VISTAS Online is an innovative publication produced for ACA by Dr. Garry R. Walz and Dr. Jeanne C. Bleuer of Counseling Outfitters, LLC. Its purpose is to provide a means of capturing the ideas, information and experiences generated by the annual ACA Conference and selected ACA Division Conferences. Papers on a program or practice that has been validated through research or experience may also be submitted. This digital collection of peer-reviewed articles is authored by counselors, for counselors. VISTAS Online contains the full text of over 900 proprietary counseling articles published from 2004 to 2017.
2005
BEST Buddiez: A Programmatic Innovation in Early Child Mental Health Treatment for Physically Aggressive Preschool Children
Rita J. Terrago
2005
A pilot program at Learning Together in Raleigh, NC, incorporated research-based practices and community professionals’ expertise to work with birth to 5-year-olds, and developed an innovative systemic course of mental health treatment entitled BEST Buddiez, an acronym standing for the prevention themes of boundaries, empathy, self-esteem, and thinking. The overall socially proactive concept of a group of buddies, in fact, best friends, allows for group work on a 3- and 4- year-old level for their own individual issues of social difficulty. Certainly, not all of the children in the program are to a point that they can participate in the group modality, but the concepts are still worked into the individual therapy, aiming to prepare them for group interactions at a later date.