Corina Maher is a big believer that selecting a therapist is like finding that perfect pair of jeans. It has to be the right fit.
And it needs to be a human.
“We are oversaturated by AI bots, chat resources and other online platforms that promise access to a therapist, where many are not specialists,” said Maher, LIMHP, CPC, LMHC, RPT, founder and therapist at Unity Youth & Family Services. “Our tagline is we are ‘real people with real solutions’ and not only are we not chatbots, we are a collection of therapists who have had a lot of unfortunate lived experiences. We haven’t just sat in a chair and read a book and now expect you to sit on the couch while we ask, ‘How does that make you feel?’ The experiences we walk through with them are real, and we are real while we do it.”
The clinic, which opened a few months into the pandemic in 2020, provides therapy for children, teens and adults and specializes in trauma, neurodiversity, LGBTQ+ care, EMDR (eye movement desensitization and reprocessing), IFS and play therapy.
Corina Maher, LIMHP, CPC, LMHC, RPT, founder and therapist at Unity Youth & Family Services.
Unity YFS also offers toxic relationship and burnout counseling, wellness management and recovery, as well as an intervention program designed to strengthen early relationship attachments between parents and their children. New to the clinic is a certified music therapist who combines talk therapy and music therapy for kids with autism, OCD and ADHD; the biofeedback from the sound waves helps to regulate impulses.
“It doesn’t cure conditions like autism or ADHD,” Maher said. “Rather, it’s like brain training because it uses the sensory system to help train the brain.”
Maher’s clinic is as real as it gets.
Comfy couches are arranged living room style for adults and teens, large play spaces are stacked with therapeutic toys and games to help kids express themselves and their emotions more naturally, and the 12 therapists, including a Certified Geek Therapist — yes, there is such a thing (and he’s fun) — are “straight shooters who use sass, sarcasm, laughter and play to work through their clients’ problems, relieve their burnout or whatever support they need.”
“Again, we are real people who have our own scars and bruises,” said Maher, who recalls her countless moves, times of more month than money, family separations, divorces and less-than-favorable health issues. Her path to becoming a certified mental health and trauma counselor began after receiving some conflicting parenting advice while raising her son, who had undiagnosed ADHD and autism.
Maher said people often come into the clinic to talk about the advice they received from AI or social media and how it isn’t helping. In some cases, it even made things worse.
“We tell them AI is not human and it clearly didn’t work for them. I mean, it will affirm your depression, for example, but it will not help you get out of it,” Maher said. “So we say, ‘Let’s focus on why you are here, now that you are here.’ Look, AI is good for helping you navigate the distance between point A and B. It’s just not good at being a human being. Anytime you are dealing with someone’s emotions, you cannot be robotic. You just can’t fake that human element. AI doesn’t have that ability.”
Individuals looking for support with a real human therapist can schedule a free 20-minute consultation to ask questions and identify a therapist that would pair well with them. For more information on Unity Youth & Family Services, please visit unityyfs.com.
