1. Educational Discussion
2. Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
3. Intra-Interpersonal
4. Experiential

I. Educational Discussion

These groups are designed to help young people develop the skills to manage the complex and contradictory feelings of emerging in the following areas:

Mentalizing Group

Attachment & Coping Styles

Self-Healing

Healthy Relationships

Creating Community

Community & Career Building

Healthy Living

Goals Group

Weekend Planning

Mentalizing Group

Mentalizing Group teaches the concepts and skills for successful mentalizing, i.e., the spontaneous sense we have of ourselves and others as persons whose actions are based on mental states: desires, needs, feelings, reasons, and beliefs.  Normally, when we interact with others, we automatically go beneath the surface, basing our responses on a sense of what underlies the other person’s behavior. Thus, we are naturally mind readers, and mentalizing entails accurate and effective mind reading.  This process of mentalizing comes so naturally to us that we easily overlook its significance. To understand psychiatric treatment, however, we must pay careful attention to mentalizing and the conditions under which this basic human capacity becomes impaired.

Mentalizing implicitly and explicitly is the basis of self-awareness and a sense of identity. When we mentalize, we have a feeling of self-agency, being in control of our own behavior. When we mentalize we cannot help but empathize by seeing things from the other person’s perspective. While empathizing, we retain self-awareness, a sense of where we are coming from. Such intuitive empathizing—with ourselves and with others—is the cornerstone of healthy relationships and ordinary human interactions. Mentalizing allows us to develop a sense of self that includes a sense of coherence, continuity and responsibility for our choices and behavior. At the same time, mentalizing makes possible our engagement in reciprocal, sustaining relationships.

By integrating a sense of self and a sense of connection with others, mentalizing enables us to manage losses and trauma, as well as distressing feelings such as:

• Frustration
• Anger
• Sadness
• Anxiety
• Shame
• Guilt

When mentalizing, we manage these feelings without resorting to automatic fight-or-flight responses or efforts to cope that are ultimately self-destructive or maladaptive. Instead, coping and self-regulating responses based on mentalizing preserve flexibility and choice.

A growing body of evidence points to mentalizing as the key to resilience—the ability to adapt successfully to adversity, challenges and stress, and demonstrates, for example, that persons who can mentalize in the face of trauma—including childhood trauma—are less vulnerable to psychiatric disorders.  Research is also demonstrating that adjustment and quality of life of people with various psychiatric disorders is ultimately determined by abilities that result from mentalizing.

<< back to top

Attachment & Coping Styles

Mentalizing, narrative and attachment are inextricably linked. Attachment styles and associated coping patterns are developed from infancy and beyond as mentalizing occurs in our earliest relationships, and our life narrative unfolds. This occurs at the neurobiological and relational level with experience directly forming brain organization. Emerging adult brains are developmentally open to structural change through changes in relating. In this group, members learn about the attachment process and identify their primary attachment style. Discussion focuses on how it developed and is reinforced in relationships in the present.  Further focus on coping styles and self-regulation offers members opportunities to work on challenging and strengthening personal patterns. The ultimate goal is to improve upon problematic attachment patterns, particularly within therapy relationships.

<< back to top

Self-Healing

Self-healing Group trains participants in scientifically validated methods to activate the body’s own natural self-healing mechanisms. These practices include:

• Neuro-Resonance Training
• Bio-electromagnetic Therapy
• Heart-Math
• Guided Visualization and Imagery
• Focused Intention
• Positive Psychology
• Bio-energy Analysis
• Balancing, Breathing and Relaxation
• Meditation and Prayer
• Healing Music
• Self-Hypnosis

These methods optimize responses to both psychological and medical treatments, and promote long-term health and well-being.

<< back to top

Healthy Relationships

This group explores the interaction, communication (verbal and nonverbal) and emotional styles that characterize relationships with family, friends, romantic partners and work associates. Group members learn to identify their own positive and negative relationship patterns as well as how to “read” other people, choose and pace relationships mindfully, express themselves clearly and directly, establish healthy boundaries, and resolve interpersonal conflicts.  Both didactic and experiential approaches are utilized.

