4 ways to expand your confidence

I believe that jitters are a manifestation of passion, and I personally use that energy I generate to keep moving forward. A human spirit may or may not be born with some confidence. However, it is still a trait that you must nurture by taking daily steps to keep moving forward.

You must confront your own fears, whatever they may be.

Personal fortitude and self-esteem are characteristics you must choose to sharpen. Rather than allowing the fear of the unknown to lessen your personal power, draw on your strengths and trust your instincts. You will then start to propel your life to amazing heights.

1. Acknowledge self-doubt each and every time it appears. What if's" shake your self-belief. Rather than being in the comfortable pattern of beating yourself up for feeling doubtful, acknowledge it and let it pass. The intention is not to rid yourself of negative feelings and thoughts, rather the intention is to empower yourself to take action when you feel inadequate in any way.
2. Break out of your comfort zone and do something completely new. Decision making and follow-through expand your self-confidence. By doing something new on a regular basis, you lessen your fears and learn that you are able to manage and recover from any consequence or situation.
3. Educate yourself with real-world experiences. Familiarity builds confidence and limits feelings of self-doubt. Spend time with and talk to people who are successful in your areas of interest. Ask them to share with you their experiences and stories of what they had to overcome and what roadblocks got in their way. This face to face connection is important. Knowledge is power. Know that there will always be people who disagree with your ideas. Know that people who are themselves struggling and feeling insecure will want to cut you down with their sword of words. Stay true to your heart as you are the only one who knows what really matters to you. Connect with those that share your passion.
4. When you get stuck, develop a question of the day. You can overcome barriers in your life by gathering the right information. When you become stuck, know that someone else has been in the exact same position as you before. Form your obstacle into a question and ask those you trust what is needed for you to overcome this situation. Even when a person may not know the answer, they may have some insight that leads to an answer. Keep asking the same question over and over again even after you get one answer. There is usually more than one way to create a workable solution and this will add to your life knowledge base for the future.
   

Get out of your own way. Be comfortable with who you are and know that you are a very capable and confident person and do not need to live your life in fear. When you respect yourself, you will be amazed at the opportunities the world presents to you.

Dore E. Frances, M.A.
Advocate, Therapeutic Consultant, Visionary

When you are not emotionally involved, your client is not getting your best effort

I have recently been interviewing advocates, educational consultants and therapeutic consultants that are relatively new to the industry. This is for an article I am publishing. For the most part, they say they have been advised not to get emotionally involved in their cases of assisting children.

Excuse me ... I think that is bull shit. When you are not emotionally involved, your client and family is not getting your best effort. I know my tongue has gotten me into trouble before, and I have no doubt this statement will do the same. I have heard that for the most part, the IECA association feels I have an astonishing lack of professionalism. Yes, not once have they asked to meet me.

I have been assisting children and families for nearly twenty three years. I have gotten a lot of advice over the years from advocates, counselors, mental health care professionals, judges, lawyers, and others in this industry. Everyone has their own opinion about what it takes to be successful in this business. I am not interested in standing out and I do not believe in competition. I am doing what I want to do in the way I want to do it.

I have a history of assisting the most difficult clients. My entire integrity rests on my credibility and independent way of doing things. The great thing about assisting kids is that there are always surprises.

When you go in for heart surgery, you want a surgeon who has done it a few times before. Same for when a family is choosing a therapeutic consultant. Since my trip to Peru this month, I am refocusing my practice a bit. Things are changing rapidly with kids, families and in this world. Looking forward to sharing more on this journey with all of you.

Independent school advising and referral services - Special needs and at-risk therapeutic placement

Specializing in Academic, Addiction, Adoptions and At-Risk Therapeutic Issues ~ Serving clientele worldwide

Dore E. Frances,M.A.
Advocate, Therapeutic Consultant, Visionary

Rumors can really hurt businesses .... and people

We’re all guilty of it every now and then: repeating a rumor we heard without verifying its authenticity. Often its a frivolous remark about someone’s new hair cut or chatting about someone’s ill health.

