Counseling and Educational services, PllC
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helping Individuals, families and communities get and be better together
"..and a threefold cord is not quickly broken." Ecclesiastes 4:12
Treatments that work
Step 1: forming an effective working relationship
Research clearly demonstrates one of the greatest factors leading to positive treatment outcomes is the therapy relationship. Dr. Holcombe uses listening techniques designed to build such effective relationships. These techniques work through facilitating mutual respect, affirmation of your existing strengths and right to self-determination, and compassionate "exploration" and "nudging" of and towards changes necessary to resolve the issues impacting your ability to live a more fulfilling life.
step 2: defining the problems
“A sum can be put right: but only by going back till you find the error and working it afresh from that point, never by simply going on.” ― C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce
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A problem ill-defined leads to ineffective solutions while a problem appropriately defined makes effective solutions possible. There are multiple reasons people struggle with psychological and physical health issues. As a result, Dr. Holcombe spends the first session or few asking questions to define the past and present impacts and interplay of biological, environmental, social, psychological and spiritual life on current behavioral, emotional, thinking, and relational functioning. This ensures that he provides thorough treatment recommendations from a "whole-person", "whole-family," and "whole-community" perspective.
Step 3: developing and implementing effective treatment plans
Dr. Holcombe uses his extensive knowledge and experience in using psychological approaches known to have the greatest positive treatment effects to address behavioral heath and relational problems. You can find a list of some problems people experience paired with treatments psychologists have found to be effective at https://www.div12.org/treatments/ .
In addition to the treatments listed at https://www.div12.org/treatments/ ,Dr. Holcombe uses the following:
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For recovery from traumatic events/ PTSD - Prolonged Exposure Therapy and Cognitive Processing Therapy https://www.ptsd.va.gov/understand_tx/tx_basics.asp. For marital couples who experience negative relationship impacts related to PTSD, Cognitive-Behavioral Couple Therapy for PTSD https://www.coupletherapyforptsd.com/
For families who have children with disruptive behaviors, emotional control, and/ or relating effectively with others - Collaborative and Proactive Solutions (https://www.livesinthebalance.org/research) or Parent Child Interaction Therapy (http://www.pcit.org/). PCIT has also been found helpful with Autistic Disorders in children.
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For pre-marital and marital counseling - Gottman Couple's Therapy (https://www.gottman.com/) and Emotionally Focused Couple's Therapy (https://iceeft.com/eft-research-2/).
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Step 4: maintaining successes
In order to maintain progress, people often benefit from developing and instituting structures to help them sustain progress. Dr. Holcombe works with patients to help them develop these plans and recommends check-in sessions. Check-in sessions are much less frequent than in the treatment implementation phase but based on decreasing the frequency of sessions until you feel confident in maintaining treatment gains without the continued need of therapy services.