Comprehensive family, individual and group therapy with individualized special education for students needing an out-of-district placement for serious emotional disturbances.
Supporting Youth & Families Through Therapy
Children learn best when they feel safe and supported. Our therapeutic program is modeled on:
- Trauma Informed Care
- Cognitive Behavioral Treatment
- Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
- Restorative Justice
- Family Therapy
The classroom serves as a community, enabling students to feel successful, learn about the importance of self and others, and gain a sense of belonging by safely practicing the skills to improve their interactions with others.
Team Approach
Our staff take a team approach, keeping parents / guardians involved when setting treatment goals and objectives for a student’s Individual Service Plan (ISP). The plan identifies specific steps for the student and family to focus on as they progress through treatment.
Clinical Case Reviews or Team Meetings are held periodically to ensure that the team understands and agrees with a student’s goals, and to revise them, if necessary. Students are encouraged to attend and participate in these meetings, as well as review their ISP with their team.
Types of Therapy
Group
Group therapy occurs weekly in the classroom. It gives children an opportunity to practice perspective taking, build empathy, relate to one another, develop classroom community, and problem solve challenges throughout the day. Classroom staff and clinicians participate in groups to provide support, offer feedback, and model appropriate social skills.
Family
Family involvement is a foundational component of the day treatment program. Families are interconnected. When one person makes a change, the entire family system is impacted. This is how children and families heal. As children learn new skills and process their trauma, the treatment team works with their family to support them in learning new behavior management tools, improving communication, and strengthening relationships.
Play
Play is how children communicate with adults and process their experiences. Play provides a safe and relaxed opportunity to learn about the world. We provide space for children to use play therapeutically in individual sessions and in groups. This fosters healthy social interactions, development of emotional regulation, and builds positive experiences and self-confidence. Trauma often interrupts a child’s development. Play can be a non-threatening way to support their growth.
Milieu
Many students learn best with in-the-moment coaching and direct support in the classroom. This may look like a clinician completing a project with a student during art class, providing co-regulation during English, joining a gym class to provide modeling around positive sportsmanship, or playing a board game with students during an afternoon break.
Individual
Students work individually with a clinician in a safe environment to process their feelings, learn coping skills, and engage in problem solving. This could be related to anything from day-to-day challenges at home or the classroom, relationship ruptures, or past trauma. Students build self-awareness of their triggers, patterns in behavior, and their own needs, with the goal of these skills being generalized across environments.
Contact the Sweetser PromiseLine at 1.800.434.3000 for more information.