A FAMILIAR QUESTION: “What is the difference between denial and anosognosia?”

Our training services are designed for Psychologists, Psychiatrists, Psychoanalysts, Social Workers, Mental health Counselors, Service Coordinators (SC), Case Managers, Nurses, Educators, Home and Community Support Services (HCSS), Independence Skills Trainers (ILSTs), Home Health Aides (HHAs), psychotherapy clinics, behavioral-health treatment programs, and other healthcare providers who want to better understand brain-mind relationships (e.g., , cognitive neuroscience) presenting in complex case presentations and treatment contexts. Our programs are designed for those providers who want to better understand the role of traumatic brain injury (TBI), for example, as it affects their therapeutic alliance, often leading to challenges of patient retention and treatment outcome.

For example, we can work with your psychotherapy team or your direct care staff to help manage challenging cases on either a one-time, or multi-session didactic, or on a more ongoing (supervisory) basis.

We can often help your patients get ready for psychotherapy, for example, by working both with patients and/or with their therapists, to increase both understanding and improved technique.

TRAINING PACKAGES: Please call us to discuss a training package that is right for you and/or your team:

• Annual/Monthly subscriptions

• Individual training sessions

• Group training sessions (e.g., for clinical practices).

• Weekly supervision (e.g., office hours for direct care staff).

We are a New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) approved health service agency and can provide the following TBI & NHTD Waiver services in New York City and the Lower Hudson Valley. We are currently expanding to include other NYS regions. We offer the following Clinical Services:

Ecological Behavioral Counselors (EBC) - we think of our EBC service as alliance-focused behavior counseling, and we conduct our services in real-world contexts (i.e., in communities).

PBIS - Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) - Our counselors work predominantly with challenging interpersonal behaviors in real world contexts; behavior that prevents individuals from gaining the level of autonomy and independence they often value, following a profound life-changing event, such as a traumatic brain injury (TBI).

This position includes collaboration with an individual's supports to promote effective communication; training of caregivers in effective behavioral strategies and principles; and, in the context of altered expectations, helping individuals develop positive daily routines. This position may be well suited for clinicians with a strong cognitive-behavioral (e.g., CBT), positive behavioral supports (PBS), or applied behavior analysis (ABA) background; as well, for those clinicians with a strong cognitive-neuroscience interest, and professionals with some familiarity administering psychological tests and measures.

We work with individuals who have significant behavioral difficulties that jeopardize their ability to remain in the community of their choice.

Integrative Ecological Counselors (IEC) Our counselors work with individuals to increase, enhance, and to develop a sense of autonomy (often bolstering a novel sense of identity), in real world settings.

CIC - Community Integration Counseling (CIC) - By integrating our knowledge of social and developmental psychology, cognitive-neuroscience, neuropsychology, psychotherapy, and post-acute neuro-rehabilitation perspectives, we work with individuals in their homes and communities to develop various means of coping with difficult and painful emotions, to adjust, to better understand the interaction and relationship between their brain/body and mind, and to develop opportunities for more satisfying relationships -both with themselves (“the new me”) and with others. We participate on multidisciplinary treatment teams and serve as clinical experts in this role.

Living Skills Trainers (LST): Our trainers work directly with individuals, both in telehealth and in-person formats, helping individuals increase their sense of independence and autonomy, while learning to cope with difficult feelings and challenging behavioral patterns along the way. Our trainers work with individuals in concrete, real-world environments - we train independence where it often matters most.

ILST - Independent Living Skills Training (ILST) -Our approach is systematic, structured, and didactic; our ILSTs are person-centered and alliance-focused. Our community intervention strives to enact behavioral-educational, and emotional-motivational strategies toward the development of increased independence, increased autonomy, and (hopefully) increased life-satisfaction.

ILST counselors train individuals to become more independent by partnering with them as they learn to effectively manage daily affairs and to better understand and explore new opportunities for socialization and personal growth.

ILST services may include assessment, training, supervision, and assistance to an individual with issues in one or several of the following areas: self-care, medication management, task completion, communication skills, interpersonal skills, socialization, sensory/motor skills, mobility, community transportation skills, problem solving skills, money management, pre-vocational skills, and skills to maintain a household. ILST is a strengths-based approach that teaches functional behaviors in response to environmental challenges and helps increase, for example, adaptive work-arounds and novel insights.