We offer brief and long term therapies
including:
Cognitive Behavioral (CBT) and Behavioral Therapies for Adults
Insight-Oriented Psychotherapies
Group Therapy
Couples Therapy for straight, lesbian, and gay couples
Children, adolescents, and families
CBT Solutions for Anxiety Specialty Clinic for adults with anxiety disorders
Evidence Based
Treatment.
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Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy and
Behavioral Therapy
Cognitive-behavioral therapies (CBT) and behavioral therapies (BT) are
widely used evidence-based therapies (could click on this site) for
children, adolescents, and adults with a range of problems. These therapies
are usually brief (anywhere from 10-20 sessions usually and sometimes
shorter) and involve the therapist and client working together as a team
practicing new skills in and outside of the session. Homework outside of the
session is important to helping clients try out new ways of thinking and
behaving outside of therapy.
What do you get out of cognitive-behavioral therapy?
Learn how thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are all linked together. |
| - Example: If you are at a party thinking
“nobody here likes me”, you are more likely to feel sad, disappointed, and
hopeless and are more likely to not try to talk with others. You may leave
early, be less likely to go to other parties in the future, and end up
feeling even more isolated and sad. |
Learn how to look at an upsetting
situation more realistically and develop new ways of thinking
and behaving
that are more helpful and lead to greater success.
Do behavioral experiments that challenge unhelpful predictions and help
you try out some new
skills. |
| - Example: At a party, you might talk to 3
people even if you feel nervous or convinced that they won’t like you. Then
you would assess whether people were as critical as you thought they would
be and whether you ended up having more fun that you originally predicted.
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Develop a new sense of self in which your
beliefs about yourself, others, and the future are
more hopeful while at the
same time realistic.
What can you expect in behavioral therapy?
Look at how certain situations can trigger problematic behaviors and how
consequences can
contribute to the behavior continuing. |
- Example: A child learns that if he has a
temper tantrum in the grocery store, his father will almost always buy him
candy and give him a lot of attention (even if it is yelling at him).
- The therapist will work with the child to learn new ways of “earning” a
candy bar and father’s attention through more age-appropriate behavior like
doing chores and earning money or by asking his father in a polite manner.
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Develop new strategies and behaviors that
are healthier and lead to better outcomes
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Insight-Oriented Therapies
Other psychotherapies like Gestalt therapy, interpersonal therapy,
existential therapy and psychodynamic therapy also have demonstrated
effectiveness particularly for clients dealing with depression, relationship
problems, and other areas of difficulty. These therapies tend to be more
long term than CBT and BT.
What can you expect from insight-oriented therapies?
Learn how past relationships (especially childhood) may influence how you
feel about yourself
and how you relate to others in your life
Become more aware of your current ways of relating to important people in
your life and how
to be clearer about what you do and don’t want in
relationships.
Develop new ways of making meaning of your life that are more helpful and
promoting of self-
growth |
- Example: Sometimes clients feel like so many
bad things have happened to them that they believe they are “damaged” or
“victims” and give up hope of having positive relationships in the future.
Clients may be able to see that they are “survivors” with much to offer in
future relationships due to their understanding.
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Psychotherapy and Interpersonal Skills
Groups
We offer a range of psychotherapy groups at the Psychological Service
Center. Being in a group with others with similar concerns can help you
recognize you are not alone. Group members with the assistance of an
experienced therapist as the group facilitator help each other try out new
strategies to overcome concerns in a safe, supportive, and confidential
setting.
What will you learn in the interpersonal skills groups?
More effective interpersonal skills and abilities
How to recognize your feelings and how to express those feelings so that
you can be more
connected with others in your life
How to overcome blocks to intimacy and have more meaningful and fulfilling
relationships
How to develop and practice good communication skills
We currently offer 3 groups in this area
(call our central number for the
latest information on groups):
Interpersonal Process Group for men and women |
- Wednesday evenings, 6:30pm – 8:00pm
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| Men’s Interpersonal Skills Group (safe
space for men’s issues) |
- Tuesday evenings, 5:30pm – 7:00pm
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| Women’s Empowerment Group |
| - Thursday evenings 5:30pm – 7:00pm |
conflict resolution skills
self-esteem and body image
communication skills
healthy self-care activities
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| Smart Recovery Program: |
| Self-Management and Recovery Training for
Addictions |
| Self-management and recovery training for
addictive behaviors is a scientific alternative to 12-step programs. This
four point program is based on: |
motivation enhancement
coping with urges
problem solving and cognitive therapy to identify and challenge unhelpful
thoughts and
recognize activating events and consequences that may maintain
addictive behaviors
lifestyle balance
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Adults are invited to drop in to any SMART
Recovery groups; the fee is “pass the hat” donation at the end of the
meeting.
