What We Do

Tools4Families provides families with what they need to navigate life together, with a specific focus on supporting a family member through recovery of depression. Our online curriculum helps people develop the skills they need to improve relationships, communicate effectively, and increase families’ collective problem-solving and coping skills. Additionally, Tools4Families creates a specific focus on the challenges caregivers often face when helping a loved one through recovery, providing the needed support for those family members.

Ten percent of the population within the United States struggles with mental illness like depression. Despite the prevalence, there are few services available to help family members learn the significant role they can play in the recovery of their loved one.

There are evidence-based family therapies for depression that have been shown to be highly effective. Our clinicians and researchers have decades of experience doing ground-breaking work to make this form of therapy accessible to families. Our online education programs provide families specific ways to help their loved one, and reduce the chances of relapse. Tools4Familes also provides caretakers with the resources to take care of themselves, a very necessary but often overlooked component of recovery.

Who We Are

Dr. Noosha Niv, founder of the Mind Matters Institute, received her doctoral degree in clinical psychology at UCLA and completed a NIDA postdoctoral fellowship at the UCLA Integrated Substance Abuse Programs. She is currently the National Education Director for the VA Mental Health Centers of Excellence, the Director of the VA VISN 22 MIRECC Education and Dissemination Unit, and an Associate Project Scientist in the UCLA Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences. She has led national efforts to disseminate and implement the latest evidence-based practices within the Department of Veterans Affairs as well as other settings in which Veterans receive care. Her training workshops have been attended by over 1000 VA clinicians nationally. Dr. Niv conducts clinical and health services research in family and couples therapy, psychosocial treatment for severe mental illness, and development of healthcare informatics. A sampling of her publications, book chapters, treatment manuals, healthcare informatics, and education products are available here.