L. Jay Mitchell is founder of the Greenbrier Academy for Girls and emphasizes therapeutic pathways that enable teens with emotional challenges to recover at their own pace. L. Jay Mitchell emphasizes the importance of understanding the potential mechanizations of behavioral and cognitive conditions when undertaking interventions.
At their most fundamental, mechanizations encompass physiological and inner psychic processes that generate and perpetuate symptoms. Unlike with a given medication, there is no “one size fits all” solution, but rather a range of behaviors that the therapist needs to understand and subsequently make adjustments to. This requires an in-depth understanding of how specific disorders work on biological, as well as psychological, levels.
An example centers on neuroscience findings that both physiological and physical injuries in the brain stem can lead to persistent anxiety symptoms. This means that simply teaching positive life skills is not always enough to effect repair. Rather, the causal mechanism of the brain injury must be understood and a psychological protocol developed for overcoming patient-specific anxiety. With an understanding of causal mechanisms as the basis, therapists develop a logical system that accommodates adjustments in the plan as treatment progresses.
