Prioritizing the Individual
At Paradigm Treatment, we prioritize the whole individual through every aspect of our treatment programs. From the moment we receive your call, we are already implementing this philosophy, which governs the foundations of our work from the moment potential clients and their families first engage with our Admissions team. We utilize thorough evaluations and assessments before clients even enter our facilities. By the time they arrive, we have already assembled a customized treatment team which includes highly trained medical, clinical and psychological staff. This team carefully constructs tailored treatment plans to suit each client’s individual needs, and this plan is closely evaluated and modified as needed. Our teams have the capacity to quickly pivot towards more efficacious solutions for clients in real time, rather than sticking to a script that may not work in vivo. We also have the ability to extend our program, so as to offer enhanced and expanded care for individuals in our program who come to need it. We can determine this need due in part to the fact that we are perpetually monitoring clients, to ensure that they are getting the best possible care, in the safest possible environment, and with the greatest amount of efficacy. At Paradigm, our treatment programs are extensive, individualized and incorporate a number of high effective, evidence-based approaches designed to provide teens and young adults with coping skills and strategies designed to last a lifetime.
Evaluations and Assessments Light the Way
Upon admission, every client at Paradigm Treatment receives a battery of comprehensive evaluations that consider the whole individual. These include but are not limited to extensive psychiatric, psychological and medical evaluations, as well as nutritional and educational assessments. We utilize these thorough methodologies at the outset so as to optimize treatment and achieve greater efficacy and success both while clients are receiving treatment and after they leave our programs. We believe that in order to create meaningful, individualized treatment plans, conducting such assessments before treatment begins is a vital part of the process and a cornerstone to effective treatment. Moreover, we have found that building treatment exclusively upon a client’s presenting behaviors or surface mental health symptoms can only really show us a part of the picture, when examining the whole person goes a long way towards lasting efficacy. We believe that mental health exists in profound connectivity to physical health and social well-being. It is for this reason that we provide all clients with comprehensive diagnostic testing during their first 48 hours of treatment, and we continue to closely assess client’s progress throughout their stay with us.
Effective Residential Mental Health Treatment
Effective residential treatment involves supporting clients in crisis by empowering them to discover insights and learn coping strategies that will assist them with their ongoing healing journey, long after they leave our program. Thirty days is widely considered to be the norm for an adolescent’s or young adult’s residential treatment stay, however frequently more time is needed to properly address the complex issues that our clients bring into our program. At Paradigm we assess clients on an ongoing basis so that if more time is needed in our programs, we can actively pivot to accommodate these needs. It is our mandate that every moment spent in treatment should be leveraged for maximum therapeutic value. As such, we build out robust program schedules with daily individual and regular group therapy sessions that are tailored to each individual’s treatment goals. It goes without saying that no two clients respond to the same approach in the same way. One young person may be very verbal and thrive in traditional group therapy, while another may find their voice in more intimate, individual settings or while partaking in experiential therapies. We carefully assess how each client is doing and we actively build on their unique strengths and interests in real time.
Evidence-Based Treatment Through Research
At Paradigm Treatment, we follow the ethos of the latest research conducted by peer-reviewed psychologists, psychiatrists, educators and others, who have found that a strengths-based approach can yield dramatically better long-term results than those of a deficit-based approach. We strongly believe that young people and their families are resilient, competent people who possess unique talents, skills and interests. Building on strengths empowers clients and their families to have more frequent opportunities for success. Such an approach affords the treatment team with opportunities to utilize each client’s natural abilities and skills as an efficient and effective path for engagement and positive change.
At Paradigm, we use evidence-based treatments that couple the best of both traditional and progressive modalities. We find that this approach not only enriches the experience for all, but that it is essential to effectively meet the diverse and complex needs of teens and young adults in our program. Our extensive range of modalities include CBT, DBT, Trauma-informed therapy, Family Systems Therapy, Psychodynamic Therapy, as well as Neurotransmitter Testing, Urinalysis, Individual Therapy, Group Therapy, Family Therapy, Multi-Family Therapy, Psycho-Education Groups, Narrative Therapy, Recreational Therapy, Bio Feedback, Yoga, Somatic Therapy, Parent Effectiveness Training, Equine Therapy, Art and Music Therapy, Psycho-Educational Groups, Gender Specific Groups, Animal Assisted Therapy, and more.
Buttressing our treatment approach is our commitment to collaboration. While our team can provide clients with valuable training and expertise, we also recognize that young people and their families are most often the best experts on themselves. As such, we ask our clients and their families to come to our program as full partners in the creation and implementation of your own individualized treatment plan. We can also actively collaborate with any therapist or treatment professional with whom a youth may already be engaged. Such collaborations frequently allow us to achieve treatment goals more expeditiously and help to create smoother transitions to life after Paradigm.
Below, meet Lucy Nguyen, Executive Director.
Mental Health Conditions Treated at Paradigm
At Paradigm we work closely to prioritize the individual client and their family to treat issues that include but are not limited to:
- ADHD or attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder is a complex condition which can vary in severity and how it is expressed. Signs and symptoms of ADHD can include a lack of focus or sometimes a hyper-focus. It impacts emotional regulation and self-control. Teens and young adults with ADHD often have difficulty in school. ADHD can be managed with medication, individual and family therapy and life skills development. Without treatment, ADHD can have serious consequences on learning and mental health. At Paradigm, we provide patients with the tools to manage their ADHD and to build healthy habits around organization, time management, and emotional regulation.
