Skip to main content

Evidence-Based Therapy

At Jefferson Center, our therapists and doctors use proven, effective treatment methods, backed by extensive research to promote the best outcomes. To see if evidence-based therapy is the fit for your needs, please speak with your care coordinator or call us at 303-425-0300.
Evidence-Based Therapy

What Is Evidence-Based Therapy?

Evidence-based therapy (EBT), is any therapy based on psychological approaches and techniques that are based on scientific evidence. Evidence-Based Therapy is considered “Best Practice” and is the preferred approach for psychological symptom treatment by many in the field.

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (Act)

Children – Adults
Acceptance and commitment therapy is an action-oriented approach to psychotherapy that stems from traditional behavior therapy and cognitive behavioral therapy. Clients learn to stop avoiding, denying, and struggling with their inner emotions and, instead, accept that these deeper feelings are appropriate responses to certain situations that should not prevent them from moving forward in their lives. With this understanding, clients begin to accept their issues and hardships and commit to making necessary changes in their behavior, regardless of what is going on in their lives, and how they feel about it.

Assertive Community Therapy (Act)

Adolescents – Adults
The goal for ACT is to eliminate or reduce the symptoms of severe mental illness and to enhance the individual’s quality of life. In effect, by teaching coping and life skills while working in tandem with the mental illness. ACT, when effectively executed, can reduce hospital stays and jail time for individuals as well. Studies have shown that there have been significant drops in the length of hospital stays and jail time for those states that have implemented ACT programs.

Child Centered Play Therapy (CCPT)

Ages 4 -12
CCPT is a developmentally responsive, play-based mental health intervention for young children ages 3 to 10 who are experiencing social, emotional, behavioral and relational disorders. CCPT utilizes play, the natural language of children, and therapeutic relationship to provide a safe, consistent therapeutic environment in which a child can experience full acceptance, empathy, and understanding from the counselor and process inner experiences and feelings through play and symbols. In CCPT, a child’s experience within the counseling relationship is the factor that is most healing and meaningful in creating lasting, positive change. The goal of CCPT is to unleash the child’s potential to move toward integration and self-enhancing ways of being. Child outcomes following CCPT include decreased symptomatic behaviors and improvement in overall functioning.

Child-Parent Psychotherapy (CPP)

Ages 0 – 5
CPP is an intervention model for children aged 0-5 who have experienced at least one traumatic event and/or are experiencing mental health, attachment, and/or behavioral problems, including posttraumatic stress disorder. The treatment is based in attachment theory but also integrates psychodynamic, developmental, trauma, social learning, and cognitive behavioral theories. Therapeutic sessions include the child and parent or primary caregiver. The primary goal of CPP is to support and strengthen the relationship between a child and his or her caregiver as a vehicle for restoring the child’s cognitive, behavioral, and social functioning. Treatment also focuses on contextual factors that may affect the caregiver-child relationship.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

Children – Adults
CBT is an evidenced-based therapy method which focuses on solutions and requires the clients to take an active role in their recovery. CBT is used across most diagnoses but is particularly effective with depression and anxiety based disorders. CBT explores the harmful thoughts and emotions a patient may have that exacerbate their symptoms. CBT encourages the clients to challenge their assumptions, change their thinking patterns, and improve their behavior with positive changes and outlooks. Clients who undergo CBT sessions with a trained therapist have the lowest rates of relapse amongst depression clients who do not utilize CBT in their treatment plan.

Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT)

Ages 18+
CPT is a cognitive-behavioral treatment for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). CPT was developed in the late 1980s and has been shown to be effective in reducing PTSD symptoms related to a variety of traumatic events including child abuse, combat, rape and natural disasters. CPT is endorsed by the U.S. Departments of Veterans Affairs and Defense, as well as the International Society of Traumatic Stress Studies, as a best practice for the treatment of PTSD.

Collaborative Assessment and Management of Suicidality (CAMS)

Adolescents – Adults
The Collaborative Assessment and Management of Suicidality (CAMS) is a flexible therapeutic framework in which patient and provider work together to assess the patient’s suicidal risk and use that information to plan and manage suicide-specific, “driver-oriented” treatment. The framework fundamentally involves a participant’s engagement and cooperation in assessing and managing suicidal thoughts and behaviors and the therapist’s understanding of the patient’s suicidal thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.

Dialectic Behavioral Therapy (DBT)

Adolescents – Adults

Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) is a specific type of cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy developed in the late 1980s by psychologist Marsha M. Linehan to help better treat borderline personality disorder.

It is also used to treat mental health issues where emotional dysregulation or self-destructive behaviors, such as disordered eating, substance misuse, or depression is present. DBT is a very active, skill-based therapy to help people live more effectively in their lives.

Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR)

Children – Adults
EMDR) is a psychotherapy that enables people to heal from the symptoms and emotional distress that are the result of disturbing life experiences. Repeated studies show that by using EMDR therapy people can experience the benefits of psychotherapy that once took years to make a difference. The brain’s information processing system naturally moves toward mental health. If the system is blocked or imbalanced by the impact of a disturbing event, the emotional wound festers and can cause intense suffering. Once the block is removed, healing resumes. Using the detailed protocols and procedures learned in EMDR therapy training sessions, clinicians help clients activate their natural healing processes in order to move forward in their lives.

