SAGE (DBT & CBT Program for Young Adults)

What is SAGE?

The System for Adult Growth and Emergence (SAGE) is a program designed for young adults with a primary anxiety or mood disorder diagnosis who are unable to reach developmentally appropriate life goals. These young adults may have difficulty regulating emotions and behaviors, may present with multiple problems, exhibit a high degree of withdrawn or avoidant behaviors, and/or have difficulty with executive functioning skills.

There are three branches of the SAGE program:

• SAGE Foundations: a 6-week DBT skills group that meets 3 days per week and focuses on skill acquisition to help young adults achieve emotional and behavioral stability.

• SAGE Progressions: a 10-week program consisting of a DBT group, a CBT group, and an Executive Functioning group that each meet once per week and focus on skill application to help young adults move forward in their lives.

• SAGE Parent: a 14-week group parent course that meets once per week and helps parents learn effective methods of supporting their young adult and managing their own emotions.

Designed to be modular, SAGE programming is flexible to meet an individual’s needs, such that young adults may participate in the branches of the program that are right for them, with different combinations of groups and treatment timelines possible. Most young adults participate first in SAGE Foundations to acquire important skills for change and then move into SAGE Progressions to enhance learning and directly apply skills learned. For some, participating only in the 6-week SAGE Foundations program may be sufficient for their goals. In Progressions, participating in one or two instead of all the three groups may be appropriate. Young adults can also participate in multiple Progressions groups at the same time, or one after another. If more intensive support is needed, SAGE members may engage in supplemental individual executive functioning sessions, individual exposure sessions for anxiety, or individual behavioral activation sessions for depression. Additionally, parents may participate in SAGE Parent whether or not their young adult is enrolled in treatment. Your individual therapist will work with you and your care team to develop the right treatment plan.

While SAGE Foundations and Progressions groups meet physically in our White Plains office, all groups are equipped for hybrid in-person and virtual participation. Clients may participate in groups fully remotely if clinically appropriate, or may participate some days in-person and some days via telehealth. Individual SAGE therapists are located in the White Plains and New York City offices for weekly individual appointments. The White Plains offices is accessible via Metro North for clients living in NYC and the greater Westchester area. The SAGE Parent program is fully virtual.

Admissions Criteria

Patients may be referred from a variety of sources, including individual therapists, inpatient settings, partial hospital settings, outpatient therapy departments, psychopharmacological providers, medical providers, college counseling departments and themselves or their families.

Accepted participants meet the following criteria:

• Aged 18-30

• High school graduate

• Have a primary diagnosis of a mood or anxiety disorder

*Patients with a primary diagnosis of substance abuse, severe cognitive limitations, or violent behavior are not eligible.

Participants who experience suicidal ideation and/or engage in self-injurious behaviors are eligible for the SAGE Foundations and Progressions programs. However, they must not have an intent to commit suicide and must be willing to seek assistance during times of stress. Please note that in order to attend the SAGE Progressions CBT group, patients must have the ability to engage in exposures without resorting to suicidal ideation, self-injury, or non-attendance.

Other Stipulations:

Patients need to seek psychopharmacological and medical support independently. We require consent to reach out to parents in case of emergency. We will also follow up with families when participants have significant difficulties with attendance.

Admission Procedures

Interested participants should contact our intake team to schedule an intake assessment by emailing intake@cbc-psychology.com or calling (914) 385-1150, Option 1. In cases where a potential SAGE participant is currently in therapy with a CBC provider, intake assessments may be waived and orientation to SAGE may be integrated into regular sessions.

Aftercare

Based on need, SAGE participants will be referred for aftercare on a case-by-case basis. Your individual therapist will work with you while in program to craft the appropriate treatment plan. Aftercare can include many options depending on treatment goals and needs. For example, aftercare for participants who complete Foundations may include enrollment in additional SAGE programming to strengthen skills, maintain structure, and maintain community, or focus treatment toward more specific targets, such as executive functioning or avoidance. Alternatively, participants who complete Foundations may simply continue in individual treatment with their therapist, or may elect to return to an outside referring provider. Patients who are still working on encoding skills may be referred to standard outpatient DBT programs so that skills can be encoded in more depth and over time.

Young adults may also choose to taper treatment slowly in order to gradually transition toward more independence by participating one or two days of Progressions programming instead of three, or completing additional cycles of just one or two Progressions groups after completing a cycle of all three groups.

Please visit our SAGE program pages for more detail on our specific programs:

• SAGE Foundations: Young Adult Individual Therapy + DBT Skills Group

• SAGE Progressions: Individual Therapy and Skill Generalization Groups

  • SAGE Progressions DBT: Graduate DBT Skills

  • SAGE Progressions CBT: Overcoming Avoidance

  • SAGE Progressions: Executive Functioning

• SAGE Parent: Transitions for Parents of Young Adults Group

"Anytime I open my SAGE Foundations binder, it calms me down and centers me." — Current SAGE participant