The Process…

Our Model:

Our model of educational therapy is an integrative, holistic approach that takes the individual needs of our clients into account in order to provide a course of action best suited to their unique needs. We understand that in order to effect lasting change, it is vital to understand the etiology of a concern, take psychological state into consideration, and help provide personalized scaffolding so clients can implement new strategies and approaches into their everyday lives. We pride ourselves on a whole-person approach to helping people overcome obstacles to processing information and managing their lives. We do what we call “working on the edges” of our scope of practice, meaning that we make observations, offer early-stage strategies, and if needed, make referrals in areas like nutrition, sleep hygiene, stress management, technology behavior/abuse/addiction, trauma, medicine, vision, and family communication. We monitor the efficacy of medication, executive functioning level, motivation, and provide referrals as we best see fit. We also have an eye on nutrition and medical needs, as well as the psychodynamic underpinnings that impact motivation. 

Our Approach:

Educational therapy is certainly not “one-size-fits-all” so we do not approach it as such. We customize our care and assess each situation holistically by taking psychological, medical, self-regulatory, and academic ability into account. Though there is validity to the traditional approach of “planner therapy” which teaches individuals organizational skills and planning methods, we find that particular training oftentimes proves inefficient and ineffective in the long term. We do train people in planning, organizing, task initiation, and even self-motivation, however, we find it is integral to delve beyond the surface to provide individuals with longer-lasting results. We implement cognitive-behavioral approaches to understand the nature and etiology of procrastination, avoidance, and other difficulties with task management that live in the realm beyond planning skills themselves. By taking a cognitively rooted approach, coupled with our aforementioned holistic view on educational therapy, we seek to help each and every individual we have the opportunity to work with. We equip people with the necessary tools to thrive in all environments. By assessing individuals from a cognitive standpoint, we seek to rewire and increase executive functioning levels to alleviate any concerns you may have. We can integrate alternative methods such as mindfulness and breath work, paired with the cognitive aspect, to expand the impact of educational therapy. Our educational therapy approach provides training, remediation of skills, improvement of metacognitive awareness, improvement of self, mood, motivation, and self-management. We engage in strategies to improve skills and functions, develop an individualized treatment plan to close gaps, and take an understanding, therapeutic approach. We truly care about properly assessing the situation at hand and doing everything in our power to help however we see fit.

Our Network:

We value collaboration and teamwork, as we work closely with psychiatrists and other clinicians, behaviorists, and advocate for accommodations through schools to gain a full understanding of an individual’s situation. Wrap-around care is central to our approach and the team-based structure allows for a deep and well-rounded understanding of clients’ needs. We work hard to maintain open lines of communication within a clinical team to understand and support holistic needs (e.g. psychological, medical, self-regulatory, academic). That collaboration incorporates the development and alignment of complementary goals, the exchange of observations and critical background information, and the active reinforcement of each other’s training. This work often includes participation on DBT and other teams, parent training to support ET goals, instructional design consultation to educators, and referrals for medical or nutritional tests or support in areas that affect cognition. We also emphasize the parental perspective and parent sessions are an essential part of most treatment plans. By broadening our scope and gaining a deeper understanding of our clients’ situations, we are able to holistically and psychologically assist our clients on a deeper level which fosters long-lasting impact.

After the initial assessment, we provide:

-Training in learning strategies to help people encode, retain and retrieve information

-Provision of tools and resources to manage learning

-Remediation of skills typical of traditional educational therapy (e.g. reading, written expression, language processing, sequencing)

-Team consultation and collaboration