Treatment Modalities

Treatment Modalities

BrightQuest employs an integrated, holistic and individualized approach to healing within a therapeutic community environment where clients work together as a healing community. As each person is unique and therefore responds differently to various types of therapy, a variety of treatment modalities are utilized to optimize individual healing and learning. BrightQuest’s intensive treatment program is designed to address the emotional, physical, mental and spiritual facets of well-being

Our Integrative, Holistic Approach to Treatment


Therapeutic approaches include small and large group psychotherapy sessions, individual psychotherapy, recreational and art therapies, family therapy, nutritional counseling, psychiatric and medication management, 12-step recovery, peer support and socialization, psychoeducation and vocational/educational development.

Some of Our Treatment Approaches


  • Milieu Therapy
    BrightQuest’s overarching approach and foundation for treatment resides in the philosophy and structure of milieu therapy. Milieu therapy involves utilizing peers in the community to work as a team together to hold themselves and others accountable for their actions. Feedback from peers typically proves more motivating and influential, due to the perception of shared experiences. Milieu therapy takes place in multiple situations throughout the course of a day, whether that is during a group social activity together, a meeting with housemates, casual conversation in the lobby or during a therapy group or session.
  • Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
    Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is a blend of cognitive therapy in conjunction with behavior modification. CBT techniques are designed to help individuals challenge their thought patterns and beliefs about themselves, others and the world around them. Frequently this involves challenging errors in thinking such as overgeneralizing, magnifying negatives, minimizing positives, all or nothing thinking and catastrophizing and replacing these thoughts with more realistic and balanced thoughts, thus decreasing emotional distress and self-defeating behavior. Modifying thought patterns using a variety of tools helps in creating a more open, mindful, and aware posture so as to diminish the distress from negative thinking.
  • Motivational Interviewing
    Motivational Interviewing is a form of collaborative conversation for strengthening a person’s own motivation and commitment to change. Motivational Interviewing elicits behavior change by helping clients to explore and resolve ambivalence. It is an empathic, supportive counseling style that supports the conditions for change. Motivational interviewing involves building a bond with the client, gathering essential information and/or providing feedback, and summarizing and reconnecting with the client.
  • Solution Focused Therapy
    Solution focused therapy focuses on the goals a client or family wants to achieve rather than the problems that brought them to treatment. Behavior change is generated through exploration of the steps needed to attain the desired goals and current successes; strengths and positive progress are utilized as a way to generate motivation. A series of structured questions are often used to help facilitate this process, such as the miracle question, scaling questions, exception seeking questions, coping questions and problem free talk.
  • Experiential Therapies
    Experiential therapy is a category of therapies that rely less on the traditional structure of talk therapy and instead incorporates movement and activities. These processes encourage clients to identify and address hidden or subconscious issues through various experiences such as role-playing, guided imagery, the use of props, and a range of other activities. Clients are able to address and overcome obstacles in their lives in a less directive manner which is valuable with particularly challenging issues or resistance to change. Examples of experiential therapy available at BrightQuest include equine therapy, art activities, and drama therapy. Other examples of experiential therapies include recreation therapy, music therapy, adventure therapy, and psychodrama.
  • Art Therapy
    Art therapy provides an opportunity for clients to explore their thoughts and feelings through a hands-on art making process. Clients are given a “directive” at the onset of the group and allotted time to use a variety of visual art materials to create a piece of artwork that relates to the given directive. Time is then given for clients to share about their artwork and to give feedback to their peers about what they notice in each other’s art. The art therapist also points out areas of interest that emerge within the artwork. This modality is particularly effective in tapping into epicenters of memory and emotion that are not always readily accessible through talk therapy alone.
  • Mindfulness and Meditation
