Happy Clients

Jen is very gifted and dynamic  presenter who is uniquely skilled as a communicator to use evidence based best practices and relate to real life situations that genuinely help others in solving difficult issues.

— Colleague

Jen is extraordinary in her  ability to reach children and families with very difficult issues through building relationships and identifying issues and then creating individualized plans that meet their needs.

— Colleague

We have only the highest praise for Ms. Jenny Howe as our son’s family therapist. When we first entered into therapy with Ms. Howe, our 17 year old son was hopeless and entirely unable to deal with the world.  Ms. Howe first met him after his second admission to a psychiatric hospital and after years of therapy with a number of highly credited psychologists and psychiatrists. He had received a number of competing diagnoses that were often associated with a hefty load of medications.  Nothing helped for any length of time. After such a series of failed interventions and treatments we were admittedly doubtful that it would be any different with Ms. Howe.  But it was an experience unlike any other, and with a long-lasting positive outcome.

Why was it so different? Ms. Howe used her extensive knowledge, “outside the box” thinking, and her direct no-nonsense approach to correctly diagnose and identify the suitable treatment method for our son.  Through working with her, our son realized why his brain acts in certain ways and finally came to understood that he could change his self-damaging behaviors (avoidance and isolation, suicidal thoughts, self-mutilation, and unhealthy dependency on others, to name just a few).  With Ms. Howe’s guidance our son became motivated, worked very hard, and practiced a set of alternative, healthier ways to deal with the pain inflicted by his mental debility . He was also pleasantly surprised to realize that he was no longer terrified from a future as an independent young man. He is now in college and eager for future challenges.

Our family therapy sessions were tremendously helpful.  They gave us an insight into how our son’s thought processes could spiral down into a damaging and helpless state. Ms. Howe taught us how to not enable his helplessness and self-destructive tendencies. At first, family therapy sessions were emotionally taxing and painful, yet Ms. Howe always ended a session by pointing to what we had achieved and the progress our son have made. It helped us all realize that a better future could be ahead. After a few months she handed the reigns to our son, and he ran the family therapy sessions.  He had to present his own written plan for recovery, and later his plan on how to keep his progress, and avoid relapse. It was HIS plan, not a set of instructions from someone else. This was so different from his past therapy and far, far more effective.

Our son did occasionally fall back into his old set of behaviors while in therapy with Ms. Howe.  Neither Ms. Howe nor anyone else can offer a miracle, one-shot cure – it took more than a year for our son and us to undo a decade of failure and compounding problems. Every crisis, however, was a learning experience.  One step at a time he slowly became accountable for his own behavior and we learned the appropriate ways to respond when old bad habits started to creep back in.

For example, at the end of the first week of college our son called us.  It was as if he never made any progress and he was sliding back into being a helpless victim. We then used the tools we learned from Ms. Howe, and we refused to validate his failure.  He angrily hung up the phone. An hour later he called us again calm and collected, and thanked us for keeping him accountable. We could not have wished for a better outcome.  He is still doing well and has surmounted another one of life’s major hurdles!  We are forever grateful for Ms. Howe’s devotion and guidance.  Due to her there is one young man with a real future ahead of him rather a self-proclaimed failure.

—  clinical PAtient