As a treatment for depression and other mood disorders, behavioral activation is based on the theory that, as someone becomes depressed, you tend to increase avoidance and isolation, which serves to maintain or worsen your symptoms.

Our goal is to gradually decrease a patient’s avoidance and isolation and increase their engagement in activities which improve mood. This can include activities enjoyed before becoming depressed, activities related to a person’s values or even everyday items that get pushed aside such as:

•     Exercising
•     Going out to dinner
•     Improving relationships with family members
•     Working toward specific work-related goals
•     Learning new skills and activities
•     Showering regularly
•     Completing household chores

This therapy often includes keeping a record of activities to better understand patterns and identify behaviors that help improve mood.

Additional strategies may help to gain the necessary skills to do various tasks and work toward goals while also managing uncomfortable emotions that may arise during activities when feeling depressed. Patients move on to increasingly challenging activities as they experience improvements in mood. We also work with to improve sleep and diet patterns which are often impacted by periods of depression.

ERP is a component of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and considered the “treatment of choice” for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Also useful for treating other mental health conditions, such as phobias, panic disorders, generalized anxiety disorders and social anxieties, ERP is a key component of care for eating disorders at Reborn Therapy. This method gradually exposes a patient to feared thoughts, images or impulses and outcome studies show its effectiveness in reducing anxiety and distress over time.

Someone suffering from OCD experiences obsessions and compulsions. An obsession refers to a feared, oftentimes unrealistic situation that causes anxiety. Compulsions are repetitive behaviors used to reduce the anxiety brought on by the obsession. ERP helps you gradually confront obsessions and compulsions using:

1. Exposure: gradual and repetitive exposure to a feared situation
2. Response prevention: avoiding the impulse to use a compulsive behavior

The goal of ERP is to be exposed to a feared situation while avoiding the compulsive behavior long enough that the anxiety decreases. For example, if you have to get out of your car every time you run over a pothole because you’re afraid you’ve hit someone, the treatment team may ask you drive down bumpy roads for longer and longer intervals each time, without checking your car. Over time, you realize you can drive safely and the likelihood that you’ve hit someone is very slim.

This way of reducing anxiety is called habituation. Habituation is important because it’s the point at which someone no longer needs their impulsive behavior to reduce their anxiety. You know that if you sit with your anxiety long enough, it will decrease on its own.

Prolonged exposure is a type of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) which helps people with trauma (posttraumatic stress disorder) process single or multiple traumas or continuous trauma and reduce symptoms. The technique is also useful for decreasing depression, anger, and general anxiety.

After experiencing a traumatic event, a person’s brain goes into a survival mode and tries to protect them by recognizing possible threats related to the trauma, ensuring the trauma won’t occur again. These threats may include people, places or anything else that reminds the person of the trauma-inducing event.

Through individual therapy and assignments, prolonged exposure helps patients realize they can encounter stimuli that reminds them of the traumatic accident, assault, natural disaster or other event without fear. It also allows them to change their experiences with the event and find safety in their environment.

With prolonged exposure, patients learn:

• About common reactions to trauma and possible causes of your difficulties (psychoeducation)
• To re-visit or re-tell the traumatic memory (imaginal exposure)
• To gradually approach trauma reminders, such as feared situations or objects patients avoid, despite being safe.

Patients manage the pace of their treatment and gradually take the steps they’re ready to make. Many people who participate in prolonged exposure treatment show significant symptom reduction.

Also known as thought challenging, cognitive restructuring is a therapeutic technique which may be used to help identify negative thoughts. It’s common for those with depression, other mood disorders, or other mental illness to classify the world around them in negative ways. Our team will help evaluate the evidence for and against these thoughts so patients can follow realistic reasoning, rather than thoughts directed by their mental health challenges.

Part of DBT, mindfulness is a technique that helps decrease cycling negative thoughts, which may contribute to depression, other mood disorder, trauma, (posttraumatic stress disorder) or other mental health challenge. Once these thoughts are identified, patients are able to change their attention back to the present moment in a non-judgmental way.

This technique helps bring out a patient’s own determination to create positive change and achieve lasting recovery. As in all Reborn Therapy treatment, patients must be self-motivated to be successful in and out of our care.