Treatment Methods
Family Systems Therapy
The central tenet of this approach asserts that therapeutic work will be most effective when individuals are able to explore how patterns and roles of the family have impacted worldview and behavior.
Families are social and interactive and in order to best serve the complex needs of individuals, families and children, individuals will need to be armed with their own educational tool kit to understand how family interaction and sometimes long held perceptions of parenting may be impacting the family dynamic, behavior, communication skills and coping skills of members of the family. Engaging in family systems work will blend individual work to explore goals and skills. Family members are often brought together when appropriate in order to practice interactive and communication skills armed with new tools and strategies.
Positive Psychology
Positive Psychology is an approach based in helping people to identify their strengths and use these strengths when faced with adversity. The goal of this approach is to support people toward what is often called “flourishing.”
Helping people to identify and seek out experiences of happiness, peace and joy are held front and center in this treatment model. Positive psychology allows people to evaluate core beliefs and determine if these beliefs are supporting healthy outcomes. Individuals will be provided the therapeutic space to view themselves in a spirit of curiosity and not judgement so that they may develop a deeper awareness of who they are and what they hope to achieve. Positive Psychology works to help individuals identify and dismantle long held negative core beliefs or unhealthy coping skills which may be inadvertently creating barriers toward experiencing a calm and balanced life.
Trauma Informed Cognitive Behavior Therapy
Cognitive behavior therapy is an approach which helps people to identify the relationship between their thoughts, feelings and behaviors. Often is this fast paced age we have developed habits and perceptions based on quick reactions to difficult and overwhelming situations. CBT seeks to help people to deepen understanding of how thoughts and feelings are interwoven and may be adversely affecting behaviors. Children can often benefit from this modality as a means of teaching them an emotional vocabulary. Young people often get needs met most efficiently through disruptive behaviors. Using CBT helps to offer more understanding, healthy choices and a clearer voice to help develop independence and responsibility.
Those who have been impacted by trauma have often developed intrinsic somatic (of the body) reactions as ways to cope with overwhelming situations. Using Trauma Informed Cognitive Behavior Therapy, individuals are guided toward developing understanding of trauma as well as tools which will serve to improve emotional language so that individuals can articulate how they feel and what they need to manage situations in a healthy way.