- Anxiety Disorder occurs frequently in teenagers and young adults and often manifests in persistent and severe worries, irritability, agitation, or restlessness, feelings of doom, danger or irrational fears as well as difficulty concentrating. It includes Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder( OCD), PTSD and trauma, Panic Disorder and Social Anxiety Disorder. At Paradigm, we use multiple modalities to treat anxiety disorder based upon the severity and the cause. Interventions using therapies, medications and/or lifestyle modifications can successfully treat anxiety disorders.
- Personality Disorders, which often first appear in adolescence,present many obstacles to social, emotional and developmental well-being. These disorders cause destructive patterns of thinking and behaviors. These include Obsessive-compulsive Personality Disorder (OCD), Narcissistic Personality Disorder, Borderline Personality Disorder, Avoidant Personality Disorder, Histrionic Personality Disorder, Paranoid, Schizoid, and other disorders/ At Paradigm, our clinicians perform an in-dept assessment to identify the presentation each patient may suffer from. Using our evidence-based approach we build a unique plan to teach them healthy coping, emotional regulation and life skills and help them embrace healthy habits for daily living.
- PTSD and Trauma is a mental health condition and anxiety disorder triggered by a traumatic event such as physical assault, childhood physical, abuse, sexual violence, being threatened with a weapon, being involved in or witnessing an accident, shooting, or bombing, or experiencing a natural disaster. Symptoms can develop within one month or many years later. PTSD symptoms may include intrusive memories, avoidance, negative changes in cognition, thinking and mood or alterations in arousal and reactivity.
- Depression is common in teens and young adults and can develop from a variety of sources including changes and abnormalities in brain chemistry or past trauma. The most common risk factors are a family history of depression and stress. During the emotional rollercoaster of adolescence, depression can create difficulties with relationships, work and in school. Severe cases can lead to self-harm or even suicide. We treat depression with a combination of therapies, medications, lifestyle therapies such as exercise, meditation and diet, along with experiential modalities such as art or music therapy or animal-assisted therapy.
- Bipolar Disorder which used to be referred to as manic depressive disorder, alternates between manic and depressive episodes. It involves shifts in mood, energy and functional ability. This disorder requires lifelong management but at Paradigm we help treat it with a variety of medications and therapies to help teens learn coping strategies and psychoeducation to equip patients and their families with facts.
- Eating Disorders have the highest death rates of all mental illness and 95% of people with eating disorders in our country are between the ages of 12 and 25. There are a wide variety of symptoms of eating disorders some of which can be fatal. The subtypes of eating disorders are Anorexia Nervosa, Bulimia Nervosa, Rumination Disorder, Binge-Eating Disorder, Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder and Body Dysmorphic Disorder. During group, individual and family therapies, our experienced and caring therapists and clinicians at Paradigm help patients alter their distorted thinking patterns and to build and increase self-esteem so they can achieve long-term recovery.
- The Grief and loss that a teen or young adult may experience when a loved one dies or a traumatic event occurs, can cause them to get stuck emotionally, or to shut down and withdraw from their daily lives. They may suffer from anger, guilt, anxiety, nightmares, depression, apathy, and sometimes substance abuse which they use to self-medicate their pain. At Paradigm, we help our patients earn to process their grief on the deepest level and in healthy introspective ways.
- Substance Abuse recovery often means that teens and young adults may experience some symptoms of withdrawal .After the client is medically stable they begin to address the underlying contributors that led to substance abuse, while benefitting from therapies in a serene, residential and social setting. With the help of our skilled and experienced therapists, we help our patients identify their underlying stressors, triggers, behaviors and faulty belief systems that underly their substance abuse. Helping our Paradigm clients understand these is fundamental to their success and lasting recovery.
- Suicidal Ideation is when someone has thoughts or a preoccupation with the idea of suicide. Parents feel afraid and overwhelmed when they fear their adolescent may try to harm themselves or has suicidal thoughts. The highest prevalence of suicide is during the ages of 15-24.Suicidal Ideation is often a symptom of another mental health diagnosis which puts teens and young people at increased risk especially those with a history of Depression, Bipolar Disorder or Substance Abuse. Other increased risk factors include those with a history of physical, emotional or sexual abuse, PTSD, or other mood or anxiety disorders. Suicidal thoughts vary in intensity, duration and character and can happen without a clear warning. But with a combination of medication and psychotherapy, our highly-trained clinicians and therapists can help young adults and teens process their emotions and identify their triggers to overcome suicidal thoughts and to deal with their underlying pain.
- Dual Diagnoses are when a patient has a mental health condition and an overlapping addiction. If one is left untreated, the other can be dangerous or even fatal. It is common for those suffering from substance abuse to have a co-occurring mental health disorder. At Paradigm, we diagnose and treat dual diagnoses we create a specific plan for each individual to ensure each patient gets the help and care they need for each specific diagnosis.