Call the PSC for current times and locations of SMART Recovery Groups.
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Couples’ Therapy for Straight, Lesbian, and
Gay Couples
Our clinicians use interventions shown to be effective in treating
relationship problems such as improving: |
- communication skills
- problem-solving
- ways to repair conflicts
- ways to accept differences
- ways to improve your emotional connection
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| Therapy Services for Children,
Adolescents, and Families |
The clinicians are trained and supervised
by a licensed psychologist with expertise in working with youth and
families. Specifically, we offer cognitive-behavioral and behavioral
therapies that involve teaching the child (and parents) how to challenge
negative, pessimistic or anxious thoughts, develop better coping skills,
learn new ways of problem-solving, and improve communication and conflict
resolution among family members.
Because we believe that therapy is just 1 hour of the week and is not enough
to bring about substantial change, children and parents attend the therapy
sessions together and work as a team outside of the session practicing the
new skills and doing therapy “homework.” Therapists provide parents with
guidance and training in the ways to coach their child to use the new
strategies at home and school. Therapists can also consult with the child’s
teachers to help support the child using new skills learned in therapy in
the school environment.
Adolescents may choose to have more individual therapy sessions with our
clinicians; parents are involved in treatment in terms of providing consent
to treatment, developing an appropriate treatment plan, and participating in
regular update/feedback sessions as needed.
Sometimes a family will be seen regularly for family therapy to work on
family-wide problems like communication and conflict resolution.
Common Problems that Children and Adolescents Come in With:
anxiety
depression
behavior problems
academic difficulties
problems with peers/making friends
parent-child relationship problems
Attention Deficit Disorder or ADHD
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Treatments: Both CBT and BT are relatively
brief therapies (usually 10-20 sessions) that involve homework outside of
session, practicing the skills in session with guidance from the therapist,
and focusing on how to increase children’s positive behaviors and decrease
their negative behaviors.
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1. Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) has
been shown to be effective with children and
adolescents with a wide range
of problems including anxiety, depression, and serious behavior
problems
(e.g., Compton et al., 2002; Grave & Blissett, 2004).
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| a. Description |
i. In CBT, children learn how to be “thought detectives” or scientists
about their thinking. Children learn the role that thoughts play in
influencing their mood and behavior and then learn ways to challenge those
thoughts to be more helpful.
ii. For example, a child learns to pay attention to her thoughts and how
those thoughts may contribute to her being really anxious and prone to
withdrawing from her peers. If she thinks “no one will want to play with
me” she is more likely to be anxious and hopeless and to not invite
friends to play. If she thought “I can be fun to play with” she is more
likely to feel hopeful about making a friend and to reach out to others.
iii. The behavioral part of CBT involves working with the parents and
children to change their behavior so that the child is rewarded for good
behavior and is taught new ways of behaving. For example, an anxious child
might learn to approach the task he is afraid of and learn that the task
is not dangerous and that he can handle a new challenge rather than
running to his mother and asking her to reassure him and do the task for
him.
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2. Behavioral therapies have been used
extensively and very successfully with children and
adolescents with serious
behavior problems (e.g., Kazdin, Bass, Ayers, and Rodgers, 1990). |
a. Description: Parents benefit greatly from
learning how to more effectively “manage” their
children’s behavior through
positive parenting strategies such as spending positive
one-on-one time with
their child, using effective commands and consistent consequences,
and
implementing reward systems (e.g., token systems) to target particularly
problematic
behaviors.
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References:
Compton, S.N., Burns, B.J., Egger, H.L., & Roberston, E. (2002). Review of
the evidence base of treatment of childhood psychopathology: Internalizing
disorders. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 70, 729-740.
Grave, J. & Blissett, J. (2004). Is cognitive behavior therapy
developmentally appropriate for young children? A critical review of the
evidence. Clinical Psychology Review, 24, 399-420.
Kazdin, A.E., Bass, D., Ayers, W.A., & Rodgers, A. (1990). Empirical and
clinical focus of child and adolescent psychotherapy research. Journal of
Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 58, 729-740. |
