Therapeutic Modalities

We offer individual, group, and family therapy with master-level clinicians. Our therapeutic team provides trauma-informed therapy based on cutting-edge science and research. The treatment team targets the student’s challenging symptoms using the combination of brain and body modalities. “Top-down” or brain approaches, like Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT), help students shift problematic thought patterns and learn healthy communication skills. “Bottom-up” or body approaches, like Eye-Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR) and Equine-Assisted Psychotherapy (EAP), help students work through trauma with mindfulness and body-based coping skills. The combination of both brain and body therapeutic modalities helps adolescent girls reconnect their minds and bodies to heal and make lasting change.

What do these names, acronyms and initials mean and how do they help my daughter?

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a highly researched, effective, and evidence-based therapy that targets unprocessed traumatic experiences that are dysfunctionally stored in memory networks in the brain and body. EMDR aids the body’s natural healing process and allows the brain to reprocess distressing memories to allow adaptive perspectives and resources to be accessed, while decreasing distress caused by symptoms of trauma.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) helps students become aware of how their internal dialog impacts how they feel and respond to the world, so they can learn ways to reframe that dialog and change their responses to align with their values and goals.

Brainspotting Therapy is a powerful, focused treatment method that works by identifying, processing and releasing core neurophysiological sources of emotional and somatic pain, trauma, dissociation and a variety of other challenging symptoms. Brainspotting locates points in the client’s visual field that help to access unprocessed trauma in the subcortical brain which holds traumatic memory.

Attachment Therapy is an empowering modality that identifies, processes, and helps to heal early childhood experiences that have negatively impacted client’s ability to securely relate with others. Attachment therapy addresses underlying drives (attachment system and nervous system) that impact our behaviors in relationships. This therapy guides clients to become active operators of their own nervous systems. This is an especially helpful family therapy modality, to increase healthy connection and security within the family.

Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) directly targets the emotional dysregulation that comes from unhelpful beliefs and lack of coping skills. It focuses on four specific skillsets: mindfulness, interpersonal effectiveness, distress tolerance, and emotion regulation. DBT is an evidence-based highly effective therapy that aids youth in shifting black and white thinking by increasing flexible gray-area thinking, emotional regulation techniques and healthy communication skills.

Family Systems Therapy is rooted in understanding the context of the family unit, including the roles that each member of the family plays in the family system. Each family member explores how their individual actions affect each other as well as the generational messaging that has impacted the family’s dynamic. Students and their families heal wounds of the past, address dysfunctional patterns, and collaborate on new ways to function in a way that works for everyone’s needs going forward.