Offering Effective Treatment Modalities, Essential Coping Skills, and Supportive Therapy to Improve the Quality of Your Life

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

CBT is a general term for therapies that emphasize the significant role of thinking in affecting how we feel and what we do. It is based on the idea that it is our thoughts, and not external factors, that cause our feelings and behaviors. The concept is that we can change the way we think in order to feel, act, or react better to external factors in our lives.

One of the most important characteristics of CBT is the speed with which results are demonstrated. Research has shown that the average number of sessions required for effective CBT is about 16, while other forms of therapy might take years. CBT is a relatively short-term approach. The decision to end therapy is made by the therapist and client together. The objective of CBT is to teach the client how to understand the critical external factors affecting her or him. These are called self-counseling skills, and their effect is to positively change the ways the client acts or reacts to those external factors.

Additionally, the therapist and client work together to define meaningful, realistic goals for the client and to determine ways of achieving them. CBT is formulated on learning to identify negative emotional and behavioral reactions and on developing ways to encounter them. The valuable quality of CBT therapy is that learning leads to long-term positive, effective results.

Crisis Intervention Therapy

Crisis Intervention Therapy focuses on circumstances in which an individual is confronted by events he or she does not have adequate psychological resources to cope with, such as sudden death, life-threatening situations, natural disasters, job loss, retirement, criminal or sexual victimization, terminal illness, trauma, post traumatic stress, or divorce. These are sudden, unexpected developments in the individual’s immediate environment - events in which usual problem-solving mechanisms and coping skills are ineffective.

The objective of Crisis Intervention Therapy is to provide immediate, short-term assistance to people experiencing mental, emotional, behavioral and/or physical distress. Crisis Intervention Therapy also includes immediate intervention following the crisis and assisting the individual in effectively encountering it and determining appropriate strategies. Crisis Intervention Therapy is effective in eliminating the reversion to maladaptive coping skills - in other words, avoiding psychological breakdown. Additionally, Crisis Intervention Therapy seeks to help the patient in returning to pre-crisis levels of functioning.

Interpersonal Therapy (IPT)

Interpersonal Therapy is a short-term, supportive, highly structured psychotherapy that focuses on interactions between people and their roles in the development of adverse psychological symptoms. Originally developed to treat various forms of adult depression, IPT has since been most commonly used in the treatment of depression in adolescents, and people with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infection. Its use has been expanded to the treatment of unresolved grief, role conflicts, and interpersonal deficits.

Additionally, IPT has been positively applied in special populations, such as the elderly and clients with substance abuse and eating disorders. IPT includes attention to unconscious and childhood experiences that give rise to personal psychological problems. Client relationships and social context are seen as the basis of experiencing challenges. Rapid symptom reduction and improved social relationships are IPT objectives.

Initially, therapy is concentrated on the gathering of information and clarifying the nature of the patient’s interpersonal experiences and challenges. Later sessions are devoted to addressing the problem relationship areas and the identification of treatment modalities. The final stages of treatment are directed toward the termination of undesirable behaviors and assisting the patient to function effectively and independently.

Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT)

Dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT) is designed primarily to treat individuals with borderline personality disorder. In recent years, it has also proven to be an effective treatment for mood disorders, eating disorders, and depression. DBT combines standard cognitive behavioral techniques with the concepts of acceptance and mindful awareness characteristic of Zen practice to help regulate emotions and better tolerate emotional distress. In Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, the therapist works with the patient from a position of acceptance of the patient's feelings and behaviors while at the same time letting him or her know that these behaviors are damaging and destructive, and that there are more effective alternatives and coping skills.

The goal of Dialectical Behavioral Therapy is to reduce volatile emotions, impulsivity in behavior, inappropriate anger, and dissociative symptoms and to decrease life-threatening behavior and feelings of emptiness. It also helps individuals deal with their pattern of unstable and intense interpersonal relationships and their unstable self image or sense of self. DBT helps to increase the patient's motivation to change detrimental behaviors and improve social functioning, and it helps him or her develop the skills necessary to deal with real-world events and life issues with a much more positive attitude and approach.

DBT focuses on mindfulness skills, emotion regulation skills, interpersonal skills, and distress tolerance skills. It involves intensive individual therapy often accompanied by inpatient treatment and group therapy. Individual therapy helps to address the issues that may come up during the week and how to best deal with them, as well as weekly group therapy.