Individual & Group Therapy

Individual Sessions

Your child's therapist conducts a formal individual session each week (1-2 hours), with each child. Family letters are shared, along with the staff report for the week; and historical and in-the-moment issues are discussed. The therapist usually invites the Field Instructor assigned to your child for the week into the session. The therapist updates your treatment plan with written notes, assignments, and themes for the following week.

Group Therapy

Individual therapy is carried on and strengthened at Footsteps through the creation of a therapeutic milieu (environment) that infuses our therapeutic approach into daily activities.  Chore cycles, hikes, games and time with peers can be ripe moments for therapy to unfold. Students have an opportunity to learn about themselves and their patterns of behavior, pause and reflect on their thoughts and feelings in the moment when their behaviors are causing difficulties, and offer feedback and support to peers who are often struggling with issues that they are working on themselves.   Whether it be a spontaneous group called to check-in with their feelings during a moment of frustration, or a planned group or initiative designed to teach core lessons of the program, students are regularly provided opportunities to look at themselves in the metaphorical mirror, develop personal awareness, and practice new ways of relating to others.

Milan Group

The name (Milan) of this form of group therapy was derived from a therapeutic school in Italy renowned for its effective intervention techniques, including one where clients listened behind a one-way mirror as the therapists discussed their case. At Second Nature Footsteps, Milan Group occurs during staff change day where staff exiting the field at the culmination of the week, overlap with staff entering the group for the next week.

Feedback and narratives about each child are presented while the child is listening. The child's participation varies from simply listening to providing a completely objective self-evaluation with some gentle guidance and assistance from his/her therapist.

Standing Groups

A Standing Group is a spontaneous group called by any student, therapist of Field Instructor. This is usually short (while everyone is standing in a circle.) Emotions are appropriately expressed, while peers practice listening without judgment, reflecting and problem solving skills are developed.

Sticks Groups

When we ‘break sticks’ at the beginning of a group, it means that we are preparing to go beneath our protective ‘bark’ and explore something more vulnerable inside of ourselves.  Sticks groups are psycho-educational or processing in nature.  Sticks groups may be called to teach a therapeutic concept, to process emotions, to allow students to do focused work within group, to practice expressing themselves, resolve conflicts, or develop relationships.

Initiatives

Initiatives are basically games that teach a lesson.  At Footsteps we are working with an age group of students that learn more actively and enthusiastically when engaged beyond just talking.  Cooperative games, problem solving, and movement-based lessons are all common throughout the week at Footsteps. These activity-based lessons are not only an effective teaching tool, but initiatives can help to make the emotional work more engaging, and allow students to reach a deeper level of understanding.