History of Therapeutic Family Life
Therapeutic Family Life has been in existence in Texas since July of 1993, providing service to the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services Child Protective Services Division, as well as County Juvenile Probation Departments. We currently serve children in therapeutic special needs homes throughout Texas. Our offices support families in Arlington, Austin, Houston, Nederland, and San Antonio. In addition, we provide a recreational and training campus near Austin.

How We Work
We work closely with all state and local agencies and individuals involved in the custody and care of our children. On-going communication is encouraged between our caregivers, staff, teachers, court-appointed special advocates, attorneys ad-litem, guardians, CPS, and JP officers and other interested parties for the betterment of the child. Above all, the child is included in all aspects of treatment planning and each phase of care and rehabilitation.

About Our Staff
Leon J. Smith, L.P.C. and Executive Director, has an M.S. degree in Psychology from McNeese State University in Lake Charles, LA and is a licensed Professional Counselor. His experience includes thirty years of Community Mental Health Services. Leon heads a team who has the education, training and the experience needed to work with hurting children and their families.

Our staff includes professionals and carefully selected caregivers. Through a detailed home study, and stringent criminal and background check, we employ or contract a skilled team who is involved in the assessment, planning and treatment of each child.

We emphasize love, nurturing, self- discipline, responsibility, accountability, physical and spiritual development, community integration, partnership with schools, as well as a successful network of service providers.

SPECIALIZED INTAKE
Therapeutic Family Life provides a straightforward and easy intake process by specializing each placement. We uniquely match a child with a family based on the individual needs of each child. Each of our homes has distinctive characteristics and talents to support children in their emotional, physical, and spiritual development.

Referral Sources
The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services refer children from 9 separate regions to our homes throughout the state. Other state and private programs direct referrals for our specialized homes that are specifically designed to meet the behavioral needs of their population.

Intake Process
Referring agencies can share information with our professionally trained staff that screen the application and match the requirements with the behavioral specialties of our diverse range of therapeutic homes. Such information as age, location and any explicit behaviors combined with the educational, psychological and medical needs of every child is evaluated to ensure proper placement.

Therapeutic Family Life’s philosophy involves minimizing the number of moves a child must make as a successful, long term home is identified. We offer intra-agency subsequent placements if a behavioral phase of child exceeds the capacity of the Caregiver.