Clinical
Our Approach to Therapy
An innovative and collaborative clinical team is at the core of Pacific Quest’s therapeutic approach. With deep, varied experience, the team creates individualized, client-focused treatment plans supported by the entire clinical team’s expertise. With a minimum of four therapy days each week, students receive support from primary therapists, support therapists, group therapy, and program therapists.
Individual Therapy
Every resident and family is assigned a primary individual therapist to lead each journey from beginning to end. The admissions team, referring professionals, application review, and the Clinical Director assign therapists through a collaborative process.
Primary therapists meet with their residents three times per week, including a weekly family therapy call. Therapists work with an average caseload of just five students. This allows the primary therapist to collaborate with the wellness, psychiatric, program guide, and home teams to ensure an individualized, meaningful experience beyond regular sessions.
Support Therapy
Individualized treatment plans often draw from the experience and expertise of our entire team. As a result, we often add support therapists to a student’s experience to augment their journey with a particular therapeutic lens or intervention. These support therapy sessions are in addition to a resident’s regular therapy sessions and include EMDR, Sandplay Therapy, and a range of evidence-based practices.
Group Therapy
Pacific Quest’s therapeutic approach holds that a safe, supportive community is the cornerstone of a successful treatment experience. Our team facilitates group therapy sessions each week, creating space for students to engage with diverse perspectives, insights, and skills. Groups can be topic- or process-driven and provide a platform for a supportive, safe community experience. PQ holds these group and peer group discussions daily to help our residents address goals, explore issues, and receive constructive feedback.
Program Therapists
PQ maintains a team of program therapists who are credentialed clinicians that facilitate extra individual and group work an additional four days a week.
Psychological Testing
Pacific Quest coordinates independent psychological and psycho-educational testing with a number of licensed psychologists. These experts specialize in evaluating students within our unique context and environment.
Cognitive and academic testing — provides valuable insight into your learning profile, including cognitive strengths and weaknesses. It can also help rule out learning differences, which (when undetected) can contribute to emotional distress.
Personality testing — gives us insight into your coping style, self-appraisal, and interpersonal relationships, while also clarifying diagnostic issues.
Pacific Quest can also offer several testing options based on your individual needs. For example, testing can be tailored to issues of learning differences, traumatic brain injury, and autism spectrum disorders.
Example Evidence Based Approaches Used at Pacific Quest:
- Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
- Attachment Based Therapy
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
- Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT)
- Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) Therapy
- Expressive Arts Therapies
- Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)
- Family Systems
- Mindfulness-Based Practices
- Motivational Interviewing
- Recovery Management
- Somatic/Body-Based Therapies
- Trauma-Focused CBT
- * Trauma Based Therapy
