Partial Program Schedule

Balanced Living: Various topics are covered on a rotational basis. Topics include healthy nutrition, exercise, time management, stress management and mindfulness activities. Current and seasonal medical issues are addressed as well. Learning takes place through video presentations, handouts, written assignments, structured games, and discussions.

Barriers to Wellness: Explores topics related to issues that impact an individual’s social, emotional, and physical wellness.

Building Meaningful Connections: Offers support in strengthening relationships with others through discussions and activities around active listening, impact of verbal and non-verbal communication, impact of giving and receiving compliments, and team building.

Creative Expression: Creative Expression is provided every week. Designed to facilitate exploring treatment issues in a supportive environment providing opportunity for self expression and communication through the nonverbal modality of art. Provides the experience of working cooperatively with others, taking risks at exploring new areas and the development of trust. There is opportunity to provide support and feedback to others while increasing self-esteem through making creative decisions, follow through and completion of artwork.

DBT Emotional Regulation/Distress Tolerance/Interpersonal Effectiveness/Mindfulness:
Offered 4 times a week and provides members DBT skills training and education for the Emotional Regulation, Distress Tolerance, Interpersonal Effectiveness, and Mindfulness DBT modules. Patients will be taught the concepts of DBT as well as discuss how concepts/ skills might be used in the individual’s home, work/school, and social environments.
Family Dynamics: Explores topics related to the expectation vs. reality of relationships, navigating family roles and dynamics, healthy communication, creating and respecting healthy boundaries, and identifying toxic relationships within a trauma informed framework.

Goal Planning: Provided 5 times per week and is designed to help support patients in their own recovery. The focus is on helping individuals develop treatment goals for the day, review of diary, identification and clarification of attainable treatment goals for course of treatment, practice and reinforcement of healthy problem solving and conflict resolution skills, and establishing healthy boundaries.

Managing Intense Emotions: Explores identifying and labeling emotions, identifying warning signs and triggers of distress, processing difficult emotions, and benefits of gratitude within a trauma informed framework.

Navigating your Environment: Explores topics related to healthy boundaries on-line, bullying, managing peer pressure, and school and academic stressors within a trauma informed framework.

Problem Solving: Provides opportunity for psychoeducation and discussion related to problem solving strategies.

Psychotherapy Groups: This is a general psychotherapy process group offered to help patients learn to identify and express emotions appropriately and relate to each other more openly and effectively. Members set the agenda and other group members are encouraged to talk about their concerns and give feedback and support to each other.

Relationships with Self and Others: Provides psycho-education, skill-building, and group discussion related to trauma informed care. Topics include learning about the types, impact, and responses to trauma, the connection between thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, and challenging cognitive distortions.

Review of the Day/Relaxation: The goal of the group is to provide closure for the day and to establish plans/structure for time spent outside of the program. Each member shares a brief synopsis of how their day went and progress achieved on their goal from the morning Goal Planning. Special recognition is given to members who are being discharged from the program in the form of a formal farewell. Members are also led through various strategies for relaxation including exercises for mindfulness, grounding, guided imagery, and breathing techniques.

Self-Esteem: Explores topics related to the basics of self-esteem, positive self-talk, self-compassion, and strategies and importance of self-care.

Stress Management: Provides the opportunity for psycho-education, activity, and discussion related to identifying “what is stress” symptoms of stress, and healthy coping skills.

Taking it Home: Offers patients a chance to work on their support plan. Patients are able to get feedback from others on valuable new skills. Time is spent exploring a variety of DBT skills that could be helpful in keeping themselves safe. The importance of the crisis planning is stressed as a work in progress during their treatment and its usefulness after discharge.