Houses of Hope (HOH)

HOH consist of three halfway houses serving 33 homeless men (44 bed capacity) with substance dependence problems. An advanced graduate student serves as the psychological extern placed at HOH during their third and/or fourth year. Junior graduate students in the lab have the opportunity to co-lead group treatment activities. As an extern, graduate students conduct psycho-diagnostic assessments of patients with co-morbid Axis I and II disorders, conduct empirically-based individual therapy focused on co-morbid mental health issues (e.g., cognitive process for PTSD, cognitive therapy for MDD, Master of Your Anxiety and Panic, etc..), and co-lead group treatment. Group treatment modalities are being developed to tailor treatment and are actively modified and empirically tested within our research group.

Social Anxiety Group Therapy: Our treatment is a modified version of Heimberg & Becker (2002) Cognitive-Behavioral Group Therapy for Social Phobia. The SAGT takes an exposure approach that targets pro-social activities (e.g., engagement in AA, job interviewing, family/friend reconciliation) to reduce exacerbations of clinically relevant social anxiety.


Behavioral Activation: Theoretically, down-regulation of neurotransmitter systems following cessation from substances produces psychomotor retardation similar to major depression and reduces the reward value of naturally-occurring rewards in one’s environment. A group behavioral activation treatment was developed to a) help combat emotion regulation problems associated with the recovery from substance use disorders and b) to help further promote and reinforce sober-free rewarding activities that are attenuated by abstinence.

Experiential Anger Management: EAM is a mixture of SAMHSA CBT Anger Management, DBT and ACT skills. The goal of treatment is to reduce patients’ reactivity to emotional triggers, accurately identify emotional expression, reinforce behavioral coping, reduce ruminations associated with triggers, and build interpersonal skills.