Psychotherapy at Bridges to Recovery
Bridges to Recovery offers many different types of individual and group clinical psychotherapy. Our goal is to assist a client towards recovery with the therapeutic modality that they respond best to.
Diagnostic Assessment
The client is assessed prior to arriving at Bridges by our Clinical Staff to identify their major issues as well as goals of treatment. Upon arrival, the client meets with a clinical staff member and is assigned one of our individual therapists. The therapist works further with the client towards identifying and clarifying core issues and establishing goals for treatment and aftercare.
Individual Psychotherapy
Each client is assigned a primary therapist who meets with him/her for individual psychotherapy sessions throughout the week. Our therapists are highly trained and adept in psychodynamic treatment modalities, as well as cognitive behavioral approaches and neuropsychological assessment. We find that in-depth analysis of core issues with an emphasis upon achieving insight is essential for healing and helping someone on their road to recovery. Our therapists are also attuned to helping the client create an aftercare plan to allow them to both maintain and expand upon the gains achieved in our intensive therapeutic program.
Group Therapies
All clients participate in a variety of group therapy sessions. Process groups and Dialectic Behavior Therapy (DBT) groups focus upon an expansion of the core issues uncovered in individual therapies, as well as focusing on specific group dynamics that arise between the guests. This is a central feature of our program and often proves to be an excellent venue toward self-awareness and growth in an interpersonal context. Other groups are also provided for further support and psycho-education.
Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR)
EMDR is an individualized information processing therapy that uses an eight-phase approach. With EMDR processing, people generally report that the emotional distress related to their memory has been eliminated, or greatly decreased, and that they have gained invaluable cognitive insights. These emotional and cognitive changes usually result in spontaneous behavioral and personal change which is very pertinent to recovery.
Somatic Experiencing (SE)/h2>
Somatic Experiencing (SE), developed by Dr. Peter Levine, is a short-term naturalistic approach to the resolution and healing of trauma. SE employs the awareness of body sensation to help people "renegotiate" and heal their traumas rather than relive them. It is based upon the observation that wild prey animals, though threatened routinely, are rarely traumatized. Animals in the wild utilize innate mechanisms to regulate and discharge the high levels of energy arousal associated with defensive survival behaviors. These mechanisms provide animals with a built-in "immunity" to trauma that enables them to return to normal in the aftermath of highly "charged" life-threatening experiences. When this idea is applied to humans, appropriate guidance is provided to the body's instinctive "felt sense." Thus, individuals are able to access their own built-in immunity to trauma, allowing the highly aroused survival energies to be safely and gradually discharged. When these energies are discharged, people frequently experience a dramatic reduction in or disappearance of their traumatic symptoms.
Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT)
DBT is a method for teaching skills that help individuals cope with sudden and intense surges of emotion. It borrows from Buddhist Meditation techniques which teaches Core Mindfulness Skills, enabling the client to become aware of the different aspects of experience and to develop the ability to stay with the experience in the present moment. Further, it teaches interpersonal effectiveness skills which help the client to focus upon effective ways of achieving one's objectives with other people. For example, DBT teaches how to ask for what one wants productively, how to say "no" effectively, and how to maintain relationships and self-esteem in interactions with others. DBT also focuses upon Emotion Modulation Skills, which help clients cope with intense emotional experiences and their causes. This allows for an adaptive experience and expression of intense emotions. Finally, DBT teaches Distress Tolerance Skills, in which clients are taught techniques for putting up with, finding meaning for, and accepting distressing situations if there is no conceivable solution at the present time.
