Wise & Well: Mother daughter duo bring social-emotional support for children and families to Manchester
Katie McClure (left) and Pam McClure (right) have just opened up Wise & Well on Main Street in Manchester, providing mental and behavioral health help for children and families. Photo courtesy of Katie McClure.
by Sara Swanson
Manchester has a new option for social-emotional help for children, teens, and families right here in downtown Manchester, and it’s being provided by faces you may recognize. Mother-daughter duo and Manchester residents Katie and Pamela McClure have opened Wise & Well on Main Street.
Katie is a Licensed Master of Social Work (LMSW) who also obtained a master’s in applied positive psychology (MAPP). Katie has always been interested in supporting the spectrum of well-being, from clinical to preventative needs.
Pam is a pediatric speech-language pathologist specializing in autism. She has 30+ years of experience supporting students and families (birth–26 years) with autism and social communication difficulties. She prioritizes prevention and well-being by providing families with the support and tools they need to be resilient along their journey.
Pam has lived in Manchester with her family since 1988, where her daughter, Katie, grew up and graduated from high school. Katie returned to the Manchester community years later to serve as a grant-funded school social worker and is the current varsity softball coach. Although Katie worked as a social worker and Pam as a speech-language pathologist and autism consultant, they realized the children and families they worked with shared many of the same needs. They also noted that while gaps in social-emotional services and care for families exist everywhere, because of its small size and rural location, Manchester was especially impacted.
“Our goal in starting Wise & Well downtown was to make social-emotional resources easily accessible and help our community reach its highest potential,” Katie stated. “We have always loved our little community and want to see it thrive.”
Wise & Well, located 146 E Main St, is accepting new clients and works with children, teens, and parents. They provide three levels of support, individual therapy, group therapy, and preventative services. Individual therapy is one-on-one mental health therapy for children and teens who qualify with a mental health diagnosis, as well as one-on-one coaching support for parents of children with autism. Group therapy consists of small groups for children, teens, and parents where they can learn coping skills while in a supportive community. Katie explained that not all children are interested in traditional therapy and have different levels of needs so they offer a range of groups that are fun, hands-on opportunities to learn social-emotional skills, while focusing on group connection and creativity. Preventative services are aimed at the larger community and include well-being book clubs and classes.
When asked who should seek out their services, Katie stated, “We support families with complex therapeutic needs and families that are just starting to become concerned about their child’s social-emotional well-being. On the clinical side, we serve children and teens with strong emotions and emotional dysregulation, anxiety, depression, and other relevant stressors. We also provide support for parents of children with complex emotional dysregulation or autism. From the preventative side, we support children and teens who are just starting to show signs of worry, stress, low mood, anger, or low confidence. In addition, we hope to expand to provide more well-being opportunities to the broader Manchester community.”
Katie and Pam emphasized that they utilize evidence-based strategies. These include Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) and Hanen Programs®.
Katie stated, “A core component of our mental health therapies is based on DBT,” and explained that DBT helps clients build insight into their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, while providing education on how emotions operate and the skills they need to navigate them. She stated, “DBT teaches the skills of mindfulness, distress tolerance (tools for handling stressful moments), emotion regulation (tools for understanding and modifying our emotional responses), and interpersonal effectiveness (tools for strengthening our people skills). DBT provides us with a toolbox of strategies and common language that can be applied to a variety of situations, needs, and therapeutic environments.” She added that all of the tiers of support at Wise & Well are designed to help you grow your “coping toolbox” so you have skills you need long after your services are complete.
The Hanen Programs® are designed to support parents of young children with autism and have been shown to improve the communication skills of children with autism. Katie stated, “Raising a neurodivergent or high-needs child is uniquely rewarding—and, at times, incredibly challenging. We know from research that parents are more resilient when they have a system of support, therefore, this is an integral component of all of our parenting groups.”
Throughout all of their services, there is a focus on prevention and well-being. Katie explained, “Traditional therapy historically has focused on resolving symptoms and decreasing suffering. While this is extremely important work … reducing suffering is not the same as creating well-being. Positive psychology, or the science of well-being, studies what human qualities and conditions lead us to feel better, be more resilient, and thrive. Mental health IS health, and it deserves daily attention. Just as we need to eat well and move our bodies to stay physically strong, there are also simple, everyday ways to support our mental health.”
Katie acknowledges that finding support for mental health is a challenging process and figuring out what services your insurance covers and which professionals are equipped to address your unique needs is not a user-friendly process. She states, “We aim to be a first step for Manchester families seeking mental health support for their children. We want to normalize mental health and well-being, so that families don’t wait until challenges escalate before seeking help. If parents have a concern, let’s get started with a group or individual session and prevent the problem from getting bigger.”
Their services range in price from $15 to $40 per session for preventive services sessions to $125 to $200 for individual therapy sessions. See their website for specifics. At this time they do not accept insurance but do offer superbill receipts that can be submitted to insurance for some refund, a sliding scale (an agreement for a decreased rate due to financial need), and scholarships for groups. Katie stated, “Our group rates are also more affordable and a good way to get support when you have initial concerns. We strive to make our services accessible, so if you have questions, please reach out.”
Learn more about Wise & Well at https://www.wiseandwellprevention.com/. They are also on social media and you can follow them on Instagram (@Wiseandwellprevention) and Facebook (Wise & Well) for weekly well-being reminders and updates about future programming.
Interior of Wise & Well. Photo courtesy of Katie McClure.
Wise and Well is located at 146 E Main St. Photo credit: Sara Swanson.
You must be logged in to post a comment Login