Treatment Overview / Modalities

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is an evidence-based treatment with the goal of helping individuals accept and manage the difficulty of everyday life. ACT teaches individuals to accept one’s reaction and be present, choose a valued direction and take action. The group includes psychoeducation and experiential exercises related to the six core principles of ACT: cognitive defusion, acceptance, contact with the present moment, the observing self, values and committed action. ACT is helpful in the treatment of anxiety, depression, and many other psychological issues.
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This group provides treatment for anger. The goal of the group is to offer support, education and guidance to those who struggle with anger by helping them gain more insight into their automatic…
Learn more about Anger Management Group

The goal of the group is to offer support, education, and guidance to help decrease anxiety by helping clients gain insight into their automatic thoughts, cognitive distortions, underlying assumptions and core beliefs, and to reframe as needed. Various stress management, emotional regulation and distress tolerance strategies are identified and discussed. In-group discussions, exercises and psychoeducation around different topics lead clients to a better understanding of their internal and external triggers.

This group provides members with the most recent research on the cause, diagnosis, and treatment of bipolar disorder. Group members will also learn how to effectively cope with their diagnosis, how to accurately…
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Book Discussion focuses on increasing clients’ ability to self-reflect and identify their underlying patters of thought, emotion and behavior through the use of an appropriate psychologically-oriented book from authors such as Don Miguel Ruiz, Eckhart Tolle, and Brene Brown. Additional group goals include critical thinking, insight leading to change, and the practice of healthy and productive social interactions.

Breathwork, a type of breathing practice that provides an intense experience of self-awareness, introspection, and the breaking down of barriers to recovery. Breathwork promotes relaxation, emotional well-being, and a decrease in stress, and is used to help decrease anger, anxiety, depression, chronic pain, grief, and trauma symptoms.

The goal of the chronic pain group is to offer support, education, and guidance to help individuals with chronic pain and illness. Using various EBP, such as CBT, DBT, MI and ACT, different coping skills and self-management techniques will be identified and discussed. In-group discussions, exercises and psychoeducation around different topics will help lead clients to a better understanding of their thoughts and beliefs, as well as, internal and external resources.
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Utilizing film as a projective tool, issues of personal distress and dysfunction will be recognized and addressed.  Cinematherapy can quickly foster group cohesion as clients engage in a shared activity and focused dialogue.  The goal of the group is to increase clients’ capacity for insight and ability to relate to others, as well as see one’s self and the world more objectively through the medium of film, in order to decrease anxiety, depression and other negative patterns.

Cognitive behavior therapy helps a client to develop a more positive way of thinking about life situations. The client is responsible for discovering and nurturing better mental attitudes and subsequent positive emotional responses.
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Clients will learn appropriate listening and communication skills to convey needs and concerns to peers as well as receiving and providing feedback to and from others. In learning these skills, clients will be able to improve interactions in their interpersonal relationships.

The Grief and Loss Group gives clients the opportunity to explore and process feelings related to the loss of a significant person in their lives, through death, break up, abandonment or traumatic circumstances.…
Learn more about Coping with Grief and Loss

The objective of this group is to increase emotional intelligence surrounding two distressing emotions; shame and anger. Through group process, participants will learn to identify these emotions and create a language for how…
Learn more about Coping with Shame and Anger Group

The Depression Management group is designed to decrease clients’ depressive symptoms. This group will educate members on the causes and treatment of depression and treatment approaches, as well as teach evidence-based strategies and skills to effectively manage mood.

This group focuses on working therapeutically with dreams. Participants are invited to process their dreams or sleep-related issues in order to increase self-awareness and possible unresolved issues which are manifested in their dreams. Understanding and processing the content and feelings of dreams can improve overall well-being.

Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) is a mode of psychotherapy developed by Marsha M. Linehan. It is used to treat persons with emotional dysregulation and impulse control as typified in “Borderline Personality Disorder” and…
Learn more about Dialectal Behavioral Therapy

The Exploration of Gender and Sexuality Group is a forum to explore identity as it relates to gender and sexuality. This group is not limited to individuals who self-identify as LGBTQA, but rather…
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Exposure and Response Prevention is a form of behavioral therapy. Under supervision or on their own, a person is exposed to something that they fear (contamination, crowds) and then they are supported in…
Learn more about Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP)

What is EMDR? Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) was developed in 1989 by American psychologist Francine Shapiro to treat the psychological consequences of trauma (especially post-traumatic stress disorder). Treatment is grounded in…
Learn more about Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing

In Family Systems Group we explore the client’s family of origin and the components of that family system from the point of view and remembered experience of the client. The group helps to…
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This group provides clients with a space to explore the thoughts and emotions that underlie obsessions with food, weight and body imagine. Individuals that are concerned or obsess over controlling their food intake,…
Learn more about Food and Feelings Group

Food and Healing provides clients with a space to explore healthy eating behavior and boosting food patterns to promote well-being. Individuals are motivated to optimize the quality of their life by eating nutritious foods, practicing appropriate hydration, and learning balanced energy intake. 

Goals is designed to assist clients in identifying and achieving specific goals as well as obstacles to achieving those goals. Clients will be coached on practical steps necessary to achieve and maintain life goals and decrease defeatism, as well as increase hope and resiliency.

The Identity and Self Group is a semi-structured group in which clients are welcomed to explore topics that are involved in the exploration and development of one’s sense of self and identity. Topics…
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The group objective is to learn effective communication techniques to improve relationships and day-to-day interactions in order to decrease isolation, withdrawal, depression, and anxiety and enhance self-efficacy.  Members will discuss interpersonal struggles, engage in role play exercises and learn healthy communication skills.

The LGBTQIA+ group is a forum to explore identity as it relates to gender and sexuality. This group is not limited to individuals who self-identify as LGBTQIA+, but open to all individuals interested in discussing and exploring their experiences regarding gender and sexuality.

Life Skills and Planning Group, or “Life Transitions” is an alternative for clients who have gone through a course of DBT, and aimed toward clients who are transitioning out of PCH and into…
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Group members engage in discussion and emotional processing of relevant life topics to improve self-awareness, life choices, and community reintegration. This group is informed by CBT and psychodynamic principles. Pragmatic coaching and role plays are used to support the goals of this group. 

The group focuses on the four domains that comprise Anger Management – Emotional Intelligence, Stress Management, Communication, and Relationship Management – as a means of helping clients develop specific skills to build self-awareness, impulse control, stress tolerance, and effectively manage interpersonal conflicts. The goal of this group is to enhance constructive interactions with others and decrease destructive interactions that can damage relationships with others.

This group focuses on helping clients develop a healthy and sustainable relationship to technology, including cell phones, computers, and console gaming. The group provides psychoeducation related to the way in which engaging with technology can become a compulsive behavior. Group members are provided with proven strategies to reduce technology consumption and maintain a healthy balance between their offline and online lives.

MBT Explicit is an educational and experiential group that introduces clients to the concept of mentalizing – to hold minds in mind, one’s own and others. In this group, clients are taught how to recognize mentalizing versus non-mentalizing modes and participate in practice exercises. Studies demonstrate that improvement in mentalizing leads to better emotional regulation and improved interpersonal relations and thereby decreases isolation, depressive, anxiety, trauma, and other distressing symptoms.

MBT implicit is a process group that focuses on mentalizing, the ability to hold minds in mind, one’s own and others, helping clients understand the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors of others and themselves.  Research has demonstrated that clients who receive Mentalization Based Treatment improve their ability to manage emotions and better interpersonal relations, thereby decreasing isolation, depression, anxiety, and trauma symptoms. 

This weekly process group offers male clients an opportunity to share thoughts and feelings about their past and current situations. It provides a space for them to consider their personal struggles within the larger social context of their lives and increase sense of cohesion as well as decrease isolation, depression, and anxiety.  Ideas surrounding notions of masculinity, ‘being a man’, and father-son relationships are often explored.

