Group Therapy
Group therapy is an important part of treatment at Valley View School. Students can benefit greatly from learning to talk about their issues in a supportive peer environment, guided by trained staff.
Process Group Therapy
We conduct process therapy groups on a weekly basis. We literally close down the campus during this time and conduct simultaneous groups with 5 students and three staff, at least one of whom is an advanced degree clinician. Students learn to identify and articulate positive and negative issues in their lives and give and accept supportive feedback to peers. Often we engage the students in “theme” groups, such as anger management, identifying feelings in others, assertiveness and so forth.
Specialty Group Therapy
There are some domains in which many of our students struggle, such as executive functioning, social behavior, and anxiety. We run specialty groups that are targeted to these areas of need. Among the groups we have run over the last year are; Executive function training program, social skills and self-regulation, anger management, mindfulness/meditation, yoga/meditation, and graduation preparation group. Most of these groups run for 6-8 weeks at a time.
Expressive Group Therapy
Since some of our students struggle to attach words to feelings, we have developed a series of expressive therapy groups that use various unique modalities such as art, music, drumming, and sculpture. Our students find that using these modalities for expression enhances their self-awareness, insight, and eventually, their ability to express their feelings within the social realm.
