process of getting to know someone and helping them navigate their way to solving their own problems. Brittney believes that individuals have the ability to often times discover their own best path or find the answers to life’s greatest questions with the help and guidance of a therapist. Brittney has a strong passion and extensive experience working with families who have adopted internationally and domestically. Brittney understands the challenges of adoption across a wide spectrum of ages from infant to teenager. Brittney has also counseled families dealing with infertility and postpartum depression.
 
Brittney graduated from the University of North Florida with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and continued on to Nova Southeastern University to earn her Master of Science in Mental Health Counseling degree.  Brittney is licensed with the state of Florida as a Licensed Mental Health Counselor.
 
Brittney grew up in Jacksonville, FL and has strong ties in the Jacksonville area.  She loves to travel and has done local and international mission trips that continue to inspire her. Brittney enjoys health and fitness and a holistic way to living life.
 
Adoption Counseling

Adopted children and teenagers often face unique challenges and feelings related to being part of an adoptive family. These challenges include feeling different from peers who were not adopted, feelings about why they were placed for adoption, feelings about birth parents, as well as concerns about handling questions by peers and adults about their adoption. When children and teenagers are having trouble with feelings related to adoption, their behavior often reflects it. Communication about the impact of adoption, within families and also with others, is not easy to initiate. Some behaviors may include: withdrawal from others, changes in school performance, angry outbursts, temper tantrums, anxiety, fearful behavior, difficulty being apart from parents, low self-esteem, and changes in eating or sleeping patterns.
 
Adoption therapists can help the adoptive family to understand the impact that adoption has had on their child or teenager from an attachment and trauma prospective. An area where adoption therapists can be particularly helpful to adoptive families is the array of new challenges arising from increased contact between birth and adoptive families. As families work through these relationships, and the way they may change over time, a trained professional can help to ensure positive communication and comfortable boundaries, which benefit the child and strengthen family relationships.
 
Family Therapy
 
Family therapy or family counseling is designed to address specific issues that affect the psychological health of the family or mental health conditions. It may be used as the primary mode of treatment or as a complementary approach. Families can benefit from therapy when they experience any stressful event that may strain family relationships, such as financial hardship, divorce, or the death of a loved one. In addition, it can be effective in treating mental health concerns that impact the family as a whole, such as depression, substance abuse, chronic illness, and food issues, or everyday concerns, like communication problems, interpersonal conflict, or behavioral problems in children and adolescents.
 
Family counseling aims to promote understanding and collaboration among family members in order to solve the problems of one or more individuals. As families uncover the source of the problem, they can learn to support the child and other family members and work proactively on minimizing or altering the conditions that contribute to the unwanted behavior.