Our Early Childhood Counseling Center specializes in the treatment of children from prenatal stages up to the age of six, with special emphasis on infants and toddlers. Grounded in the belief that all areas of a child's development are built upon early emotional foundation and attachment to a primary caregiver, we are passionate about the importance of early intervention, while a child's brain is still developing. The goal of EC3 is to provide this affordable, intervention therapy professionally and as early as possible in a child's life.

A parent (or primary caregiver) is involved in nearly every aspect of our therapy programs, most of which pivot upon laying the groundwork for and reinforcing caregiver-child bonds. Our services are provided to hundreds of children and families every year: professional assessment of early mental health concerns; counseling of infants, young children and their caregivers; play therapy, music therapy, and equine-assisted psychotherapy; and alliances with other community advocates like Early Headstart, Headstart, pre-schools, teachers and CPS workers.

EC3 is committed to providing services to all of the families in our community who need us, regardless of their ability to pay.

New Morning Youth and Family Services partners with many schools and agencies county-wide, placing licensed therapists on-site at their facilities where their services may be most accessible. Our counselors may be found at schools in the Black Oak Mine, Camino, El Dorado, Pioneer, Pollock Pines and Rescue Union School Districts, as well as the El Dorado County Juvenile Hall, the Shingle Springs Rancheria, the Indian Education Alliance, and the Divide Wellness Center where we offer PCIT for children ages 0-5.

Specially licensed New Morning therapists work directly with the parents of children who suffer from severe behavioral problems, including violence and other forms of lack of discipline, to repair their relationships and improve family interaction. This is accomplished by giving parents the tools to provide effective discipline while boosting the child's self-esteem. Parents are taught various approaches to improvement of both the child's behavior and the parent-child relationship, including the use of play, strategic praise, distraction techniques, and so on.

Once the parent has received instruction, parent and child are placed in a room with a table and toys. Parent is equipped with a small earpiece and given simple, direct coaching for implementing learned interaction techniques by a therapist, who watches from behind a one-way mirror.

Once effective use of the techniques has been mastered over the 12-20 week program, long-term implementation of techniques continues in the home environment.

New Morning therapists serve up to five low-income, non-MediCal families at any time, using immersion in their home environment to accelerate the assessment and remediation of the factors responsible for dysfunction.