Our Mission
Artvango Therapeutic Services, Inc., is a 501(c) 3 non-profit committed to uplifting and healing children affected by the cycle of abuse, poverty and trauma through the use of expressive therapies and caregiver involvement.
Our Vision
Artvango works to increase the accessibility of expressive therapy to strengthen personal awareness, to nurture healing, and to help clients feel safe, heard, and cared for while facing life’s challenges.
Who We Serve
Our focus is serving children in foster care, those adopted, and children who have experienced hardship in their young lives.
Funding
Artvango is funded through insurance reimbursement, private pay clients, grants and fundraising.
What Makes Artvango Unique?
Our counseling services are unique because of our use of expressive therapies. Children communicate through art, play and movement, and we at Artvango tailor counseling sessions to meet clients where they are and support them along their healing journey. Our child-friendly therapy center is equipped with sand tray materials, swings, sensory tools, art supplies galore, musical instruments, dress up and pretend play materials, doctor’s kits, and more. Clinicians are goal orientated and treatment plans designed to build and practice skills that promote success. Parents/guardians are incorporated in treatment plans and are provided support and guidance on addressing attachment and behaviors. Our clinicians rely on parents to share successes and challenges from the week, and practice skills worked on in session at home.
Parenting children that have experienced trauma, and addressing associated behaviors, is different. Artvango clinicians are trained in trauma-informed practices. We incorporate knowledge of the brain, attachment, and stress on behaviors, educating clients and parents/guardians on the Fight/Flight/Freeze response, and ways of helping with co-regulation. It is a goal of ours to be able to send part of our leadership team to become certified trainers for a popular, researched based intervention called TBRI (Trust Based Relational Intervention). This would allow us to cost-effectively train all staff at Artvango.
Artvango is also unique in our knowledge and experience with the intricacies of the foster care system and challenges of parenting after adoption.
Lastly, we accept Medicaid, the premier insurance for clients in the foster care system and of those who have been adopted.
In 2023, 6,736 children in Bexar County were confirmed victims of abuse/neglect and placed into the foster care system. Upon entry into foster care:
50 % have chronic physical problems
10% medically fragile or complex
80% enter with significant mental health needs
60% of children under the age of 5 have a developmental disability
Please join Artvango’s efforts in being a positive change in a child’s life!