<< back to top

Creating Community

As emerging adults individuate from their families and shape their lives, the creation of a personal community and support system becomes increasingly important.  This group explores ways to maintain support in the face of distress.  Members identify personal goals and plans of action for the week relating to creating and preserving bonds and developing a social support network.  Group members discuss possible obstacles to success and provide each other with their own personal insights and problem-solving skills.  Continuity and community building develops over time by supporting one another and discussing the previous week’s events.

<< back to top

Community & Career Building

Members are encouraged to talk about how they envision their futures (career, school, etc.), and discuss past vocational experiences to build insight into current needs. The Community and Career Building Group is a place for members to network around common interests and participate in group activities that will help them identify their vocational values.
Focus areas include:

• Career Planning
• Exploration
• Networking
• Goal Setting
• Interests and Values

<< back to top

Healthy Living

This psycho-educational group focuses on the skills necessary for living independently.  Lifestyle skills are addressed with an emphasis on self-care and proper nourishment, health and hygiene.  Strategies for developing the skills necessary to live alone and make health a priority are introduced.  The group emphasizes the development of organizational skills around daily tasks that are often taken for granted, including:

• Meal Planning and Preparation
• Grocery Shopping
• Exercise 
• Leisure Planning

Nutrition education is a cornerstone of this group.  A structured, goal-oriented format is the basis for the development of these healthy behaviors.

<< back to top

Goals Group

Yellowbrick helps emerging adults develop effective self-organizational skills and patterns that promote independent living. The focus of this group is on identifying and making plans toward desired outcomes and valued destinations.  Members’ visions for their lives are translated into goals that are measurable, specific and readily attainable. Goals Group is designed to improve the capacity for setting measurable goals and developing a strategic plan for identifying and taking action steps towards achieving them. There is an ongoing assessment of the efficacy of these action plans. Research demonstrates positive effects from goal groups including increased satisfaction with the treatment program, positive impact on mood stability, relapse prevention and ability to go beyond symptoms in order to reach specific goals.

<< back to top

Weekend Planning

Unstructured time on the weekend provides an opportunity for relaxation and fulfillment. For some emerging adults it becomes a time of anxiety and disconnection. This group promotes planning for the weekend with values, desires and needs kept in balance.

<< back to top

II. Dialectical Behavior Therapy (Dbt)

Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) is a research-supported treatment which combines cognitive-behavioral theory and methods with Eastern meditative principles and practices. DBT addresses problems in regulating emotions, painful or maladaptive patterns of thinking, and self-defeating, self-injuring or impulsive behavior.

Group Skills Training

• A skills training group combines lecture, discussion and practice exercises to develop and refine skills in:
• Mindfulness, a non-judgmental, present moment awareness and acceptance
• Emotion Regulation, the identification of emotions, managing emotional reactivity and increasing positive emotional experiences
• Interpersonal Effectiveness, improving interpersonal interactions and relationships while maintaining self-respect
• Distress Tolerance, skills for tolerating painful events and emotions

<< back to top

III. Intra-Interpersonal

Many of the skills learned in other Yellowbrick formats are practiced in these groups.

Group Psychotherapy

Narrative Psychotherapy

Men’s/Women’s Group

Self-Identity & Life Planning

Self-Integration

Interpersonal Group Psychotherapy

Interpersonal Group Psychotherapy In this interpersonal process group the focus is on relationships among members as well as the discussion content. Participants share their own experience and hear how others approach similar issues and problems. Those in the group receive vital support and encouragement while also being challenged by peers and staff. Each emerging adult in the group can try out new ways of experiencing themselves and others in a safe, supportive environment, as well as learning how others perceive them.