    Mindfulness refers to a psychological quality that involves bringing one’s complete attention to the present experience on a moment-to-moment basis, paying attention in a particular way in the present moment nonjudgmentally, and a kind of nonelaborative, nonjudgmental, present-centered awareness in which each thought, feeling, or sensation that arises when the attentional field is acknowledged and accepted as it is. Meditation is a practice in which an individual trains the mind or induces a mode of consciousness, either to realize some benefit or as an end in itself oftentimes to assist in relaxation, forgiveness or patience. Mindfulness and meditation are particularly useful techniques and strategies for coping with life stressors and managing emotions.
  • Coping Skills Development
    The term coping generally refers to adaptive or constructive coping strategies, i.e., the strategies reduce stress levels in healthy ways. Coping skills are utilized to reduce stress resulting from personal or interpersonal problems. Clients are supported in broadening the bevy of coping tools available to them in order to more effectively navigate their lives. The three broad types of coping strategies are appraisal-focused, problem-focused meaning any coping behavior that is directed at reducing or eliminating a stressor,, and emotion-focused meaning changing one’s own emotional reaction to a stressor. This often also encompasses Dialectical Behavioral Therapy techniques which focus on four core concepts including mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotion regulation and interpersonal effectiveness and their application in addressing self-harm and self-injurious behaviors.
  • Social Skills Training
    Social skills development educates clients regarding how they communicate with others, the messages they send, and assists clients in learning new methods of communication in order to communicate more effectively. By learning how to interpret social signals and respond properly, clients learn how to act appropriately in various situations and how to further develop interpersonal friendships and relationships. This is often practiced in vivo within the milieu.
  • Relapse Prevention
    Relapse Prevention is a cognitive-behavioral therapy with the goal of identifying and preventing high-risk situations such as substance abuse, obsessive-compulsive behavior, sexual offending, obesity, eating disorders, and depression. Relapse Prevention addresses the variety of components that led to relapse and teaches skills to prevent relapse with maladaptive behaviors.
  • Chemical Dependency Education
    Chemical Dependency Education focuses on the education of what happens to the mind and body when addicted to a substance and look at what factors helped to feed the addiction, such as mental illness, family, and social situations. Skills and tools are presented to assist in the prevention of relapse and maintenance of long term sobriety.
  • 12-Step Programs
    12-Step programs provide a valuable adjunct to services offered at BrightQuest for both clients and families. These might include participation in Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, Marijuana Anonymous, Al-anon, Ala-teen, Over-eaters Anonymous, and Love or Sex Addicts Anonymous. The 12-Step system offers a structured framework for overcoming an addiction, obsession or compulsion while also providing support through fellowshipping with other members. These programs are useful in helping delineate aspects of life that one has control over and those which one does not and how to cope with the resulting feelings, resentments and urges.
  • Family Therapy
    Family therapy is the cornerstone of all treatment at BrightQuest. We have consistently found that the investment of family members in the family therapy process directly affects the progress of our clients. Family therapy serves as a place for family members to make shifts that will sustain the individual progress that clients make when living in the therapeutic milieu setting. We think of each family as a system with patterns of functioning that serve to keep the family going. Sometimes these patterns are healthy and signs of strength and other times they are problematic and cause stress. Families participate in therapy on a weekly basis, often via video-conference if they live out of the area.
  • Equine Therapy
    Equine-assisted programs incorporate horses experientially for emotional growth and development providing vast opportunities for metaphorical learning, an effective technique when working with even the most challenging individuals.
  • Nutritional
    Nutritional balance and physical health is a very important element of overall mental health and illness management. BrightQuest offers a Nutrition Program to its clients to help promote total wellness through behavior change in the areas of nutrition and exercise.

BrightQuest Treatment Centers: Learn More About Our Program


BrightQuest Treatment Centers offers an individualized approach to healing within a therapeutic community - a safe, supportive environment where clients learn, practice, and internalize the tools required for independent living and successful relationships. Learn more about our program offerings, curriculum, values, and activities as well as what makes BrightQuest a unique treatment opportunity.