Therapeutic Program​
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Mental Health Services: School-based services which include individual therapy and collateral services with families and other providers are available for students who have educationally related mental health services on their IEP. TPA has 4.5 licensed and associate mental health providers to serve our students and their families and to work closely with our teachers to ensure that students are receiving consistent and integrated care.. Therapeutic modalities include Cognitive Behavior Therapy, mindfulness, Dialectical Behavior Therapy, Internal Family Systems Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, art and music therapy, and somatic therapy. In addition, speech therapy is offered to address speech, language, communication, and social pragmatics and occupational therapy is available to address students’ fine and gross motor needs and sensory regulation needs.
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​Support Staff: The Dean of Student Affairs and the Head of Student Support Services provide behavioral, social and emotional support to our students. The Support Staff develop positive relationships with students schoolwide and are available to provide in the moment support. They conduct peer conflict resolution meetings, check-ins with students, and may run classroom groups to discuss peer related issues. Support staff also assist the classroom teachers in integrating new students and in training our teaching assistants.
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The Clinical Director in collaboration with the support staff and the teaching staff, conducts functional behavior assessments and develops Behavior Support and Positive Behavior Intervention Plans for students as needed. The support staff assists the classroom teachers in integrating new students and in training new staff. These supports allow us to be proactive, providing students with what they need, and prompting their use of coping strategies so that they may develop self-regulation skills.
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School Climate: Staff respond to students’ behavioral mistakes with counseling, restorative justice projects, and opportunities for students to engage in repair. Additional support is provided for students by engaging in the collaborative problem solving model developed by Dr. Ross Greene, which solicits student voice to better understand students’ challenges and to develop solutions.
We try to be proactive, providing students with what they need, and prompting their use of coping strategies so that they may strengthen their self-regulation skills. We actively work to create a supportive environment that encourages regulation. Staff has received training in pervasive demand for autonomy (PDA) a neurotype which is associated with autism and for which the use of declarative language and a collaborative approach are recommended.
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Students’ social emotional development is supported in a variety of ways. Students participate in community building restorative justice circles within which the 5 elements of the social-emotional learning curriculum developed by CASEL are taught. These include self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, responsible decision making, and relationship skills.
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In addition, all students participate in an end of the day exercise in which they acknowledge themselves or their peers for demonstrating one of the expected schoolwide learner outcomes (ESLR’s). Students post a note which describes what they or a peer did and which ESLR it exemplified, on the ESLR board. The ESLR’s align with the CASEL SEL goals and include becoming a good self-manager, being interpersonally effective, being a good community member, being a critical thinker and being a lifelong learner. The students celebrate these achievements with a monthly ESLR community building event.
Students are encouraged to engage in self-assessments and to monitor their engagement in their learning and are provided with the necessary staff support to achieve these goals. Students are acknowledged and celebrated for their efforts and engagement.