Rondey Allen
Rondey Allen is a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker and the cofounder and Executive Director of CrossPoint Clinical Services, a Christian Counseling agency with locations throughout Mass and CT. He earned in MSW from Boston College in 2003 and over his 20-year career he has been trained and certified in numerous clinical approaches to dealing with adults, families and children including CBT, Gottman Relationship Counseling, Collaborative Problem Solving for parents and children, as a NAMA anger management specialist, and most recently as a Youth Mental Health First Aid instructor. He has worked with youth in many clinical settings since 1996 including inpatient psychiatry, acute residential, behavioral school programs, Department of Youth Services with violent and sexual offenders, Community Mental Health, Job Corps, and now as an outpatient mental health provider.
He has been a disciple for 34 years and serves in the Pioneer Valley Church of Christ as a worship leader, SCUAD committee leader, and small group leader. He and his wife Jennifer have been married 19 years and have a blended family. Their oldest Isaiah was 6 with they were married, he is now 25. They have 3 other children Lydia 17, Asa 16, and RJ 14. He and his family continue to be deeply involved with at risk youth and their families in their community of Holyoke, MA. He teaches a fathering class to inmates at a local house of corrections. He is very passionate about youth, parenthood and fathering.
Parenting Teens from a Place of Peace
In our journey as disciples who are also parents, it can perhaps be most difficult to manage parenting through the adolescent years. It is a sensitive, volatile time of life, but also has great potential. As disciples we carry intrinsic and cultural expectations that our children would become disciples and thrive, yet we have little control over their decisions. We can carry many concerns about the impact of outside influences such as social media, the evolving (or devolving) culture, increased access to information good and bad, dating, friend choices, and other life issues. One can wonder, “How do I support the healthy development of my child while having a positive spiritual influence?” (even after your child is baptized) Through this class I would like to offer hope, encouragement, and clinical guidance from the perspective of a therapist who has counseled many adolescents and their families over the past 20 years but also as a parent of a 25-year-old and 3 teens who is still currently navigating the process. I would like to help define success in parenting beyond the child being baptized and discuss the role of personal peace in creating a successful parenting experience.
Themes
--Peace as a calling card of the master
--Moratorium as a space for the creation of identity
--Influence vs. control
--Cognitive Development
--Psychosocial Development
--Faith Development