Mentalization is a mental and emotional processing capacity by which we interpret behavior (both our own and others) as being driven or motivated by underlying mental states. It is the ability to see…
Learn more about Mentalization Based Family Support Group

Mentalization-Based treatment is highly effective in helping people who are particularly prone to experiencing intense and overwhelming emotional distress which can lead to impulsive and self-destructive behaviors, a fluctuating “sense of self” and…
Learn more about Mentalization-Based Therapy (MBT)

Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) is a structured program that teaches the practice of mindfulness in an effort to alleviate pain and improve physical and emotional well-being. The program was established by Jon…
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Mindfulness Process group begins with process work, allowing clients to express concerns and issues, and shifts into mindful practice (i.e., meditation techniques, guided visualization exercises and psychoeducation).  The group emphasizes teaching clients to self-regulate feelings, increase frustration tolerance, and minimize destructive coping and behaviors.

Clients learn about and practice “mindfulness”, which is loosely defined as “paying attention on purpose, moment-by-moment and non-judgmentally”. Using various mindfulness meditation techniques, guided visualization exercises and psycho-education, clients learn to identify a…
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Morning Check-In is a semi-structured process group that prepares clients for their daily schedule and promotes social engagement by enhancing communication and socialization skills.  Clients are encouraged to speak about their experiences while receiving feedback, support, and coaching from facilitator and peers.

At PCH, neurofeedback is used as a self-regulation program. During neurofeedback, brainwaves that are efficient for you will be reinforced/rewarded with positive sounds and sights (feedback). The brainwaves that are inefficient for you…
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Occupational therapy (OT) was developed in the early 1900s as a mental health treatment modality that understood that when a person has access to meaningful activities (or occupations as they were referred to at the time), the likelihood for wellness and recovery increases immeasurably. Occupational therapists contribute to the recovery process with expertise in the areas of sensory processing and executive functioning, with the ultimate goal of supporting sustainable, independent living.

Sensory processing refers to the way our brain perceives and integrates information through our senses. A brain that has been negatively impacted by trauma, mental illness, or prolonged stress may find it increasingly difficult to organize incoming information. Difficulties with sensory processing may result in attempts to control the environment, avoidance of certain foods, clothes, or social situations, and are correlated with increased symptoms of anxiety and depression. Here at PCH, occupational therapists are uniquely positioned to assess a client’s sensory needs and to support them in integrating to new environments while also providing crucial information to the treatment team.

Executive functioning refers to a set of cognitive functions that support healthy decision making and goal-oriented behavior. These skills – such as memory, inhibition, and shifting from one activity to the next – are critical for independent living and daily function as an adult. Increased stressors can result in impaired executive functioning and decreased ability to attend to necessary daily tasks.

Independent living is a complex balance of navigating a person’s own needs for wellbeing (i.e. medication management, money management), navigating unexpected life events, and maintaining healthy relationships to create reliable networks of care. Occupational therapists utilize a holistic lens to conduct detailed activity analyses and comprehensive evaluations to support understanding of the underlying factors that most impair a client and develop scaffolded care to improve independence and overall well being.

Based on his book “Pop Your Patterns” by facilitator Seth Kadish, Psy.D. Group members begin to identify negative patterns of thought, emotion, and behavior through the use of written and experiential exercises. Through…
Learn more about Patterns Group

The PCH alumni group is an opportunity for clients to continue therapeutic group services during transitional periods out of full-time care. The group is an opportunity for past and present clients to be…
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Clients are encouraged to share thoughts and emotions regarding their current mood and life situation, while receiving feedback and support from the facilitator and peers. Special attention is paid to group dynamics…
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At PCH Treatment Center, psychoanalytic psychotherapy is a cornerstone in the treatment of most clients. However, we also incorporate cognitive behavioral therapy, intertwined with our approach to treatment and client care.
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This group allows an opportunity for clients to explore issues relating to their addiction in a safe non-judgmental environment. Clients that are in recovery from compulsive substance abuse and/or alcoholism are able to…
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Regulation Skills acts primarily as a psychoeducational and practice group focused on how to increase one’s capacity to regulate through distress. Clients will learn to identify and broaden Windows of Tolerance as well as decrease reactivity to trauma triggers and other distress-related issues including depression and anxiety.