<< back to Intra-Interpersonal

Narrative Psychotherapy

Narrative or story-telling is a natural extension of mentalizing. Reflections on present and past fragmented emotions, thoughts and behaviors are organized into a coherent self-story. This allows critical experiences to be integrated into a life story rather than persist in fragments that may contribute to anxiety, disconnection and other psychiatric symptoms that interfere with functioning. Story-telling contributes to the formation of identity and gives meaning to experiences that may stand alone in time. Multiple meanings may be constructed about an experience as the facilitator leads the process of deconstructing individual narratives through careful questioning. This process helps the individual distinguish the self from his or her problems. These stories may be written or verbalized. Group members are encouraged to be active listeners and to provide feedback and support.

<< back to Intra-Interpersonal

Men’s/Women’s Group

This group is divided along gender lines. Relationships between members of the group are explored in a safe environment which allows others to reflect on their relationships within the here and now, and perceptions of self and others in the group. The group also focuses on educational aspects of sexuality, physiology, history of gender roles, and health.
Discussion centers around the influence of:

• Gender Roles
• Life Experience
• Same-Gender Friendships
• Intimate Relationships
• Gender Identity
• Self Experience

<< back to Intra-Interpersonal

Self-Identity & Life Planning

This group is based on the developmental research of Jeffery Arnett, PhD and Yellowbrick Board of Advisors member Jennifer Tanner, PhD. As emerging adults separate from their parents, they experience new roles and develop their identity. They begin to ask themselves who they are and what they need. This group explores critical issues of this stage such as:

• Identity exploration in love and work
• Instabilities
• Self-focusing
• Feeling a sense of being “in-between”
• How to sort out the multiple possibilities and opportunities available to them

This group addresses the changes that occur between adolescence and adulthood and how to move towards coping and acceptance. Discussing responsibilities and inter-dependence with peers provides a sounding board for reflection. Failures and disappointments can be viewed as illuminating through the process of examination. Participants develop a life plan template to use now and in the future.

<< back to Intra-Interpersonal

Self-Integration

This group is based on the work of Pat Ogden, PhD, and colleagues at the Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Institute in Boulder, CO. Every emotional experience has a bodily component. In traditional psychotherapy the focus is primarily on word-based thinking. Narratives alone can keep therapy at a surface level and trauma may remain unresolved. An over-emphasis on logical, linguistic, linear and literal thinking may tilt the balance of our minds away from the important sensorimotor, holistic, stress-reducing, image-based, self-regulatory functions of our non-verbal modes of processing experience.  This group focuses on turning toward the body with mindfull awareness of the here-and-now sensory experience.  This opens the pathways to integration and deep emotional healing.

<< back to Intra-Interpersonal

<< back to top

IV. Experiential

Experiential therapies provide an environment where individuals can explore emotions with both traditional and non-traditional media.  Emphasis is placed on the creative process rather than the product.  Unconscious feelings and internal conflicts may be brought to the surface and resolved symbolically.  Art provides an experiential versus verbal solution to problems where increased self-esteem and self-awareness may be found.

Art Therapy

Connections

Creative Leisure

Drama Therapy

Movie Night

Music Appreciation

Open Studio - Makom

Relaxation Group

Yoga

Art Therapy

Art therapy provides a safe and structured environment in which individuals can explore emotions with both traditional and non-traditional media.  Emphasis is placed on the creative process rather than the product.  Unconscious feelings and internal conflicts may be brought to the surface and resolved symbolically.  The art therapist facilitates dialogue with one’s own art.  The therapeutic value offered by meditation on art is generally an infusion of imagination and awareness rather than a specific answer.  It is the role of the art therapist to help find comfort in this.  Art provides an experiential rather than verbal experience through which healthy solutions to problems, increased self-esteem and self-awareness may be found.

<< back to Experiential

Connections

As emerging adults move toward greater independence it is critical to have opportunities for informal social connection. Connections Group is one of a number of places within Yellowbrick where this occurs. This group meets daily during the lunch hour and is comprised of people with and without eating disorders. For individuals who struggle with eating disorders, eating itself may cause anxiety, and often requires skilled support and accountability. Eating with
others may pose further difficulties. 

