Our Psychological Approach Science + Kindness = Change
We built South Keys Health at the intersection of science and kindness. From science, we get evidence-based principles, tools, and strategies proven to help people change; from kindness we get the glue that holds these ideas and practices together, making them meaningful and sustainable. As we see it—not just in general but over and over again with our clients: science plus kindness equals change.
At the core of all change is the decision to take action. Powerful tools exist for effecting change, but they are of little help if you have not first made the difficult decision to use them. At South Keys Health, we will help you identify your own personal and compelling reasons for change and map out a path you can endorse, not just endure.
Our positive, holistic approach is designed to support real and lasting change. Focusing solely on stopping unwanted behaviors is rarely as successful as developing a fuller and more fulfilling life. Our therapists use motivational and cognitive-behavioral strategies to help you accomplish your goals. We will collaborate with you to understand the relationship between your thoughts, emotions, sensory experiences, values, and behavior. We will help you make changes that leave you feeling better and more motivated, with greater mastery over your life, empowered to pursue what matters most to you.
PSYCHOLOGICAL TREATMENT AT SOUTH KEYS HEALTH
At South Keys, we know that one size does not fit all and that having a choice among effective, empirically based options predicts positive outcomes. In all of our programs we have a team of expert psychologists who are deeply trained in evidence-based approaches to treat PTSD and complex trauma. We will work with you to come up with treatment options that best suit your needs.
Psychological Assessments and Research
Taking the first step toward treating the impact of trauma on your life is a very important moment. While it can feel inspiring to finally ask for help, this step is often accompanied by questions, concerns, and uncertainties. If you decide you want to consider treatment for PTSD, we will complete a full assessment that is designed to be collaborative, encouraging, informative, and meaningful. An effective plan for change begins with a clear and in-depth understanding of you and the circumstances that have brought you to the point of considering additional support.
We rely on accurate assessment to guide and individually tailor your therapy. Your consultation will include a variety of standardized questionnaires as well as a comprehensive interview with a psychologist. This allows us to understand you in a more complete way, including your life circumstances and experiences, relationships, strengths, vulnerabilities, and goals.
The initial consultation will conclude with a collaborative discussion, where we will make recommendations to help you understand all of your options, including individual therapy or group therapy—in addition to other resources outside of South Keys Health Center, if appropriate. We can collaborate with other treatment providers working with you and will invite their input in developing a plan. If together we decide an outside referral is the best option for you, we will work to help you identify and connect with the best possible outside support to meet your needs.
EVIDENCE-BASED TREATMENTS FOR TRAUMA
Prolonged Exposure (PE)
Prolonged Exposure (PE) is a time-limited, evidence-based treatment that aims to reduce anxiety and improve your quality of life. Treatment consists of approximately eight to fifteen 90-minute sessions involving psychoeducation, breathing retraining, ongoing out-of-session practice, and imaginal and in vivo exposure. By exposing yourself directly to trauma reminders both in and out of session, you will gain experience confronting situations and memories that you have previously worked to avoid. You will come to learn that you can actually tolerate these situations and the feelings they provoke, a process called habituation. You will gain a new sense of competence and confidence as a result. Through guided imaginal exposure (repeatedly revisiting the traumatic memory) in session, you will come to realize that your trauma was a specific event occurring at a specific time and place in the past. In addition, you will also gain a new perspective on the memory and see that although memories can be very scary, they are not dangerous.
Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT)
Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) is a time-limited, evidence-based treatment of approximately 12 hour-long sessions, scheduled once or twice a week. CBT helps people recover from the effects of a traumatic event by examining the impact of this event on their lives and then identifying and changing unhelpful beliefs and emotions (“stuck points”) related to the event, themselves, others, and the world. CBT begins with psychoeducation about PTSD and barriers to recovery, including the role of avoidance and stuck points. Patients are then asked to complete a brief writing assignment about how the traumatic experience(s) affects them, to help identify these stuck points. (Patients may choose to write an account of the traumatic event itself, but this is optional.) CBT helps individuals evaluate their beliefs about the trauma and consider alternative viewpoints of the event and the circumstances around it. As CBT progresses, individuals begin focusing on their beliefs within five specific domains: safety, trust, power and control, self-esteem, and intimacy. People often find that these areas of their lives have been meaningfully affected by traumatic events. Patients are asked to complete worksheets about their thoughts between sessions. CBT has shown to be effective for a variety of people, including individuals who struggle with substance use and those who have had several traumatic experiences. No matter the trauma or the ways it may be interfering with your life, CBT can help lessen feelings of anxiety, anger, guilt, and shame; reduce distress related to memories of traumatic events; and reclaim your life from the effects of trauma—even when this seems impossible.
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is an integrative trauma treatment supported by research. The model on which it is based, Adaptive Information Processing (AIP), posits that many of the symptoms that follow a traumatic or adverse life event are due to inadequate or incomplete processing of the event. During EMDR treatment, traumatic memories are processed as the therapist leads the patient in sets of eye movements (or other forms of bilateral stimulation) with appropriate shifts and changes of focus until distress surrounding the trauma is significantly reduced. This dual-attention method allows for natural adaptive processing of the painful memory while feeling safely grounded in the present. Common trauma symptoms for which EMDR therapy is used include: distressing recall of images or related memories, current attempts to avoid reminders of the event or triggers, mood symptoms, heightened anxiety and fear, hypervigilance, somatic complaints, negative self-concept, guilt and shame, flashbacks or nightmares related to the experience, heightened irritability and anger, difficulty sleeping, social disconnection or withdrawal, difficulty concentrating, and in some cases dissociation.
Skills Training in Affective and Interpersonal Regulation (STAIR)
Skills Training in Affective and Interpersonal Regulation (STAIR) is an evidence-based, time-limited treatment that addresses PTSD and complex trauma. STAIR teaches people skills, which a traumatized individual might not have learned due to early traumatic experiences, or which may have diminished due to prolonged or chronic trauma later in life. STAIR is a two-phase treatment, each phase consisting of approximately 8 sessions. The first phase focuses on handling negative feelings, managing distress, and developing emotional awareness. Phase I also prepares you to work effectively in the more emotionally demanding Phase II, which involves discussion and analysis of painful memories of childhood trauma. The goal of Phase II, or Narrative Story Telling (NST), is to organize your memories of trauma and resolve your feelings about them, so that you are able to control the memories rather than the memories controlling you. In addition, the process of describing your past is a means by which you will be able to identify beliefs about yourself, as well as patterns of relating that might have been adaptive in abuse circumstances but are not helpful in current relationships. The skills training from Phase I will help you leave behind old patterns of functioning and develop interpersonal behaviors and emotion management strategies that are consistent with your current life goals. We offer both group and individual STAIR services.