Family Treatment Program

The district has established procedures for recommending to a parent an intervention for a student with early warning signs of mental health concerns, substance use, threat to others, or suicide risk. The district’s mental health liaison in coordination with the designated campus staff will notify the student’s parents within a reasonable amount of time after the designated staff member learns that a student has displayed early warning signs and provide information about available mental health resources.

Tier 1 Universal interventions with all students such as lessons with classrooms and school-wide events.

Tier 2 Individualized Interventions and/or group counseling by campus counselors. 

Tier 3 Intensive case-management and clinical interventions through McAllen ISD Family Treatment Program 

The district has also established procedures for staff to notify the mental health liaison regarding a student who may need intervention.

To obtain a Family Treatment Program Referral Form please contact your Academic School Counselor or our FTP front office at 956-926-4813.

McAllen ISD has a team of Professionals that are trained on different types of therapy to better serve the students in need of mental health services.

CBT treatment usually involves efforts to change thinking patterns. These strategies might include:

• Learning to recognize one’s distortions in thinking that are creating problems, and then to reevaluate them in light of reality.

• Gaining a better understanding of the behavior and motivation of others.

• Using problem-solving skills to cope with difficult situations.

• Learning to develop a greater sense of confidence in one’s own abilities.

Individual DBT therapy sessions have the following goals:

• To help keep you safe by reducing suicidal and self-harming behaviors, if applicable.

• To limit behaviors that get in the way of productive therapy.

• To help you reach your goals and improve your quality of life by addressing what’s blocking your progress, such as mental health conditions or relationship issues.

• To help you learn new skills to replace unhelpful behaviors.

During EMDR therapy, clinical observations suggest that an accelerated learning process is stimulated by EMDR’s standardized procedures, which incorporate the use of eye movements and other forms of rhythmic left-right (bilateral) stimulation (e.g., tones or taps). While clients briefly focus on the trauma memory and simultaneously experience bilateral stimulation (BLS), the vividness and emotion of the memory are reduced.

The treatment is conditionally recommended for the treatment of PTSD.

EMDR therapy uses a structured eight-phase approach that includes:

• Phase 1: History-taking

• Phase 2: Preparing the client

• Phase 3: Assessing the target memory

• Phases 4-7: Processing the memory to adaptive resolution

• Phase 8: Evaluating treatment results

Processing of a specific memory is generally completed within one to three sessions. EMDR therapy differs from other trauma-focused treatments in that it does not include extended exposure to the distressing memory, detailed descriptions of the trauma, challenging of dysfunctional beliefs or homework assignments