To Register for TOVA call 804-244-0802 or write to TOVA@VAPRN.com

Therapeutic Options™ is a comprehensive and sensible approach to reducing violence and the use of restraint and seclusion in behavioral health care, residential care, health and habilitation, and education settings. 

By focusing on the person as an individual and emphasizing the therapeutic relationship, by identifying and managing setting events and stressing the importance of supporting alternative repertoires of adaptive skills and behaviors, Therapeutic Options™ provides tools for building humane, respectful, and violence-free therapeutic and educational environments.

Therapeutic Options™ helps participants differentiate between nonreciprocal relationships and other relationships, and covers fundamentals of positive behavioral support. The training examines ways in which service systems may inadvertently rob persons being served of their power and dignity, precipitating behavioral emergencies. 

Participants learn a functional model of aggression, prevention and intervention, functional assessment of behavior, teamwork, assessing outcome, teaching alternative behaviors, and building adaptive skill repertoires. Emphasis is placed upon self-awareness and upon recognizing and managing the effects of adrenal stress while applying therapeutic methods for supporting persons in crisis.

Participants also learn safe and effective physical skills for personal protection and aggression control if faced with unpreventable violence. The body mechanics underlying each skill are completely explicated and rehearsed before being integrated into practice in simulated encounters.

Each technique is humane, orthopedically sound, and designed to ensure the safety of both the aggressor and the staff person. Participants are guided through a series of structured exercises and practice until they are comfortable with the material and can confidently perform each movement.

Therapeutic Options, Inc. 2006