The goal of the group is to help clients create or update their “Recovery Circle,” a personalized map which states their sobriety goal, triggers and healthy, preventative activities and behaviors in order to lessen incidents, and severity, of relapse. In addition, clients are encouraged to share their recovery circles and receive feedback from peers.

The focus of the group is the examination of adult attachment styles and the illumination of behavioral patterns in various contexts. The goal is to improve assertiveness skills and decrease social anxiety by challenging cognitive distortions in order to improve the individual’s ability to seek out and maintain healthy relationships and decrease isolation, withdrawal and relationship sabotage.

This group provides members with an overview of the cause, diagnosis, and treatment of addiction. Group members are taught the science behind drug abuse and addiction as well as strategies for preventing and managing drug/alcohol abuse in order to maintain sobriety and minimize incidents of relapse.

This group is an evidenced-based treatment for PTSD, substance abuse, and other problem behaviors that stem from emotional dysregulation. With a primary emphasis on establishing safety, each week the group covers one of…
Learn more about Seeking Safety Group

Self-Care group focuses on five domains of self-care – physical, emotional, psychological, spiritual, and occupational –providing psychoeducation on the domains and an opportunity to process related thoughts, behaviors, and feelings. The goal is to establish and maintain a practice of behaviors and healthy habits to aid in personal health and development.

Sensorimotor Psychotherapy integrates sensorimotor processing with cognitive and emotional processing in the treatment of trauma. Sensorimotor Psychotherapy uses the body (rather than thoughts or emotions) as a primary entry point in processing trauma.
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The objective of this group is to regulate internal and/or external expressions of shame, e.g., aggression, outbursts, isolation, withdrawal. Through group process, participants will learn to identify this emotion and create a language for their experiences of shame. In addition, participants learn to recognize their defensive reactions when shame is triggered, and develop new strategies for coping with shame.

This group provides members with the most recent and important research on sleep and reviews in a step-by-step manner the findings of major sleep centers across the United States. This group offers practical…
Learn more about Sleep Hygiene Group

Smoking is a behavior that is maintained by four different processes, making it a difficult behavior to change. The four processes are physical, social, behavioral and psychological. Each individual person’s addiction to smoking…
Learn more about Smoking Cessation Group

Somatic Experiencing (SE), developed by Dr. Peter Levine, offers a holistic strategy to achieve healing and resolution of trauma or emotional wounds. Somatic Experiencing is based on the premise that a person’s autonomic…
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The Stages of Change group proposes that behavior change is not a single, one-time event but occurs gradually over time, in five distinct stages. Change begins with the initial precontemplation stage, which often leads to contemplation, preparation, action, and maintenance. Activities and discussions are intended to help the client progress through the various stages at his/her own pace and increase motivation to maintain a substance-free lifestyle.

This group is designed to reduce suicidal thinking and behavior through the development of emotional resilience. Group members actively collaborate with the group facilitator to create an atmosphere of safety and acceptance which…
Learn more about Suicide Resilience Group

Clients are given a short writing assignment, typically 10 minutes in length, which is then presented and shared with the group. These assignments may involve writing a short poem, narrative, letter, or diary…
Learn more about Therapeutic Writing Group

This class uses a therapeutic style of yoga, which engages muscle, mind, body, and spirit. Therapeutic yoga assists in coping with stress by calming the nervous system, allowing the body to heal and…
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The Timeline group provides a supportive atmosphere where clients can share a chronological account of their lives with group members, describing significant events and relationships in their life journey. The goal of the group is to teach empathy, active listening, and reduce shame, depression and anxiety through the process of sharing life events.

