Professionals at Samaritan Counseling Center of North Puget Sound are offering Fast For Word and Reading Assistant programs in after school sessions for students who need to quickly build the skills critical to language and reading, considered necessary for academic success in school. Fast For Word is a family of research-based educational software products that accelerate learning by developing the student's brain to process more efficiently.

Reading Assistant software combines advanced speech recognition technology with scientifically based interventions to help students strengthen their reading fluency, vocabulary and comprehension to become proficient, life-long readers.

The efficacy of the products has been established by more than 550 research studies and publications that include more than 30 years of brain research and cognitive research by world-renowned scientists and articles published in Science, Time and Newsweek magazines , USA Today and The Wall Street Journal .

Parents interested in learning more about the program and family of products can visit the website at ww.scientificLearning.com.

To get more information and to sign up for the program call the SCC office at 360-568-8737 or e-mail us at pcsnorth@frontier.com

The Heart of Parenting.   Parenting our children, ourselves, our parents. Based on John Gottman's work on The Heart of Parenting , and Dan Goleman's work, Emotional Intelligence . Explore the rich ideas for connecting and nurturing our children.  PRESENTER - JOHN ORTMEYER

Parenting in the Turbulent Years: Ages 11-15. Self Care and the nurture of emerging selves of youth. Based on Get Out of My Life.... Wolf.  PRESENTER - JOHN ORTMEYER

Parenting in the Later Years: Leaving Home Ages 15-25. The coming and going of youth and young adults as they find their place in the world and in our culture. PRESENTER - JOHN ORTMEYER

From Generation to Generation.....Family Process in Church.  A course designed to teach families, couples and churches how to create good communication in situations of differences, life changes in individuals, and times of church community change (i.e. the coming and going of pastors.) Based on Rabbi Friedman's work.  PRESENTER - JOHN ORTMEYER

The Confessing Church in Nazi Germany.  A course designed around books about Deitrich Bonhoeffer's life and death at the hands of the Nazi's, Bishop Chichester (sp) in England and his connections to the Confessing Church .  PRESENTER - JOHN ORTMEYER

Emotional and Spiritual Balance and Emotional Intelligence.   Based on books by Dan Goleman, Emotional Intelligence , and Stephen Gilligan, The Courage to Love .  Love is a skill to be nurtured and developed. Explores the natural places of anxiety and depression in the lives of people as God calls us to fuller living.   PRESENTER - JOHN ORTMEYER

Making Relationships Work: Skill building for interaction with a partner. Using strengths couples have for understanding how to have the courage to love and get the love they want. Based on self-relations, faith perspectives of love, and exploring various theories and how they inform couples work. This includes some ideas for responding and valuing negative emotional experiences as well.  PRESENTER - JOHN ORTMEYER  

Attachment and Loss. How we cope with losses in life is in part based on the loving connections we have been able to make. Grief may be experienced as loss of body function, interpersonal relationships, changing life perspectives, or simply life developmental changes. Understanding how to cope with these in realistic faith based ways helps us to choose life. Based on books by Bowlby. Classes may be attuned to death, divorce, Illness or growth and development in life.   PRESENTER - JOHN ORTMEYER

Talking with Mom and Dad .  How to explore issues with parents as they grow older, and ways to do self care. Self care is important for understanding and staying connected for the richness of the time left before death. Skills taught for dealing with parental losses, and continuing purpose and connection life can offer. Using Tuesdays with Morrie, by Albom, and other books.   PRESENTER - JOHN ORTMEYER

Process Theology and Self Psychology.  Exploring the ideas of theology of process and the process of understanding development of self. The importance of relationship with God, self and others.   PRESENTER - JOHN ORTMEYER

Beyond Betrayal For anyone affected by incest.

10 Steps to Building Values in Children (Class under development, not available yet.)

Competent Kid 10 ways to nurture self esteem.

Contemplative Prayer For persons interested in exploring great depth in prayer life.

Couples Communication For couples looking for ways to increase communication in relationships.

Stress for Adults For those who are feeling stressed and out of control. A workshop with ways to relax and to find alternatives for handling stressful or upsetting situations.