Mental Health

Therapy Models

With the addition of licensed mental health therapists through the ACCESS Evaluation and Resource Center on our Academy and Young Adult campus, ACCESS is now able to provide the following evidence-based mental health therapy models for children, adolescents, and young adults:

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  Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT)

  Research shows that TF-CBT successfully resolves a broad array of emotional and behavioral difficulties associated with single, multiple and complex trauma experiences. TF-CBT also effectively addresses many other trauma impacts, including affective (e.g., depressive, anxiety), cognitive and behavioral problems, as well as improving the participating parent’s or caregiver’s personal distress about the child’s traumatic experience, effective parenting skills, and supportive interactions with the child.

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  Play Therapy

  Play therapy is a psychotherapeutic approach primarily used to help children ages 3 to 12 explore their lives and freely express repressed thoughts and emotions through play. Therapeutic play normally takes place in a safe, comfortable playroom, where very few rules or limits are imposed on the child, encouraging free expression and allowing the therapist to observe the child’s choices, decisions, and play style. It is appropriate for children undergoing or witnessing stressful events in their lives, such as a serious illness or hospitalization, domestic violence, abuse, trauma, a family crisis, or an upsetting change in their environment. Play therapy can help children with academic and social problems, learning disabilities, behavioral disorders, anxiety, depression, grief, or anger, as well as those with attention deficit disorders or who are on the autism spectrum. Play therapy may also be used to promote cognitive development and provide insight about, and resolution of, inner conflicts or dysfunctional thinking in the child.

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  Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)

  When a painful or upsetting experience happens, the memory of the experience sometimes stays "stuck" in the body and mind. Over time, the occurrence may manifest anew in disturbing and invasive ways.

  EMDR is effective and well supported by research evidence for treating individuals with symptoms accompanying post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), trauma, attachment issues, dissociation, and self-regulation, anxiety, or panic. Children can experience PTSD symptoms as a result of bullying, abuse, or invasive medical procedures. Since our emotional states are a result of how we perceive the world, a child may have stress related to a memory that, to anyone else, would not seem to be a “big deal.”