Integrative Treatment of Complex Trauma for Adolescents (ITCT-A)

Ages 8 – 12

ITICT is a multi-modal trauma therapy for adolescents that integrates treatment principles from attachment theory, the Self-Trauma Model, affect regulation skills development and components of cognitive behavioral therapy. It involves structured protocols and interventions that are customized to the specific issues of each client.

Moral Reconation Therapy (MRT)

Adolescents – Adults
MRT is a cognitive behavioral intervention being used in 50 states and 7 countries to treat co-occurring substance use and mental health disorders. MRT has been proven to increase life purpose, increase moral decision-making, increase medication adherence and decrease risk-taking behaviors, substance abuse, and recidivism.

Motivational Interviewing (MI)

Adolescents – Adults
MI is designed to empower people to change by drawing out their own meaning, importance and capacity for change. MI is based on a respectful and curious way of being with people that facilitates the natural process of change and honors client autonomy. “MI is a collaborative, goal-oriented style of communication with particular attention to the language of change. It is designed to strengthen personal motivation for and commitment to a specific goal by eliciting and exploring the person’s own reasons for change within an atmosphere of acceptance and compassion.” (Miller & Rollnick, 2013, p. 29)

Nurturing Parent Program (NPP)

Ages 0 – 11
The Nurturing Parent Program is an 8-week course for parents of children 3 to 6 years old who want to find ways to interact positively with their children to raise respectful and cooperative children without spanking. Goal is to provide positive parenting skills to increase parents confidence and reduce parenting stress to help children learn to make good choices and be appropriately independent as they grow.

Partners in Change Outcome Management System (PCOMS)

Children – Adults
PCOMS is a simple, systematic client feedback intervention for improving the quality and outcome of behavioral health services. PCOMS uses two, four item scales to solicit consumer feedback regarding factors proven to predict success regardless of treatment model or presenting problem: early progress (using the Outcome Rating Scale) and the quality of the alliance (using the Session Rating Scale).

Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT)

Adolescents – Adults
SBIRT allows for the early identification of substance use issues to improve outcomes by referral to appropriate treatment. Screening quickly assesses the severity of substance use and identifies the appropriate level of treatment. Brief intervention focuses on increasing insight and awareness regarding substance use and motivation toward behavioral change. Referral to treatment provides those identified as needing more extensive treatment with access to specialty care.

Seeking Safety

Adolescents – Adults
Seeking Safety is an evidence-based, present-focused counseling model to help people attain safety from trauma and/or substance abuse. It can be conducted in group (any size) and/or individual modality. It is an extremely safe model as it directly addresses both trauma and addiction, but without requiring clients to delve into the trauma narrative (the detailed account of disturbing trauma memories), thus making it relevant to a very broad range of clients and easy to implement. Any provider can conduct it even without training; however, there are also many options for training. It has also been delivered successfully by peers in addition to professionals of all kinds and in all settings. It can be conducted over any number of sessions available although the more the better when possible.

Solution Focused Brief Therapy

Children – Adults
Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT), also called Solution-Focused Therapy, Solution-Building Practice therapy is future-focused, goal-directed, and focuses on solutions, rather than on the problems that brought clients to seek therapy. It aims to help people experiencing difficulty find tools they can use immediately to manage symptoms and cope with challenges It is grounded in the belief that although individuals may already have the skills to create change in their lives, they often need help identifying and developing those skills. Similarly, SFBT recognizes that people already know, on some level, what change is needed in their lives, and SFBT practitioners work to help the people in their care clarify their goals. Therapist work collaboratively with clients to help develop steps to get them to their goals.

The Incredible Years

Ages 0 – 12
The Incredible Years (IY) Training Series is a set of three comprehensive, multifaceted, and developmentally based curricula for parents, teachers, and children. The program is designed to promote emotional and social competence and to prevent, reduce, and treat aggression and emotional problems in young children.

Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT)

Ages 3 – 21
TF-CBT is a form of cognitive behavioral therapy that addresses the specific emotional and mental health needs of children, adolescents, adult survivors, and families who are struggling to overcome the destructive effects of early trauma. Trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy (TF-CBT) is especially sensitive to the unique problems of youth with post-traumatic stress and mood disorders resulting from abuse, violence, or grief. TF-CBT successfully resolves a broad array of emotional and behavioral difficulties associate with single, multiple, and complex trauma experiences.

Trauma Systems Therapy (TST)

Ages 4 – 21
TST is a model of care for traumatized children that addresses both the individual child’s emotional needs as well as the social environment in which he or she lives. It is about breaking down barriers between service systems, understanding a child’s symptoms in the context of his or her world, and building on a family’s strengths and dreams. It is both a clinical model as well as an organizational model. TST is implemented within an organization to serve as a framework for organizing a multi-disciplinary team of providers from within and outside of an organization to coordinate their interventions. Providers are brought together to address the complex needs of traumatized youth and families using TST as an organizing model concerned with the child’s social environment.
Contact Us

Reach out and connect with Jefferson Center today. 

    Getting Started
    Jefferson Center provides client-centered services designed to meet your individual mental health, substance use, and wellness needs. We’re dedicated to meeting you where you are in your journey and working together to help you live a satisfying and hopeful life.

    Emergency & Crisis Services
    • Hotline
    • Walk-in crisis centers
    • Mobile crisis services throughout the state