Madeline Hawkins, LISW-CP
Founder and Executive Director

Bloom Therapy Center has been a dream of mine for as long as I can remember. As a child, therapy helped me cope with mental illness within my immediately family. Since then, I’ve been driven to provide the same support, kindness and guidance I received to other children in need. I pursued a Bachelor’s degree in psychology at Clemson University and went on to earn a Master’s degree in social work from the University of South Carolina. 

 

After graduate school, I worked as a school-based therapist. In my time there, I realized that no matter how hard I worked to help students, it was nearly impossible to effect real change without significant family involvement. 

 

Consequently, I began to pursue training in the family therapy modality, Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT). PCIT is a highly effective, evidence-based, parent-training model in which parents wear an earpiece and are coached on positive parenting techniques by a therapist in an adjacent observation room. I started using PCIT with my students and their families and was amazed by how quickly and profoundly their relationship and interaction improved, transforming children’s behavior and functioning. 

 

After recognizing the immense value of and great need for PCIT in the Upstate area, I decided to take a leap of faith and opened Bloom in 2018. I am so excited to serve children and families at Bloom through PCIT and the other wonderful evidence-based services we offer!