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.

Our Approach to Treatment of Mental Illness, Emotional Disturbance, and Mental Retardation

The framework for treatment at Cove Forge is based on the tenets of reality therapy. Our team of clinical professionals uses reality therapy to help the young men in treatment realize that they have control over their own behaviors and can make healthier choices to get their needs met.

What Is Reality Therapy?

Reality therapy is based on the premise that no matter what happened in the past, we choose our behaviors and can shape the course of our own futures. The goal of reality therapy is to help people reconnect – first with their counselor and then with others – by creating trusting relationships and discovering what they really want.

Developed by noted psychiatrist Dr. William Glasser in 1965, reality therapy is based on choice theory, which states that we are driven to satisfy five basic needs:

• Power: achievement and feelings of worthiness
• Love and Belonging: to groups as well as families or loved ones
• Freedom: independence, autonomy, having your own “space”
• Fun: pleasure and enjoyment
• Survival: nourishment, shelter, sex

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One of the core principles of reality therapy is that whether we are aware of it or not, we are constantly acting to meet these needs – but we don't necessarily act effectively. For example, socializing with people is an effective way to meet our need for belonging, while sitting in a corner and crying in the hope that people will come to us is generally an ineffective and painful way to meet that need.

When individuals are distressed or unhappy, reality therapy asks the individual to check if his basic psychological needs for power, belonging, freedom, and fun are being met. The three basic questions a reality therapist might ask are:

• What do you want?
• What are you doing to get what you want?
• Is it working?

Reality therapy acknowledges that the only person any of us can control is ourselves. Trying to control others or letting ourselves be controlled by others inevitably leads to pain and frustration. This is why it is vital to stick to what is in our control and to respect the right of other people to meet their needs.

Focusing on the things that are within the individual's control, the reality therapist helps the patient create a workable plan to get his needs met in the healthiest, most effective way. The therapist also helps the patient replace less effective approaches (such as using drugs or alcohol) with activities and approaches that have a fair chance of getting him what he wants in life.

One of the basic beliefs of practitioners of reality therapy is that changing what we do is the key to changing how we feel and to getting what we want. Thus, the emphasis in therapy is on changing our actions and thoughts, which eventually leads to a change in how we feel.

Although therapists at Cove Forge explore each adolescent's past in order to understand his current mental state, the focus is on empowering the client to satisfy his needs and wants in the present and in the future. In this sense, reality therapy is a therapy of hope, based on the conviction that we are products of the past but we do not have to go on being its victims.