Dr. Seth Kadish, author and Director of Group Therapists discusses the range of different group programs and modalities available at PCH Treatment Center as well as their role in helping clients deal with psychological issues and begin the healing journey.

Transcript

I’m Dr. Seth Kadish, director of Group Therapists at PCH, and I’m responsible for training and supervising all of the group facilitators. I’m also the author of a book called Pop Your Patterns, and it explores negative patterns of thought, emotion, and behavior and ways to diminish it, which is a specialty of mine. And I do a lot of work with the clients on popping their patterns.

Groups are very important to the client’s progress because first of all, we get to see how clients interact with one another in a group setting rather than an individual setting which tells us a lot about their issues, their problems, their struggles.

Types of Groups Offered At PCH

We have four different types of groups:

1. We have process groups, and those are essentially small, intimate groups where the client gets to delve into their deeper issues.
2. We have experiential groups such as mindfulness and yoga, art therapy, music therapy, where the clients actually get to participate in the activity.
3. We have psycho educational groups. That’s a big part of our program and we will teach and inform the clients about very diverse topics such as anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder. We teach DBT and CBT, which is how they’re thinking and behaving. And we’ll also take a look at recovery, addiction and issues around that.
4. The fourth kind of group that we have at PCH is a creative group and we have a number of those. We have creative groups on writing, poetry, art, knitting, pottery and so forth.

Groups are very important, they are essential to the client’s recovery because that is probably where they’re going to pick up the most information about specific disorders and ways to tackle that, ways to deal with that disorder. It’s also a form of social cohesion. So clients learn to interact appropriately with one another. If there are disputes, if there are tensions or issues, they get to work it out, work it through, which people don’t typically get to do in “the real world”.

And so we teach them, we encourage, we assist them in learning to have better relationships. And that’s crucial for all of us. One of the most important aspects of group work is for the socially anxious client, the depressed client, the shame based client. I put a lot of emphasis on clients struggling with shame to be with the group, to actually work through and break through issues of anxiety and shame rather than run from it. We make a very safe, nonjudgmental, caring environment where the client can come in there and be part of a group, be accepted, and that in and of itself, let alone any teaching, any psycho educational part of the program, is very, very healing.

We also, have groups on the topics of anxiety and depression, and so we both teach clients about the disorder as well as give them ways to diminish those disorders.

So the program director is responsible for handpicking and tailoring a group schedule for the client depending on their needs. Somebody may have a lot of trauma. Somebody else may be in recovery. Another person may need a lot of patterns work. And so they will assign groups to them that will fit the bill. The group facilitators will give feedback to the program directors and let them know how their client is doing. If they feel they should be in a different group, if they feel they need some kind of special assistance. So there is an absolute interchange between the group facilitator and myself of course, and the program directors. We work collaboratively.

PCH vs. Other Programs

What distinguishes PCH from other programs that I’m familiar with and I am familiar with a number of the programs that are out there, is we have as much or more groups offered than any program out there. In fact, we will run upwards of four or five groups in a time slot and that’s virtually unheard of. Most programs, if you look at their schedule, offer one, maybe two groups. We also have a couple of different tracks operating. So I mentioned four different types of groups, but we do have different tracks including:

• A trauma track which is so vital for so many of the clients that come through the doors.
• We have a recovery track which includes addiction, stages of change, relapse prevention.
• We have what I will call a general track.
• We also have a track for clients who are a little bit behind the other clients and so need a little bit more assistance and encouragement and so forth.

We have an entirely separate OCD program, which somebody else will tell you about. And so we’re very, very sensitive to the individual needs of the client. And that distinguishes us from other programs.

Seth Kadish, PsD, Director of Group Therapists

Additional Resources

You can learn more about the groups and treatment modalities we offer to clients at PCH Treatment Center below:
PCH Treatment Modalities and Groups