However, when it’s about businesses and people in a down economy, rumors become downright dangerous. Rumors can really hurt businesses and people ....And when it ’s about business and the people who run them or work there, in a down economy, rumors become downright dangerous....And a business can die because of a rumor.....And people can be hurt. When rumors start about a certain business closing the clients get nervous.

Our clients are families and their children. And I want to remind everyone about the harmful effect on businesses and people and our clients when an untrue rumor is spread ...

In the past few weeks, I have heard about many other businesses — and I am sure you have too — that were supposed to be closing, however, in reality, are doing fine. When checking with people in tracing back to who said what, I found that the Executive Directors and even Founders of companies have failed to properly fact check and unknowingly helped spread a rumor. Rumors are hurtful and they are about people. A business can die because of a rumor. When rumors start about a certain business closing, the clients get nervous. It can go so far as to become a self-fulfilling prophecy and lead to so much lost business, the once-healthy business has to close. Is that the intention of the rumor spreading? know that most professionals in this industry are torn when they hear a rumor about a business closing or even what a person may or may not be doing.

How many actually follow up to then find out it’s not true? I am not going to write a story about this latest rumor that came to my attention. That would be tough because by then naming the business who was spreading the rumor, I am bringing them unwelcome attention. Plus, I have enough stories to write while dealing in the world of things that are true. Running down everything that’s not true in this industry would be difficult. And at the end of the day, no private business owner is expected to share the intimate details of their financial shape with the public. While publicly-traded companies and governmental units are required to share financial statements with the press, that’s not the case with private owners. Sometimes it’s just not our business. I do my best to cover the industry news in a manner that is filled with integrity and professionalism.

That is whether or not a program or service in this industry is brand new and just opening their doors or closing or is experiencing an expansion or celebrating a milestone.

I promise to shy away from reporting (and therefore repeating) rumors. I would like to remind everyone about the harmful effect on businesses and people when an untrue rumor is spread.

The latest two rumors that need to be squelched about me follows ................

I have been contacted about two rumors regarding me .... one contact came from a program Admission Director ... I was in the process of setting up a visit to their program and before we made all the final arrangements, they want to know if what they heard at IECA in San Francisco was true - I am assisting WWASP (World Wide Association of Specialty Programs) in placing kids in their program and being paid by WWASP.

Maybe the person or persons at IECA who started this rumor about me have a perfect reputation, however, I would be willing to bet that is not true. Fortunately I do have enough ethical standards on which I stand that this person asked me about what they heard and did not participate in spreading this rumor any further.

Also, just today as this article was being written, another Admission Director who was at IECA was told that I had illegally infiltrated the IECA membership bulletin board and was spreading rumors myself.

First of all, I did not even know IECA had a bulletin board as I am not a member. Second, I have much more important things to do with my computer skills than spend time getting into a site in which I have no interest.

And more important than all of that is my integrity and professionalism in working with kids and families.

I will be attending IECA conferences in the future. However, being that they refused my money last time, I will be attending as a guest at the hotel just so I can meet those that have questions about me face to face.

I am an independent therapeutic consultant and I plan on staying an independent therapeutic consultant.

And you can say you read it here first. I am not always right about every single thought or idea I put in this blog, but I know I’m right about this.

Rumors are amazing things in an industry like ours. During all the time I have been involved in this industry I’ve never understood where they come from, how they get started, how they spread, or why people assume a rumor is the gospel truth, no matter how ridiculous it is. Rumor mongering, frankly, is one of the things that keeps small people small. If there isn’t some sort of juicy gossip going around all on its own – with some grain of truth in it – people will make stuff up and start spreading it!

