Psychiatrists from the community, St. Louis, and family doctors from home collaborate with the nursing team and Associate Director in managing medications with the student and their family. The local psychiatrists conduct clinics for student reviews on campus in conjunction with the nursing team and Associate Director.

Crisis Intervention: There are situations that require staff to respond to critical events. Key administrative and nursing staffs are available and work together to address crises that may occur outside of the structured day. Psychiatrists and psychologists from the area may be involved, as well as other network agencies, in providing support for a situation.

Individual and Group Counseling
Individual Therapy: A pool of psychologists and counselors from the community are utilized when individual counseling is identified as a need. This need may be identified by parents, the student, and/or Brehm administration. Psychologists and Counselors working with students meet weekly with administrative team members from Brehm to receive updates on student issues and progress. Brehm also employs graduate assistants from the psychology department who see individual students for a small fee, and are under the supervision of an area psychologist and the Associate Director.

Therapeutic Individual Processing Sessions: Students work with administration and staff in processing sessions aimed at exploring a student’s presenting issue or a particular situation. The staff and student(s) process events, dynamics, and communications with an orientation to problem-solve and help students understand and appreciate personal responsibility and accountability. Emphasis is on the use of the communication model, advocating, identifying support, and illustrating process during these sessions. These sessions may take place at almost any time upon student/staff/administration/parent request. Sessions can include parents via telephone conference, advisors, dorm parents, and/or instructors.

Substance Abuse Support Group: Students identified as being in need may participate in weekly substance abuse support groups facilitated by psychology graduate assistants and supervised by a local psychologist. The intent of this group is to be preventative in nature. Students who have substance abuse issues that are primary issues will be referred to other programs.
Adoption Support Group: Students identified as being in need may participate in weekly adoption support group supervised by an area psychologist and facilitated by psychology graduate assistants. This group focuses on relevant issues that may immerge for students during adolescents related to their adoptions.

Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) group: Students identified as being in need of group therapy meet weekly with psychology graduate assistants that are supervised by a local psychologist. DBT group focuses on developing effective and appropriate ways of expressing feelings through the development of strategies.

Social Skills Groups
There are several social skills groups conducted on campus. The purpose of social skills training is to focus on daily living skills related to family living, peer interactions, conflict resolution, communication skills, listening skills, self-advocacy through knowledge of learning issues, and knowledge of self-directed strategy intervention, leading to success.

Dorm Social Skills: Social skills groups are conducted in the dorm setting weekly and are led by dorm parents and school counselors. Agendas are set by the Director of Residential Services with input from faculty and staff. Initial skills meetings are preset with a focus on the school communication model, conflict resolution, paraphrasing, and school expectations. The curriculum is then set according to issues relevant to adolescent issues. Often the agenda can be modified to address the needs of individual dorms. The primary focus is to be responsive to student needs and specific skills development. The dorm life offers many opportunities for discussion of family and group living and conflict resolution.



Intensive Social Skills: The intensive social skills groups are conducted during lunch time by psychology graduate assistants for eight to twelve students that have been recommended by parents, students, and/or Team. The group follows the modified version of Walker Curriculum. This program is designed to be highly interactive with role modeling and constructive feedback regarding social conventions.



Campus Forum: Weekly Campus Forums are led by the Director, Associate Director, or Director of Residential Services to help shape the campus culture and address campus-wide issues. The purpose of Campus Forum is to discuss the culture of the school and its values, address issues, reward accomplishments, and communicate to the student body.

Behavior Intervention
Discipline at Brehm is based on the belief that students benefit from a structured, safe, and caring environment. Brehm’s philosophy is that students can learn from their experiences and adopt appropriate behavior. In keeping with the mission of the school, discipline is individualized, and infractions are dealt with on a case-by-case basis. Dorm parents, faculty, and staff receive training focused on understanding the philosophy of the school disciplinary actions: maintaining a therapeutic stance with the students, managing their boundaries effectively, being self-aware in the moment and self-monitoring their feelings and responses, recognizing every interaction with a student is a teachable moment, development of processing skills (use and modeling of the communication model) and managing behaviors effectively, and the importance of confidentiality when working with our students.

As a program, Brehm has several behavioral interventions and systems for communicating and tracking behavior, proactive problem solving, conflict resolution, enacting consequences dependent on demonstrated behaviors, and/or positive character building.

• Tier System

• Dorm behavior management

• Classroom management

• Parent contacts

• Conferencing with Advisement

• Student contracts

• Team meetings
• 
Therapeutic individual processing

• Behavioral Incident Report Forms
• 
Critical Incident Report Forms
• 
Student tracking sheets

• Recognition for appropriate behavior

• In-school suspension

•  Black Diamond Ranch Suspension
• 
Home suspension

• Team involvement

• Discipline committee reviews by faculty and staff