Group Therapy Intensive Outpatient Mental Health Clinic
We work with many mental health professionals and medical professionals who are looking for a program that can compliment their treatment.
Our model is to build upon the client’s existing resource of an established therapeutic relationship with their outpatient therapist. Our model is to provide the IOP program with their current outpatient therapist as the leader of the treatment team and continuing to see them weekly.
Our program adds groups, family therapy, education and weekly updates to the home therapist of skills that we’re teaching as well as the client’s presentation in group. We seek your input and guidance on how to individualize what we’re doing to best help this individual and family.
MODALITY
Life Launch Centers is established to provide quality research based treatment for adolescents and young adults experiencing emotional and mental health related struggles in their lives. The program is designed to provide a holistic approach to assessment and treatment for adolescents, young adults, and their family members. We’ve created the Life Launch Centers Resilience Model© using the most current brain research and elements of several evidence-based models of intervention including but not limited to Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT), Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), and Resiliency curriculum based on the research of Brené Brown. The goal of the program is to provide adolescents, young adults, and their families with the healing, knowledge, tools and skills to live happy, healthy lives being empowered to successfully navigate each of life’s transitions. Instead of waiting for “Failure to Launch” we help people prepare to launch.
The Life Launch Centers Resilience Model©
There are five key principles taught through our Resilience Model©:
Being able to recognize what is going on around us and inside our head enhances our ability to observe rather than react to upsetting events and negative feelings, allowing us to respond with greater wisdom and effectiveness. This creates what we call the “miracle moment”. When we become aware, we then have agency and can choose to act rather than be acted upon.
We all experience crises in our lives. Sometimes these crises are big, like a divorce, a death, a layoff, failing school, or a break up. Sometimes these crises are small, like traffic, a long line at check out, or not knowing what to wear that day. Distress tolerance skills help us get to a more manageable emotional place for crisis survival. An important aspect of emotion regulation is understanding that painful emotions are not bad, or something that must be avoided. They are a normal part of life, but there are ways to acknowledge and then let go of these feelings so that one is not controlled by them.
Having reduced emotional distress to a level where the frontal cortex, executive function, can come back online, we are now able to interpret current events in a rational way. With access to executive function we can engage in the prescribed steps of problem solving: Identify the problem, state the problem using only facts leaving out the “stories in my head”, brainstorm all possible solutions, evaluate possible solutions, implement alternatives, and evaluate the outcome.
The human brain requires connection with others. It is essential to vitality, health, life duration, and even survival itself. Brain research is showing that feeling isolated or lonely increases our risk of heart disease, heart attack, stroke, high blood pressure, disability, cognitive decline, dementia, depression, and suicide. While holding tightly to our values and goals it is important to identify those traits, behaviors, and qualities in others that can help us safely connect. Resilience includes knowing when and how to reach out to others for help in meeting the challenges we face.
Our mental and physical ability to cope with challenges depends on life balance. Life balance requires:
- Tending to our own needs and feelings.
- Taking care of physical illness.
- Participating in activities and hobbies we enjoy.
- Including physical activity in our daily routine.
- Getting plenty of sleep.
- Taking care of our nutrition by eating regularly.
- Practicing stress management and relaxation techniques, such as yoga, meditation, guided imagery, deep breathing or prayer.
DBT – Dialectical Behavior Therapy
DBT is the brainchild of Marsha Linehan, Ph.D., ABPP, a Professor of Psychology and an adjunct Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Washington and founder of Behavioral Tech, a training institute for DBT.
DBT is the preferred treatment for teaching and improving emotional regulation skills. DBT rests on scientifically sound behavioral and cognitive strategies, and incorporates skills like mindfulness and acceptance principles. DBT skills include Mindfulness, Distress Tolerance, Self-Soothing activities, and practices that focus on Emotion Regulation, Interpersonal Effectiveness, Relationship Effectiveness, and more.
These and other coping strategies are presented in a series of skill-based modules in regular group sessions, with a focus on teaching specific skills. These skills then become the supporting framework and even the safety net for an individual to do the cognitive work necessary to realize their desired change or outcome.
CBT – Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
CBT is a type of psychotherapeutic treatment that helps patients understand the thoughts and feelings that influence behaviors. CBT is commonly used to treat a wide range of disorders, including phobias, addictions, depression, and anxiety.
CBT is generally short-term and focused on helping patients deal with a very specific problem. During the course of treatment, people learn how to identify and change destructive or disturbing thought patterns that have a negative influence on behavior and emotions.
The underlying concept behind CBT is that our thoughts and feelings play a fundamental role in our behavior. For example, a person who spends a lot of time thinking about plane crashes, runway accidents and other air disasters may find themselves avoiding air travel.
The goal of cognitive behavior therapy is to teach patients that while they cannot control every aspect of the world around them, they can take control of how they interpret and deal with things in their environment.
Because CBT is usually a short-term treatment option, it is often more affordable than some other types of therapy. CBT is also empirically supported and has been shown to effectively help patients overcome a wide variety of maladaptive behaviors.
Resiliency
Resiliency is a topic that has received a lot of attention very recently. Brené Brown Ph.D., LMSW, best-selling author, researcher on connection and shame, and developer of The Daring Way™ and Rising Strong™ curriculums for resilience has amassed impressive research on this topic. Based on her research she has provided powerful insight and language to equip and empower individuals who are struggling because they allow stress, failure, adversity, or trauma to overcome them and drain their resolve.
Resilience can help protect us from various mental health conditions, such as depression and anxiety. Resilience can also help offset factors that increase the risk of mental health conditions, such as being bullied or previous trauma, whether witnessed or experienced.
INTENSIVE OUTPATIENT PROGRAM
Outpatient treatment programs allow patients to attend structured treatment sessions and then return to their own environments each night, which allows time and opportunity to practice new skills in a more “normal” environment while having access to a structured and robust support system of counselors, family, and peers.
Patients attend scheduled group, individual, and family treatment sessions at times that are arranged to give them the best opportunity to engage in the normal routine of their daily lives.
There are several advantages to participating in an intensive outpatient program.
- It is typically less expensive than a residential or inpatient treatment program. An individual is also able to receive more treatment and education in a shorter amount of time than it would typically take in a traditional general outpatient setting, making attendance and successful completion more likely. It can also make it less expensive in the long run.
- Outpatient care allows clients to maintain commitments to work, family, school, or other important activities while generalizing new tools and skills in a real-time environment.
- Intensive outpatient treatment includes group therapy, not typically found in the general outpatient setting. It is a catalyst that helps facilitate the development of a positive support network of peers. This interaction helps reduce the stigma generally associated with mental health challenges, fosters connection and inclusion, and bolsters a more positive self-image.
