In December, I headed out west to Horseshoe Bay to take some photographs of the beautiful new Phoenix Center facilities.
Phoenix Center is a non-profit whose mission is to "inspire hope, health, & healing by providing mental health care to children and their families." Their new 8,000 square foot facility is gorgeous, and some amazing kids from Burnet came down for the day to stand in as models to help show it off!
Services at the Phoenix center vary from counseling to equine therapy to Camp Phoenix in the summer. Their philosophy is to provide a "wrap-around model of care to meet the complex needs of the whole child and family," which can include many different types of therapy, like art therapy, music therapy, play therapy, and more.
Many of the services there are designed to support parents as well, because they know that healthy parent support makes an enormous difference to children processing complex issues. Those same Burnet kids brought their parents in for some of the photos. It's amazing when I get to capture genuine moments of connection like this one:
In the end, it was my job to capture the essence of Phoenix Center care, which isn't painting or horses or music rooms–it's about connection.
And really, all photography is about using images to tell stories. The story of Phoenix Center is one where challenges children experience are not swept away or ignored, but rather faced head-on, knowing that the connections the've strengthened (with family, with therapists, or even with themselves) will support them as they grow.
It was a true honor to be invited to capture this, and I look forward to seeing all the great work Phoenix Center does moving forward!
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