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, a therapist 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 for Greenville’s community mental health center as a school-based therapist. In my time as a school-based therapist, I recognized that no matter how hard I worked to help students, it was very difficult to effect real change without significant family involvement. 

 

Consequently, I began pursuing 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 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 Behavioral Therapy in 2018. I am so excited to help children and families Bloom through PCIT and the other services we offer!