I’ve seen it happen over and over again through the years. An idle rumor that really doesn’t hurt anyone, one way or the other, is one thing, but an idle rumor that hurts a business or a person who runs a business is another matter completely. Rumor mongering will probably continue unabated, no matter how much any of us rail against it. I can only hope that people will go to the source and ask, before repeating something they absolutely do not know if it is true or not.

For those of you with kids or those working with kids which is most everyone in this industry - Let’s say you have a child that just heard a REALLY juicy rumor about someone they know. It may not be true, but it’s too good to keep to themselves. Their first instinct is to hop online and IM it to all their friends. - Who is role modeling for them, teaching them, how hurtful this can truly be?

When people are feeling bad about themselves, they sometimes think they’ll feel better if there were someone worse off than they are.

If everybody else is gossiping or spreading rumors, you might feel you have to do the same thing in order to fit in. When you know a secret that nobody knows, or are the first person in your group to hear a rumor, it can make you the center of attention.

Certain people always want to be in control and at the top of the ladder.

Let’s say you have a piece of wood, a nail, and a hammer. Pretend the wood is a person, and the nail is a nasty rumor about that person. If you hammer in the nail, you’re obviously hurting him or her. If you then pull out the nail…well, there’s still a hole in the wood, and the damage has been done. There are many reasons why that nail of a rumor can be so harmful.

Horizon Family Solutions
Dore E. Frances, M.A.
Therapeutic Consultant
(866) 833-6911
(541) 312-4422

Dore@dorefrances.com

What is cyberbullying, exactly?

Helping Families

"TroubledTeenHelp.com" announces ..... May 26, 2009 - 8pm - 8:45pm PST - on Global Talk Radio Special Guest: Aaron McGinley Clinical Services Manager Talisman Programs To listen live click here ....> What is cyberbullying, exactly? How cyberbullying works. Why do kids cyberbully each other? Preventing cyberbullying. May 27, 2009 - 9am - 9:45am PST - on Global Talk Radio Special Guest: Sanford Shapiro, M.Ed Founder Bend Learning Center To listen live click here ....> So much of the challenge for parents of kids who struggle in school is understanding exactly why they struggle, where the specific breakdowns in learning occur, and what specific learning strengths does their child have that can be built upon. May 29, 2009 - 9am - 9:45am PST - on Global Talk Radio Special Guest: Dr. Lisa M. Sinsheimer, M.D. (Psychiatrist) Parent Liaison/Admissions/Clinical Consultant The John Dewey Academy Alternative approaches to helping troubled adolescents. In 2002, Lisa and her husband sent their eldest child to a wilderness program and then to a therapeutic boarding school. He's now a highly successful college graduate. As a result, in 2005, Lisa completely changed the direction of her professional life. To listen live click here ....> "Coast to Coast Troubled Teen Help" Global Talk Radio Show has been created with the intention to assist parents with adolescents, teens and young adults. When parents are facing a critical moment with their child, it can be confusing on whom to turn to for answers. Even professionals working with families sometimes do not all the resources available. Your host Dore Frances, M.A., Therapeutic Consultant will bring different guests to you in which to address such challenges as: addiction concerns, adoption issues, blended families, divorce, family breakdowns, loss of a child's self-esteem, raising teens in the 21st Century, teen sexual activity, treatment options available, and much, much more. Dore will introduce you to some specialized programs and schools that can really help and assist you in understanding the benefit of working with a Therapeutic Consultant to make the best choice for your child. Coast to Coast Troubled Teen Help is just starting and a regular day and time has not yet been established for the weekly 45 minute show. We will keep you updated as we get more settled into our new venue. Here is how you listen to the show: Go to Global Talk Radio to listen live. If you miss any episode, you can go to the website and listen to the podcast at anytime. Dore E. Frances, M.A. Therapeutic Consultant Horizon Family Solutions, LLC (541) 312-4422 Therapeutic Consultant Helping Parents with Troubled Teens and Struggling Teens Are you a family that needs assistance with an at-risk adolescent? A therapeutic consultant can help determine when additional testing may be needed to receive specific and best matched program or school accommodations. A therapeutic consultant has extensive knowledge of addiction treatment centers, aftercare programs, Christian based schools, as well as clinical based programs and their available support services. Please go to the Contact Us Page and email the basic information of your situation along with your contact information and we will get back to you as soon as possible as to what we can do to help.