Because this part of the day can be challenging, the emphasis is on making things easier and providing nourishment in a non-threatening supportive atmosphere. For those without eating disorders it provides a relaxed social networking opportunity.  Participation offers a forum to get acquainted outside of the therapeutic environment while making connections with one another.

<< back to Experiential

Creative Leisure

Psychological distress frequently leads to a decreased capacity to find pleasure and joyfulness.  The Creative Leisure group is an arena where individuals playfully explore tools for relaxation in new and creative ways. The focus is on taking risks within a social setting and developing new skills and strategies.

Members will take a leadership role in choosing directions.  Members who integrate these tools may be better able to translate them to daily life and experience a sense of well being in the face of adversity.

<< back to Experiential

Drama Therapy

Under the guidance of a seasoned therapist, individuals use role-play and other forms of character enactment to live out specific problems and experiences on a “stage” with others as a means of heightening their awareness. The therapist serves as the director, suggesting how participants might enact certain situations and assigning roles to other group members.

<< back to Experiential

Movie Night

This informal group takes place in Makom with a focus on social connection and exploration of issues relevant to the emerging adult.  Members make the selection of the film and process the experience through facilitated discussion. A movie curriculum relevant to “coming of age” and mental health-related themes is available as a reference.

<< back to Experiential

Music Appreciation

Whether it’s listening or playing, music is an essential part of the emerging adult experience. From the eye to the note on a page, the touch of a finger on a string or key, the connections increase the brain’s activity.  Group members are invited to listen or learn.

We can better grasp how music affects us through an understanding of how hormones create stress in the body and how stress hormones affect the brain. While research indicates that hormone levels are changed after exposure to music, there is no simple relationship between music, stress, and hormones.

Music's inherent symmetry and organizational principles tap into a deep human need to order, or manage, our environment. Its nonverbal essence may enable physical, mental and emotional benefits beyond aural enjoyment, due to the plasticity of the brain which is active during infancy and early childhood, and even into emerging adulthood and older age.

<< back to Experiential

Open Studio: Makom

Open Studio at Makom is a place for relaxation, creation and connection.  It is the role of the Creative Arts Coordinator to facilitate, through education, encouragement and role modeling, the creative process. Yellowbrick intentionally created a non-institutionalized space in which the emerging adult may take a leadership role in the design and building of their own environment. The philosophy of Makom is to maintain a space that is consistent in nature to those frequented by the emerging adult.  It is a space conducive to long-term projects and visualization.

The environment naturally stimulates socialization amongst participants as they observe others’ work and engage in group and individual projects. Ideas and needs are brought to the Creative Arts Coordinator and explored within a group setting before implementation.  Building furniture, a movie projection system and quiet spaces for reflection are all examples of such endeavors.  Respect for each other’s work and keeping Makom a place of peace and growth is ideal. Makom is available for use at the discretion of the emerging adult with designated times when the Creative Arts Coordinator is available for mentoring.

<< back to Experiential

Relaxation Group

Breathing can be equally powerful in the mind and body. Like mindfulness of our thoughts, mindful tending to one’s breathing helps with relaxation, centering and anxiety reduction.  In fact, the neurobiology of deep breathing is such that it is not possible for anxiety to remain unaffected when deep breathing is truly happening. Relaxation is essential for restorative sleep. This group meets before bedtime in order to promote healthy sleep. Other means of relaxing such as visualization are also taught.

<< back to Experiential

Yoga

Yoga instruction either individually or in groups assists in the development of a centered sense of self, mindfulness practice and an affirmative, empowered relationship to one’s body.

<< back to Experiential

<< back to top

<< back to Programs - Life Strategies Program

At Yellowbrick, emerging adults find their way home.

For more information, please contact Yellowbrick at 866.364.2300.