Our Methods

We at Ellenhorn seek to re-empower our clients, helping them regain a sense of voice and control in their lives. This focus is rooted as much in our wish to be humane, as it is in our knowledge that this approach produces the best therapeutic outcomes. Research repeatedly shows that collaborative relationships, in which a person seeking help controls and guides treatment, are the most effective therapeutic relationships. More effective, in fact, than any particular therapeutic model.

Here’s what that research tells us: Only 15 percent of therapeutic change is the result of specific treatment models, while a hefty 30 percent of change results from certain behaviors or attitudes exhibited by the therapist, called common factors.

Common factors include the therapist or clinical team’s ability to inspire belief in the client that the therapist/team shares their goals, understands them and is interested in them; and that they are respected and accepted by those who help them. It turns out that these feelings have a great deal to do with therapists’ and clinicians’ ability to build a trusting and collaborative relationship with the client, which in turn, empowers the client to navigate change.

You can detect the “special sauce” of collaboration in most therapies. There are, however, evidence-based approaches to specific experiences of mind or mood, that are more collaborative than others.

While Ellenhorn therapists and clinicians use many treatment approaches, we focus on four powerful collaborative approaches, picking one over the other depending on why a client has come to us. We usually use one or more of these approaches within the framework of a treatment path, our design for how treatment is delivered that matches the approach and the client’s goals.