Coast to Coast Troubled Teen Help Radio Talk Show

Coming Soon!

Dore Frances, M.A., Therapeutic Consultant has over 17 years experience assisting families with “at risk” teens.

She has visited over 400 addiction treatment centers, residential programs, wilderness schools and young adult programs in the U.S. and internationally.

This is a talk show to help you to work through all those challenges in your life that you are facing in raising a pre-teen or teen. Using the life's lessons she learned that include being adopted, working through the tragic loss of her mother at age 9, surviving cancer as a mother at age 36, struggling with her local school system when her daughter was “being labeled”, Dore reaches out to help everyone learn how to get help with faced with difficult challenges in raising children.

She is a Therapeutic Consultant specializing in child advocacy, educational consulting and parent coaching.

Dore is also an inspirational speaker at parent conferences and has a book due out next year – “One Size Does Not Fit All” – about the residential treatment and wilderness program industry.

Join Dore for a wide range of hot topics – parenting skills, solutions to helping troubled teens, the teen help industry, what to do when you truly have a teen or young adult in crisis, and options available for treatment and what our teens are addicted to today. Dore has a unique outlook on what our kids are going through and what can be done to help them thrive!

And if that doesn't work...how to survive it as parents when it's happening right now and YOU are in the thick of it!

Lively -- informative -- fun -- captivating!

Coast to Coast Troubled Teen Help Talk Show

www.troubledteenhelp.com

www.horizonfamilysolutions.com

Look at what is new!

40 + FLEXIBLE TUITION, LOW TUITION, SLIDING SCALE TUITION AND FREE RESIDENTIAL PROGRAMS FOR ADOLESCENTS AND YOUNG ADULTS

Directory of Educational Consultants

Resume Center

Education is not the piling on of learning, information, data, facts, skills, or abilities - that's training or instruction - but is rather making visible what is hidden as a seed --Thomas Moore

Horizon Family Solutions, LLC
1145 NW Knoxville Blvd.
Bend, Oregon 97701

Phone #: (541) 312-4422
Fax #: (541) 312-4420

Our Store ~ Providing Options for Parents and Professionals

WHAT TO LOOK FOR IN OUR STORE

What we want to bring to parents and professionals is based only on accurate and up to date information!

There are a lot of different kinds of parent directories all across the Internet. A lot of them include information that is selected by unknown persons using unknown criteria. This may or may not be meaningful information. Quite a few directories actually include so many programs and schools that are found when you search across the Internet that there is no way of knowing the specifics on how they came to be in that particular directory. There are member directories which include only programs that are members of a particular organization. There are directories in which people pay to advertise. There are directories that use the same people year after year to give the same information over and over again with no varying degrees of non-biased information by reaching out to other forms of research.

The list goes on and on. Whatever directory you choose, you always need to do your research and ask questions about who obtained the information, when it was last updated, what facts were verified, where does the information come form each year, why are the same people used each year to give the same repeat information, how is the information collected and documented, and so forth. That being said, we are going to be offering several different types of e-book directories that are currently in printing.

You are going to be able to order them all here using PayPal. Keep checking back as they will be released throughout the coming year.

Published by Horizon Family Solutions, LLC. Last Updated February 22, 2009.
FREE, LOW TUITION, SLIDING SCALE, AND NO TUITION PROGRAMS FOR ADOLESCENTS AND YOUNG ADULTS
These programs went through an initial screening process in order to be accepted on this non-advertising list.

The list is updated throughout the year. This list is for parents who are not using the services of an Educational Consultant. $26.00.

Click here to order.

