Alchemy

Alchemy is the trauma focused dialectical behavioral therapy intervention that focuses on gender specific issues. This intervention focuses on the four pillars of dialectical behavioral therapy with an emphasis on complex compound trauma. The majority of men involved in this group are either being prepared for EMDR or trauma focused therapy or are currently in some kind of trauma focused intervention to deal with unresolved past trauma. Symptoms tend to be on-going substance use and criminal behavior.

Anger Management

Helps clinicians teach anger management techniques in a group setting to clients with substance abuse problems or mental illness. Uses cognitive behavioral therapy to address the anger cycle, conflict resolution, assertiveness skills, and anger-control plans.

Cognitive Functional Analysis

Cognitive Functional Analysis is group is a CBT based group that does an in-depth analysis of maladaptive behaviors that are consistently repeated by clients. This group focuses on behaviors that tend to lead to criminal charges, relapse, and recidivism. Clients in this group analyze their thoughts, their emotions, their social environments, and how these influence on-going unhealth behaviors.

The purpose of the group is to analyze the 5 domains of self; mental, emotional, physical, relational, and spiritual, and how these behaviors, adaptive and maladaptive, have reinforced their identify or their sense of being, and how disengaging from unhealthy behaviors tends to be a loss of self.

The goal of this group is to prevent relapse, and redefine the self while maintain sobriety, and to eradicate criminal behaviors.

DUI Level II Education and Therapy

Level II Education and Therapy offered to those that have been charged with DUI/DWAI and are in need of treatment services to reinstate their driver’s license and meet court requirements for probation. Our agency uses The Change Companies curriculum to meet the client’s needs and fulfill the requirements of probation and DMV. We offer Track A, B, C, and D with Interlock Enhancement Therapy for those that qualify.

Level II 4+

Level II 4+ is a program for individuals who have been charged with 4+ DUI’s, in addition to having been charged with a felony (felony DUI.) These clients do not qualify to re- take the standard interventions for Level II Education and Level II Therapy.

This group is an Assessment based intervention that addresses issues that led to their recidivism. Clients have to successfully complete 4 phases/competencies, in addition to required bi-monthly Assessments, as well as their need to be fully engaged in various treatment interventions.

The goal of this group is to address court issues that led to on-going criminal behaviors.

Dialectical Behavioral Therapy

Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) is a therapy designed to help people change patterns of behavior that are not helpful, such as self-harm, suicidal ideation, and substance abuse. This approach works towards helping people increase their emotional and cognitive regulation by learning about the triggers that lead to reactive states and helping to assess which coping skills to apply in the sequence of events, thoughts, feelings, and behaviors to help avoid undesired reactions. DBT assumes that people are doing the best they can but are either lacking the skills or influenced by positive or negative reinforcement that interfere with their ability to function appropriately.

EMDR

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a psychotherapy developed by Francine Shapiro that emphasizes disturbing memories as the cause of Psychopathology. It is used to help with the symptoms of PTSD. According to Shapiro, when a traumatic or distressing experience occurs, it may overwhelm normal coping mechanisms. The memory and associated stimuli are inadequately processed and stored in an isolated memory network.

EMDR therapy is better than no treatment and similar in efficacy to Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) in chronic PTSD.

The goal of EMDR is to reduce the long-lasting effects of distressing memories by engaging the brain’s natural adaptive information processing mechanisms, thereby relieving present symptoms. The therapy uses an eight-phase approach that includes having the patient recall distressing images while receiving one of several types of bilateral sensory input, such as side to side eye movements. EMDR was originally developed to treat adults with PTSD; however, it is also used to treat other conditions and children.

Moral Reconation Therapy

MRT addresses beliefs and reasoning. It is a systematic, step-by-step group counseling treatment approach for treatment-resistant clients. The program is designed to alter how clients think and make judgments about what is right and wrong. The MRT system approaches the problem of treating resistant populations as a problem of low levels of moral reasoning. In this case, “moral” does not refer to a religious concept, but rather the theoretical conceptualization of psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg. Moral reasoning represents how a person makes decisions about what he or she should or should not do in a given situation. MRT is a cognitive-behavioral counseling program that combines education, group and individual counseling, and structured exercises designed to foster moral development in treatment-resistant clients. As long as clients’ judgments about right and wrong are made from low levels of moral reasoning, counseling them, training them in job skills, and even punishing them will have little long-lasting impact on their behavior. They must be confronted with the consequences of their behavior and the effect that it has had on their family, friends and community. Poor moral reasoning is common within at-risk populations.
the treatment of over 6,000 cocaine and 2,500 methamphetamine

Relapse Prevention – Matrix Model

RP is a proven effective, evidence-based protocol. RP is a ready-made intensive outpatient program (IOP) that any treatment center can implement. The Matrix Model is a comprehensive, multi-format program that covers six key clinical areas;

1) Individual/conjoint therapy
2) Early recovery
3) Relapse prevention
4) Family education
5) Social support
6) Urine testing

RP is an integrated therapeutic model incorporating;
-Cognitive behavioral
-Motivational enhancement
-Couples and family therapy
-Individual supportive/expressive psychotherapy and psychoeducation
-Twelve Step facilitation
-Group therapy and social support
Individual/conjoint therapy

Seeking Safety

Seeking Safety is an evidence-based, present-focused counseling model to help clients attain safety from trauma and/or substance abuse. It is an extremely safe model as it directly addresses both trauma and addiction, but without requiring clients to delve into the trauma narrative (the detailed account of disturbing trauma memories), thus making it relevant to a very broad range of clients and easy to implement.

Seeking Safety was begun in 1992 under grant funding from the National Institute on Drug Abuse. It was developed by Lisa M. Najavits, PhD at Harvard Medical School and McLean Hospital. It has been used in many countries and has been translated into numerous languages.

The key principles of Seeking Safety;

1) Safety as the overarching goal (helping clients attain safety in their relationships, thinking, behavior, and emotions).
2) Integrated treatment (working on both trauma and substance abuse at the same time)
3) A focus on ideals to counteract the loss of ideals in both trauma and substance abuse
4) Four content areas: cognitive, behavioral, interpersonal, case management
5) Attention to clinician processes (clinicians’ emotional responses, self-care, etc.)