Welcome to Northbrook Behavioral Hospital
- 856.374.6500
Welcome to Northbrook Behavioral Hospital
Adjunctive Therapy encompasses a wide variety of therapeutic modalities including clinical mental health counseling, marriage and family therapy, substance abuse counseling, creative arts therapy, recreation therapy, and peer support specialists.
Our therapists are trained in evidence-based techniques and practices and incorporate a wide variety of therapeutic options as indicated by the clinician’s training and specialization and based on the recovery-oriented principles of empowerment, self-direction, and choice.
Sessions are informed by evidence-based practices including cognitive behavior therapy (CBT), person-centered therapy (PCT), motivational interviewing (MI), and mindfulness-based approaches. Therapeutic programming is designed to address the individualized needs of the patients as outlined in their treatment plan.
Groups are designed to help patients explore their problems from a variety of perspectives based on clinical needs.
Northbrook’s acclaimed Adjunctive Therapy Department is virtually unparalleled in any hospital of its kind. The robust department includes 20 full-time adjunct therapists who are highly trained and credentialed in a broad range of specialties. These include: 5 Mental Health Counselors, 6 Music Therapists (with cross-training in mental health counseling), Art Therapist, Chaplain/Counselor with Spirituality Focus, Marriage/Family Therapist, Recreation Therapist, 4 Substance Abuse Counselors including an LCADC, and a Peer Recovery Support Specialist.
Research supports the value and effectiveness of using counseling and therapy across many diagnostic conditions, and particularly for severe mental illness.
For example, studies concerning Cognitive Behavior Therapy interventions for inpatient psychiatric patients indicated reductions in depression ratings as well as in positive symptoms of schizophrenia. Using psychoeducation combined with CBT-based group interventions, Adjunctive Therapy staff members help patients gain awareness about how they think and feel; build coping skills to manage their stressors, triggers, and challenges more effectively; and explore changes they can make in their behaviors and choices that will positively influence their relationships and achieve therapeutic goals.Research supporting the effectiveness of expressive arts therapies in psychiatric settings is prolific. Studies have demonstrated that adding music therapy, art therapy, and movement therapy as supplementary components to a treatment plan contributed to reducing symptoms of psychosis, as well as improvement in mood symptoms and in global state.
These treatment modalities are typically a pleasant and enjoyable experience, with clinicians trained to acknowledge and treat the underlying conditions or symptoms that emerge through the creative modalities. As such, Creative Art Therapies offer opportunities for patients to explore their thoughts, feelings, and lived experience.
A Peer Support program has been shown to reduce recidivism and aggression, lower the use of restraints, and promote engagement in aftercare plans.
Our peer support specialists engage patients to develop their own Wellness Recovery Action Plan, which is an intervention shown to produce positive changes in self-management attitudes, skills, and behaviors, as well as increases in hopefulness, awareness of early warning signs and symptom triggers, and instilling personal responsibility.
Substance Abuse counselors facilitate daily groups specifically tailored towards individuals with co-occurring disorders, counseling persons in various stages of change.
Substance Abuse groups are designed to meet the recovery needs of dual diagnosis, including 12-Step Groups, Emotion Regulation, CBT, Relapse Prevention, Seeking Safety, Coping Skills, Families and Recovery, and Healthy Lifestyles.
Group therapy provides a safe space for patients to share their struggles and overcome problematic behaviors and patterns of thinking/feeling through the support and understanding of peers and engagement in therapeutic interventions. To promote partnership and autonomy support, and to individualize group content, AT offers choices and options for patients, often scheduling simultaneous sessions. SAMHSA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration) outlines six principles of recovery-oriented practice. These include establishing safety, trustworthiness, and transparency, facilitating peer support, fostering collaboration and mutuality, facilitating empowerment, and addressing cultural, historical, and gender issues. Our team of trained clinicians is committed to providing trauma-informed care, groups that focus on creating safety and regulation, and creative arts modalities to help our clients improve their regulation and integration in a supportive manner. In our groups, we apply both psychoeducation and processing to help patients understand how the things that happened to them may impact their current lived experience and move towards health and healing.
