Summit Emotional Health provides therapy to individuals of all ages, including couples and families. Each clinician on our Team brings a diverse set of experiences and training to their practice. Becoming more familiar with our treatment methods below may help you become more comfortable with the approach you and your therapist choose. If you are interested in setting up a new client appointment, please complete the online form or call us at 804-562-6557. Helpful information about therapy and other services can be found on our Frequently Asked Questions page.
Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
Focuses on identifying the connections between thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. CBT is an evidence-based approached – proven by many years of research – to effectively treat a wide variety of concerns, including: anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress and many stressful life events. Whereas some therapeutic approaches examine family systems and events from the past to understand behavior, CBT is fairly present and solution focused. CBT offers a framework to understand your “symptoms” and a range of coping strategies to better manage them. Coping strategies often including cognitive reframing, relaxation, and exposure techniques among others. CBT often involves practicing these strategies outside of session to gain mastery with the goal of clients being able to sustain change over time.
More here: https://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/cognitive-behavioral-therapy/about/pac-20384610
Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF – CBT)
Trauma Focused-Cognitive Behavior Therapy (TF-CBT) is an evidenced-based therapy model that has been proven to effectively decrease negative emotions (depression, anxiety, etc.), thinking, and behaviors related to traumatic life experiences. This approach is tailored to children and adolescents who have experienced a traumatic life event and their caregivers – to assist caregivers in learning the strategies and techniques and help their child practice and implement these at home and in the community. This structured therapeutic approach assists youth in developing strategies to manage emotional and behavioral symptoms in the moment, create their own narrative surrounding the traumatic event, and works to challenge irrational thoughts that the child has about self and the trauma.
Interpersonal Process Therapy
This approach focuses on addressing problems with your current relationships to improve your interpersonal skills and insights. It improves how you relate to others, such as: your partner, family, friends and colleagues. In addition, a trusting and structured working relationship between you and your therapist is one of the strongest predictors of personal improvement. Achieving both of these points leads to consistent and effective treatment goals and outcomes.
More here: https://www.goodtherapy.org/learn-about-therapy/types/interpersonal-psychotherapy
Motivational Interviewing
Motivational Interviewing (MI) is therapeutic approach that taps into internal motivation and strengthens commitment to behavior change goals. Feelings of ambivalence – or having strong reasons both for and against change – often precede one’s decision to make behavior changes, such as improving diet, increasing physical activity, or increasing efforts towards school work. Therapists guide clients to explore and resolve ambivalence about behavior change by evaluating their own perceived pros and cons of change in relation to their current lifestyle. This evidence-based approach is used with children, adolescents, adults, and parents to target a variety of behavior changes. MI is often used when first engaging in treatment or in conjunction with other types of therapies such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy or Family Therapy.
We keep talking about “evidence-based therapies.” Find out more about what this means here: http://www.abct.org/Help/?m=mFindHelp&fa=WhatIsEBPpublic
Behavioral Parent Training
Behavioral Parent Training (BPT) is an evidence-based treatment for children and adolescents with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (AD/HD), Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD), and disruptive behaviors in general. This approach involves working with caregivers and teachers to provide more structure, consistency, and support. BPT teaches skills designed to increase a child’s positive behaviors and decrease a child’s disruptive behaviors. The skills include attending (e.g., one-on-one time), behavior specific praise, active ignoring, as well as giving effective instructions and time outs. These strategies are designed to help improve a child/adolescent’s ability to comply with instructions, remain on-task, accept consequences without defiance, and complete homework. They can also help decrease anger outbursts and task avoidance.
Parent-Child Interaction Therapy
Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) is an evidence-based approach for children ages two to seven who have behavioral difficulties or developmental delays. This approach is also effective for children who have experienced a trauma. PCIT combines play therapy and behavioral therapy. Caregivers learn positive parenting skills and then practice those skills within each therapy session. Parents play with children in one room while the therapist observes and coaches from another room (either via a one-way mirror or video streaming). Parents learn skills such as reflecting the child’s language and imitating the child’s desirable behaviors. They also learn how to effectively provide commands and set appropriate boundaries.