This group provides support, education and guidance for those who have been through any type of trauma, either as a child, adult or throughout life. We discuss what trauma is and how it…
Learn more about Trauma Group

The timeline group is an opportunity for community members to gather together and bear witness to the life history of another community member. In a wholly supportive atmosphere clients can, if they choose,…
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This group offers female clients an opportunity to process and share thoughts and feelings related to women’s experiences and issues in a safe, supportive environment. Sexual trauma, inequality in the workplace/social world, income differentials between genders, women’s roles and role models, among other topics, are explored at length. The goal of the group is to increase personal empowerment, acceptance of self and others, and create a sense of community or belonging in order to decrease shame, depression, anxiety and trauma symptoms.

Facilitator leads clients on a local walk towards developing mindfulness as well as the practice of yoga, designed to engage muscle, mind, body, and spirit and assist in coping with stress by calming the nervous system and allowing the body to heal and recalibrate. Clients practice external and internal awareness, with the goal of healing and soothing body and mind.

Experiential Groups

The Art Therapy group utilizes art expression as a modality for emotional and physiological healing. Through painting, drawing, collage, sculpture, and other media, a creative pathway is accessed for stress reduction, regulation of the nervous system, and expressing and resolving emotional issues in a safe environment.

This group provides an opportunity for clients to play a song of their choice and share its meaning and significance with other group members as well as learn more about one another through choices in music. Music is a projective tool, aiding clients in the process of self-discovery, gaining insight into the self, as well as fostering positive connection with others.

Creative Expressions offers clients the often overlooked but very important opportunity to play, a chance to decompress by participating in games or engaging in lively discussions. There is a focus on developing positive aspects of their lives in a fun, encouraging, and structured setting.

The goal of this group is to help clients learn to express their thoughts and feelings using the full force of their imagination, regaining their capacity to fantasize and visualize in order to diminish depression, anxiety, and worry, and increase insight into negative patterns of thought, emotion and behavior. Clients are assisted in creating poems and short fictional pieces and sharing their work with fellow group members.

The focus of this group is to encourage clients to become more conscious of their mind-body relationship. Clients are guided through exploration and expression of feelings, emotions and thoughts, which can be experienced both verbally and non-verbally through movement. Participants are encouraged to use poetry, lyrics, or even present moment experiences and express through active stillness, movement, dance, and theater games/exercises. 

Drama Therapy is an active and experiential group, enabling clients to get in touch with their playfulness and gain perspective on real life roles and patterns. Drama Therapy can help in enhancing emotional liveliness while assisting clients to gain insight into life’s dynamics and interpersonal relationships. 

The goal of this group is to provide the client with a pleasurable and creative outlet for expressing oneself. This workshop is open to different drawing styles and subject matter, from still life to portrait art using a variety of media including charcoal, pencil, ink, water color, markers, and oil paint. Facilitator demonstrates the step-by-step drawing process to help clients experience feelings of achievement.

Participants are given the opportunity to work with clay in a fully-equipped pottery studio. Based upon their interests, clients are guided by experienced potters and mental health professionals in learning how to hand-build and/or use the pottery wheel to create, alter and glaze their own unique pottery pieces, and to share their experiences with others while working independently on projects. This group promotes focus, creativity, socialization, and mind-body synergy.

The knitting and handwork facilitator provides knitting needles and yarn for clients to make a scarf or a hat depending on skill level. No prior experience is needed to join and enjoy this group. Knitting group supports focus, creativity, socialization and mind-body synergy.

Music therapy is a clinical and research-based approach that uses musical interventions, such as songwriting and active music making, to achieve a nonmusical goal, such as increasing interpersonal skills and understanding self-worth. Music can help participants gather insights in all aspects of their lives and cope with life issues and stressors.

Poetry therapy is an expressive arts therapy that helps promote well-being and demonstrates a coping tool one can utilize during all stages of treatment and throughout their lives. The ability to write poetry can be clarifying, cathartic, and help create a new narrative for challenging situations in the past.  A poem is read in group and discussed. Group members write a poem of their own that they may voluntarily share with peers.

Movement therapy begins with a guided warm-up accompanied by music to build awareness of the body. Following the warm-up, structured movement improvisations are presented to explore such themes as boundaries, impulse control, expression of emotions, and body, mind and heart working together and positive body image. This group supports creativity, fun, imagination and the discovery of the knowledge held within our bodies.