Choosing the Right Payment Option for Residential Treatment

Billing Plans

Once scholarships and financial aid have been awarded, families look at how to pay the tuition balance.

For families interested in spreading tuition over a few months, some schools offer billing plans, which typically require payment in ten months or less. Billing plans do not charge interest; however there is usually a fee, which is important to consider in the total cost of financing. Some schools require tuition insurance, which can add one to two percent to the balance owed when using a billing option.

Credit Cards

Credit cards may be an option, although they are generally a poor way to finance a significant expense like tuition, because interest rates tend to be higher than on other loan options. Interest rates on credit cards are usually variable. Low initial rates or "teaser" rates are frequently offered, but usually for limited time periods.

Many schools do not accept credit card payments, so a cash advance may be required to make the payment.

Often there are different rates and fees applied to cash advances, so always read the fine print. If payments are delinquent, there are often late fees or higher "penalty" interest rates which can add up quickly. It is important to understand them before putting a large balance on a credit card. The important terms and conditions for any credit card can be found in a chart, typically on the back of the offer or statement called a "Shumer box." Always look for this chart and review it carefully. Finally, the repayment schedule or minimum payment due for credit cards is usually about three percent of the outstanding balance. If only the minimum amount is paid, the balance will be paid down very slowly and interest expenses will be very high, even if the quoted rate is low.

Home equity lines

One option for many families is a home equity line of credit. The major advantage is the potential tax deductibility of the interest paid. This is a good option for some families; however, it is not the answer for everyone. In some cases, home equity may be targeted for college expenses or retirement savings. There may not be enough home equity available to borrow against. The process for obtaining a home equity loan is significantly more complex than other types of loans; however, once it is in place the home equity line can be drawn upon easily. Home equity lines typically have variable rates, and there may be fees charged if the line is not used.

Installment loans

Installment loans can be a more attractive than credit cards.

General-purpose installment loans, often called "personal loans" or "signature loans," can be obtained at any bank and typically carry interest rates around 12 percent for the best credit quality borrowers.

Average interest rates for these loans can be checked at www.bankrate.com. Lower interest rates can be found for a special type of installment loan called a single purpose loan, similar to an automobile loan.

Some companies specialize in single purpose educational loans that offer single digit interest rates.

Low interest educational loans

There are two types of private educational loans (sometimes called alternative loans). One format is designed like a mortgage, with variable interest rates, origination fees, and relatively long terms up to twenty years.

These loans are designed primarily for financing college tuition's. The long terms mean that monthly payments are low, enabling students to pay them back slowly once they are out of school. Due to the long terms and the origination charge (an upfront fee that is typically five to six percent of the amount borrowed), the total interest expense for these variable rate loans can be as much as 50 percent higher than a fixed rate installment loan.

The second type of education loan is designed like an automobile loan, with fixed rates, no fees, and relatively short terms.

These loans for parents are designed exclusively for financing private K-12 education and can be used at any accredited school. The repayment schedule is set up so that the loan is paid down completely in a fixed period of time, usually 12 to 60 months. There are typically no fees or prepayment penalties, so paying these loans off early can reduce the total interest expense making them ideal for families juggling cash flow.

Tuition balances for subsequent years can be easily rolled into the existing loan so there is only one monthly payment. For more information on these fixed rate loans for private K-12 education visit www.yourtuitionsolution.com.

Tuition Loans

Tuition loans are becoming more popular as tuition costs rise. There are a number of loan options to choose from including home equity lines, credit cards, installment loans and specialized education loans

Parents need to check to see if the school offers a cash discount for tuition payment in full. Loan programs typically qualify for these discounts, which may offset a significant portion of the interest on a loan making it an attractive option.

While there are many loan options available, it pays to do some homework. Home equity lines or specialized fixed rate education loans are usually your best options for financing Boarding Schools, Military Schools, Preparatory Schools, Christian Schools, Special Education Schools tuition's.

Dore E. Frances, M.A.
Educational Consultant