Glossary
Welcome to our Glossary. Please bookmark & share as we will be keeping this family & couples therapy glossary of terms updated based on feedback and general trends and interests.
Adaptive Rigidity
A pattern of inflexible perceptions and responses.
ADHD
Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity; a developmental disorder involving limitations in the capacity to attend, organize and check impulses. Often associated with a broad array of executive function weaknesses.
Attachment Disorder
A developmental disorder generally associated limited caretaker attunement in early life and negatively impacted capacity to form and use relationships. Often associate with highly dysregulated emotion and behavior in children.
Attachment Focused Family Therapy
A family therapy model highly focused on supporting deeper relational/emotional connections between family members.
Attachment Informed
Reflective of attachment theory and research.
Autism
Disorder that impairs a wide range of adaptive capacities with significant impact on the capacity to understand, form and use relationships.
Bipolar Disorder
A psychiatric affective disorder involving swings in mood.
Clinical Services
Services provided by clinicians to promote health and healing.
Clinical Team
Staff working together who possess clinical skills and training
Clinician
Professional trained in mental health assessment and treatment.
Codependency / Dependency Issues
Inadequate capacity to maintain a separate and secure sense of self.
Community Based Therapists
Clinicians working within your home community
Couples
Heterosexual, Gay and Lesbian relationally committed dyads.
Dissociation
The disconnection of emotions from conscious awareness.
Emotional Connection
The open sharing of caring and emotions.
Emotional Drift/Detachment
The conscious and unconscious pulling away from emotional openness and connection.
Emotional Regulation
The capacity to effectively manage emotions
Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy
A model for couple’s therapy developed by Sue Johnson, E.D., focused on supporting emotional intimacy.
Infidelity
Sexual unfaithfulness within a committed relationship
Inpatient
Intensive treatment within a residential setting
Integrative Couples Therapy
A therapy developed by Andrew Christensen and Neil S. Jacobson integrating the twin goals of acceptance and change as positive outcomes for couple therapy.
Intervention
Treatment effort to support health and healing
OCD
Obsessive and Compulsive Disorder – a psychiatric disorder involving obsessive and compulsive thoughts and behaviors.
ODD
Oppositional Defiant Disorder – a diagnosis associated with difficult and defiant behavior in children. Thought by many clinicians to describe a set of behaviors not an underlying disorder.
Pediatric Psychological/Diagnostic Assessment
The assessment of a child’s social, emotional and neurocognitive functioning
Psychotherapy
Psychological treatment involving an individual or group working with a therapist.
PTSD
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: A psychiatric disorder caused a by single, multiple or chronic exposure to environmental conditions which are overwhelming
Session
Psychotherapy session or meeting
Special Needs
Needs associated with a psychiatric or developmental disability
A pattern of inflexible perceptions and responses.
ADHD
Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity; a developmental disorder involving limitations in the capacity to attend, organize and check impulses. Often associated with a broad array of executive function weaknesses.
Attachment Disorder
A developmental disorder generally associated limited caretaker attunement in early life and negatively impacted capacity to form and use relationships. Often associate with highly dysregulated emotion and behavior in children.
Attachment Focused Family Therapy
A family therapy model highly focused on supporting deeper relational/emotional connections between family members.
Attachment Informed
Reflective of attachment theory and research.
Autism
Disorder that impairs a wide range of adaptive capacities with significant impact on the capacity to understand, form and use relationships.
Bipolar Disorder
A psychiatric affective disorder involving swings in mood.
Clinical Services
Services provided by clinicians to promote health and healing.
Clinical Team
Staff working together who possess clinical skills and training
Clinician
Professional trained in mental health assessment and treatment.
Codependency / Dependency Issues
Inadequate capacity to maintain a separate and secure sense of self.
Community Based Therapists
Clinicians working within your home community
Couples
Heterosexual, Gay and Lesbian relationally committed dyads.
Dissociation
The disconnection of emotions from conscious awareness.
Emotional Connection
The open sharing of caring and emotions.
Emotional Drift/Detachment
The conscious and unconscious pulling away from emotional openness and connection.
Emotional Regulation
The capacity to effectively manage emotions
Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy
A model for couple’s therapy developed by Sue Johnson, E.D., focused on supporting emotional intimacy.
Infidelity
Sexual unfaithfulness within a committed relationship
Inpatient
Intensive treatment within a residential setting
Integrative Couples Therapy
A therapy developed by Andrew Christensen and Neil S. Jacobson integrating the twin goals of acceptance and change as positive outcomes for couple therapy.
Intervention
Treatment effort to support health and healing
OCD
Obsessive and Compulsive Disorder – a psychiatric disorder involving obsessive and compulsive thoughts and behaviors.
ODD
Oppositional Defiant Disorder – a diagnosis associated with difficult and defiant behavior in children. Thought by many clinicians to describe a set of behaviors not an underlying disorder.
Pediatric Psychological/Diagnostic Assessment
The assessment of a child’s social, emotional and neurocognitive functioning
Psychotherapy
Psychological treatment involving an individual or group working with a therapist.
PTSD
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: A psychiatric disorder caused a by single, multiple or chronic exposure to environmental conditions which are overwhelming
Session
Psychotherapy session or meeting
Special Needs
Needs associated with a psychiatric or developmental disability