Critical Incident Stress Debriefing
Programs that help individuals (e.g., paramedics, police officers, disaster workers) who have been involved in emergency operations under conditions of extreme stress or people who have experienced or witnessed a traumatic event such as workplace or school violence recover from the traumatizing effects of the experience utilizing a therapeutic technique which enables them to process the event and put it behind them. A CISD enables workers and others to discuss what happened, their role in the event, the impact of the experience and skills for coping with the after effects. A CISD will generally alleviate the acute stress responses which sometimes appear at the scene or immediately thereafter and will at least inhibit delayed stress reactions which can appear days, weeks or even months later.
Equestrian Therapy
Programs that provide opportunities for individuals with any of a wide range of disabilities and others (e.g., victims of assault or abuse, people who have recently suffered a tragic loss, incarcerated offenders, at risk youth) to relate to, handle, groom and ride horses as a part of an experiential habilitation or therapy program in which the horse serves as a co-facilitator or co-therapist. Equestrian therapy provides an experience with horses that fosters growth, communication skills, self-esteem, self-awareness, healing and personal transformation. Clients learn about themselves and others by participating in activities with the horses, and then discussing feelings, behaviors and patterns. Therapy goals for different populations may differ, e.g., treatment for children with autism may focus on behavior modification and improvement.
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing
Programs that help individuals recover from a traumatic event such as combat experiences, rape, molestation, catastrophic loss or natural disaster through a procedure which uses physical movement in combination with other therapeutic techniques. The process is based on the hypothesis that traumatization causes an overexcitement of a specific locus of the brain producing a neural pathology that "freezes" the information in its original anxiety-producing form. EMDR permits the "frozen" information to be desensitized, reprocessed and adaptively integrated resulting in diffusion of the traumatic imagery and a reduction of negative client symptoms, e.g., emotional distress, intrusive thoughts, flashbacks and nightmares.
Horticultural Therapy
Programs that offer a form of therapy which enables individuals with mental, physical or developmental disabilities, substance abuse disorders, chronic health conditions or other problems to achieve self-expression and emotional release through gardening.
Music Therapy
Programs that offer a form of therapy which uses music and music-related activities to address the physical, emotional, cognitive and social needs of individuals with mental, physical or developmental disabilities, substance abuse disorders, chronic health conditions or other problems. Music therapists assess emotional well-being, physical health, social functioning, communication abilities, and cognitive skills through musical responses; and design music sessions for individuals and groups based on client needs using music improvisation, receptive music listening, song writing, lyric discussion, music and imagery, music performance and learning through music. Music can thus be used as a passive agent as in the case of listening to music to aid in reminiscence, reality orientation or relaxation; or as an active creative process in which the individual participates in musical production. Through musical involvement in the therapeutic context, clients' abilities are strengthened and transferred to other areas of their lives. Music therapy also provides avenues for communication that can be helpful to those who find it difficult to express themselves in words.
Play Therapy
Programs that utilize play as a form of catharsis to enable children to express feelings and emotions which, if allowed to build up, could cause or further maladjustment. Play therapy is also used as a tool for diagnosing the source of a child's difficulty.
