Christian Center of Family Counseling (CECAF), Dominican Republic

Asociación Centro Cristiano de Asesoramiento Familiar (CECAF), República Dominicana

The Christian Center of Family Counseling (CECAF) is in the capital of the Dominican Republic, Santo Domingo.  CECAF focuses on providing counseling for both single mothers and for families who are facing economic struggles.  CECAF was founded by a group of professionals in 1990 set in motion an integrated therapeutic program directed at families and their unique needs.

Currently, CECAF concentrates on two areas:

Therapeutic services

This program area focuses on the totality of relationships between the individual, the couple, and the family, along with the generalities that shape and influence these relationships. Specifically, this program works in the following areas:

• Marital Issues (interactions that have consequences for the whole family)
• Children and Adolescents (emotional issues and education)
• Trauma (emotional injuries and the deficit of love that produce depression, addictions, and personality disorders) 
• Psychological Evaluations (offer a wide variety of psychological services)
• Financial Advising (family and personal finances, plans for payment of debts, and adequate financial controls)

Under these programmatic areas, CECAF carries out various social projects to reach out to people with scarce economic resources. All programs fall into two major categories:

• Project Support – Offering therapeutic programs to pastoral families of scarce economic resources. 
• Grassroots Centers: Therapeutic centers are housed in churches located in heavily populated neighborhoods throughout the country. These centers offer their services at the lowest cost possible.

Human Relations Institute

This is the more “didactic arm” of the CECAF and offers the following programs:

• Family Counseling – Focused on improving communication skills when addressing life cycles, sexuality, and family dysfunctions. 
• Family Ministry: Directed toward pastors to help them serve their congregations. 
• Business Advising – Focused on assisting businesses in developing their human resources practices. 
• Workshops, Conferences, and Courses – Focused on pressing situations or issues likely found in the lives of the people CECAF serves, these programs help people build skills to survive these challenging situations.

Social projects in this program area fall into the following two categories:

• Project Support – Training workshops offered directly to pastoral families participating in therapeutic programs offered by CECAF. 
• Programs of Training for Community Facilitators – Training Workshops offered to community facilitators to assist families in their own communities.

One of the central drives for CECAF is its effort to know the Dominican reality in all its religious, cultural, social, and historical dimensions to offer a life transformation that is contextual, integrated, and sustainable.

Read an update about CECAF