Our Clinical Approach
The Windhorse approach is organized around two central principles.
First, that each person is fundamentally healthy and sane and that a mental disorder exists as a secondary overlay to that sanity.
Second, that a person’s health is inseparable from that of the environment. Therefore, if a person can be properly worked with in a relatively healthy environment, then the strength of his or her intrinsic health and sanity can emerge and recovery will be more possible.
The success of the Windhorse model is due to the accurate treatment of a particular condition within a healthy and supportive environment. Particular conditions can include schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, bipolar disorder, Asperger’s, autism, and dual diagnosis.) We view a client’s environment as having three primary aspects:
- His or her physical, domestic life,
- Interpersonal relationships and emotions, and
- Mind, which includes thoughts, attention, and the general sense of personal presence and meaning.
These three aspects relate directly to our three core therapeutic practices:
- Close attention to domestic activities: Both the therapeutic team and the client attend to the everyday workings of domestic life, including food preparation and cleanup, good diet, housekeeping, laundry, yard work, hygiene, finances, physical exercise, and other appropriate jobs. The client’s household is the locus of the team’s work.
- Establishment of healthy relationships: At first, the members of the therapeutic team provide the client’s primary relationships. Later, those relationships become a bridge for the client to establish healthy, nontreatment-related contacts in the wider community.
- Stabilized schedule: Mental disorders disturb basic rhythms of eating, sleeping, rest, and activity. Restoring and stabilizing life rhythms through careful attention to daily living patterns is critical to recovery. By working closely with both the client and his or her environment, the whole situation becomes integrated. This integration minimizes conflicts that undermine recovery and maximizes the client’s sense of security.
Basic Attendance
Our essential clinical practice for integrating a person with his or her environment is “basic attendance.” This is a subtle combination of being with the person with the skill and understanding of a therapist and the warmth and empathy of a friend. It involves engaging with the person in ordinary activities of daily living. We provide help to the client in accomplishing problematic tasks, expanding into areas of interest, scheduling sane rhythms of activities, and furthering personal awareness. In some cases, basic attendance can be provided by a sole team member.
If the client’s needs are greater, then a team is assembled. Coordination of communication among all Windhorse clinicians and outside service providers is carried out through regular team meetings. Family members are included as active collaborators throughout the treatment process so that our work is informed by them and they, in turn, are supported and educated by us. Constant attention to collaborative learning among family members, the client, team members, and outside providers arouses the real spirit of the Windhorse work. We promote a client’s genuine recovery by helping him or her develop a wholesome domestic environment, healthy relationships, and self-knowledge.
