Therapeutic Services

Northwest Journey consistently uses evidence-informed practices to provide high quality and effective mental health treatment to youth in our program. Our individualized and family centered treatment plans and approaches are developed with a strength-based and trauma-informed perspective.

The supportive and therapeutic environment, along with the treatment services we employ, enable the child and family to develop positive relationships, learn new and healthy skills, and make positive changes. Each child has an individualized treatment plan which allows us to tailor treatment services to meet his or her specific needs.

We draw on the strengths and coping skills children and families bring to the treatment process to help facilitate change and enhance healthy skills and relationships, which results in a more productive and satisfying life experience.

With children, behaviors are a method of communication. Because many of the children we see don’t have the ability to verbalize their emotions and process them effectively, they often use behaviors as a means of communicating their needs or in order to cope with their experiences and views of the world. We must listen to the child, seek to understand their behaviors, validate their needs, and address the behaviors. This process is critical in order to promote a comprehensive understanding of the child and his or her needs and a fully attentive treatment process that meets the child and family where they are.

Our clinical analysis looks at a child’s chronological age and development, intellectual age and development, and emotional age and development. A child’s individual experiences, personal characteristics, learning styles, intellectual abilities, maturity, etc. all influence the child and his/her needs and development.

We use our clinical knowledge and experience to examine the child and family’s history and current status to determine a comprehensive, individualized, clinical, evidence-informed approach that addresses the needs of the child and his or her family.

Therapeutic services include:

• • Individual Counseling – Individual counseling sessions are conducted regularly with each client to work on specific identified issues.

• • Family Counseling – Family counseling focuses on the specific needs of the child within the family.

• • Group Counseling – Groups are conducted throughout each day targeting the issues of each client, group goals, and skill building.  Groups are facilitated in discussion, educational, and experiential formats on such topic areas as living skills, errors in thinking, human development, anger management, communication, self-esteem, and alcohol and other drug issues.

• • Family Services – Group sessions are conducted to target family issues such as communication, family relations, children of divorce, and drug and alcohol abuse issues within the family.  Meetings with parents, families or alternative care providers are facilitated to assist families in a supportive and therapeutic manner.

• • Educational Services – Educational services are provided by an Educational Coordinator in a tutorial format for approximately one hour each day. Northwest Journey works collaboratively with the local school districts to coordinate the educational programming and to facilitate re-integration into the school system.

• • Coordination of Care – We partner with families and other providers to coordinate services.  Our goal is to create efficiencies and work together to increase the effectiveness of treatment.

• • Transitional Services – We recognize that transitions can be difficult for children and families.  We examine the clinical needs of the child and develop an individualized transition plan to address those needs.  We work with counties, schools, and families to develop and implement the plan.