Psychotherapy and psycho-social therapy

Following therapeutic community theory, psychoanalytic theories about group functioning and a cognitive behavioural therapy model (CBT), CHT offers a therapeutic environment that provides an emotional container for clients' distress and an opportunity to work with the symptoms that clients present.

an integrated psychological and psychiatric approach

CHT therapists create households where the social and physical environment itself has a therapeutic function. Clients are helped to form a set of relationships. Trust and safety are developed out of the agreed establishment of set rules and timetables. The expectation that clients will participate in the every day running of the household in partnership with the other members provides them with the opportunity of re-engaging with the social environment. The therapeutic community approach is based on group analytic psychotherapy. In practice this means that a programme of group discussions form the core of the therapeutic programme. In these sessions therapists help clients to share their feelings, thoughts and experiences, and to help one another, in the practicalities of daily community life.