Therapeutic Approach
Every adolescent who receives treatment at Cove Forge participates in a treatment program that is tailored to his special needs. Residents participate in individual therapy at least once a week, group therapy four days a week, and family therapy at least twice a month, as well as a variety of workshops and educational courses. Residents also participate in experiential ropes therapy on our 16-station high and low ropes course twice a week.
The Ten Axioms of Choice Theory
- The only person whose behavior we can control is our own.
- All we can give or get from other people is information. How we deal with that information is our or their choice.
- All long-lasting psychological problems are relationship problems.
- The problem relationship is always part of our present lives.
- What happened in the past that was painful has a great deal to do with what we are today, but revisiting this painful past can constitute little or nothing to what we need to do now: improve an important, present relationship.
- We are driven by five basic needs: survival, love and belonging, power, freedom, and fun.
- We can satisfy these needs only by satisfying pictures in our quality worlds. Of all we know, what we choose to put into our quality worlds is the most important.
- All we can do from birth to death is behave. All behavior is total behavior, and is made up of four components: acting, thinking, feeling, and physiology.
- All total behavior is designated by verbs, usually infinitives and gerunds and named by the component that is most recognizable. For example, I am choosing to depress, or I am depressing instead of I am suffering from depression or I am depressed.
- All total behavior is chosen, but we have direct control over the acting and thinking components. We can, however, control our feelings and physiology indirectly through how we choose to act and think.