25 Feb New Program shows PROMISE

Clinicians and program staff continuously evaluate program offerings to assess how well they are meeting youth needs as part of the Youth Opportunity Center’s ongoing commitment to providing the latest in cutting-edge therapies for its residents.

Stemming from recent evaluations, the YOC is proud to announce the launch of its new PROMISE program. The YOC recognized that there is a growing need for treatment that is tailored specifically towards adolescent female behavioral and emotional challenges. With this understanding, the PROMISE program will utilize Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) – a therapy focusing primarily on positive behavioral changes. 

“Over the past few years, we’ve seen an increasing number of referrals for young women struggling with highly acute behavioral and emotional dysregulation issues,” said Dr. Kelly Bolinger, YOC Assistant Chief Clinical Officer. “While we’ve been effectively treating these girls for years, we realized there was a definite need to provide more comprehensive programming and therapy interventions that were designed specifically to treat these challenges. The result was our design of the PROMISE program.”

The PROMISE program, set to launch in February, will take a comprehensive approach to behavior modification. Residents in this new program will focus on managing difficult emotions without resorting to impulsive, destructive, or self-harming behaviors. Staff working with this program will also receive special training in DBT allowing them to better teach and model coping techniques such a distress tolerance, emotional regulation, mindfulness and interpersonal effectiveness. Residents in this program will also have the opportunity to engage in activities that will enhance personal growth and development such as wellness and education activities, spiritual services, cultural events, community service projects, employment (when appropriate) and other potential community engagement activities. 

The PROMISE program, as with all other YOC programs, will – while primarily focusing on DBT therapies – integrate other evidence-based treatments concurrently. It will also incorporate Family Treatment, when necessary and possible, as well as treatment of any other co-occurring disorders.  This is integral to the YOC’s comprehensive approach to treatment. 

“We are excited to launch this new program,” said Lynn Doppler, YOC Chief Operating Officer. “We feel confident that PROMISE will have a significant positive impact on the young women we serve, and ultimately that’s our goal with every new program we launch.”

For more information about the PROMISE program, please contact our admissions department at admissions@yocinc.org. To learn more about financially supporting PROMISE and other programs, please go to yocinc.org/donate.

This story is adapted from the Winter/Spring 2021 YOC Foundations newsletter.