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REStArTSM

Our award-winning treatment model, the REStArTSM (Relational Re-Enactment Systems Approach to Treatment) Treatment Model, is a comprehensive child and adolescent mental health treatment model. Treatment is based on youth’s “conflict cycles” (i.e., relational trauma), which are defined by their re-enactments of their attachment experiences in the present. By engaging all systems involved with a youth and the experiences the members of those systems have with them, the treatment team can develop an understanding of how the youth sees themselves, others, and their relationships. Plans for treatment, then, are driven by this conceptualization which is unique to each youth, but created within a model that uses attachment theory, object relations theory, and an understanding of the impact of trauma and neurobiological underpinnings to organize the youth’s patterns into diagnostic categories. These plans are developed to interrupt this cycle, which gives youth a chance to experience the feelings that have been inaccessible to them because they were being acted-out. The interruption of their re-enactment also gives them a chance to find new ways of relating and responding.

The REStArTSM model has thirteen principles that capture the philosophy, theory, and practice behind the approach. These principles guide human service professionals, family members and youth in developing interventions to help break chronic “conflict cycles”, repair relationships, and learn new ways to be successful at home, in school and in the community. It’s an innovative and evidence-based “team approach” to helping kids and families in need learn better ways to cope, deal with conflict, and implement a positive life plan.

For further information about the REStArTSM model and the evidence base behind it, please click on the following links:

REStArTSM Executive Summary (PDF)

REStArTSM Treatment Model Principles (PDF)

2015 Research Article — “Clinical Consultation as a Family Intervention in Residential Treatment: Exploring What Impacts Outcomes” (PDF)

2012 Research Article — “Collaborating with Clients and Improving Outcomes: The Relational Re-enactment Systems Approach to Treatment Model” (PDF)

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