Fighting Invisible Tigers: Stress Management for Teens

In Step offers groups to help with this time geared towards young adults, aged 18–30, who need to improve their social and emotional well-being. Group work is a powerful tool for enhancing self-esteem and solving problems more effectively. Group provides a supportive forum to work on goals, such as Improving self-esteem and strengthening identity, Developing an ability to express anger effectively, Coping effectively with conflicts, Improving communication and listening skills and Overcoming social anxiety. 

The post-high school or -college years mark new beginnings. This time of transition presents young adults with new freedom and opportunity, as well as challenges and life-changing decisions.  

For more information about our Interpersonal Development for Young Adults group, please contact us by email or call 703-876-8480. 

Teen Support Group: Feeling at Home Back in the USA 

Sixteen-week virtual international support groups for middle school and high school students transitioning home from overseas. 

The transition back to the home country can be a difficult process, with many third- culture kids (TCKs) experiencing isolation, withdrawal, anxiety, and grief. This support group is designed to help TCKs re-adjust to the United States and live their best lives in the American environment. 

TCKs will learn practical strategies to help overcome transition difficulties and build social support networks. The groups will also provide TCKs with a place to tell their stories and learn from their peers’ experiences. 

Group Fall sessions running is for Middle School Group and High School Group. 

Call In Step at 703-876-8480 or email us at info@insteppc.com for more information or schedule a free 15-minute consultation with Dr. Kass. 

The Early Childhood program is designed to help children in grades pre-K through 1 who are generally socially appropriate but have lapses in their social behavior. For example, they may be socially withdrawn or impulsive. These groups develop basic social skills such as sharing space with others, developing eye contact, taking turns, listening skills, recognizing, and expressing feelings. Parents receive feedback from one of the group leaders in the last 15 minutes of the group to discuss improving communication at home, managing challenging behavior, and building cooperation at home. 

For more information about our groups, please contact us by email or call 703-876-8480.

The goals of these groups are to help group members interact with each other, find common interests, and lessen feelings of loneliness and isolation. These therapy groups are geared toward teenagers with autism (or related disorders) who actively desire relationships with others. While group members want connections with their peers, they have difficulty knowing how to relate to them. They struggle with reciprocal communication, self-awareness, perspective-taking, initiating and sustaining conversations and/or going with the flow with others.  

Our therapists incorporate many different modalities to achieve the goals of the group, such as CBT techniques, activities/drawing, role-plays, mindfulness exercises, games and other interactive techniques to help teach and reinforce learned skills. Parents receive feedback by one of the group leaders the last 15 minutes of the group to discuss topics such as improving communication and supporting group goals at home. 

For more information about our groups, please contact us by email or call 703-876-8480. 

Through acceptance and change, this group assists participants in pursuing strengths, skills, and support to further enhance academic or career goals, relationships, self esteem, and overall life functioning. Group participants have a history of prior therapy and treatments but have currently reached a level of emotional stability and are seeking skills and support to continue and enhance treatment progress. 

Under the skill of our clinicians and with support from the group, participants will be encouraged to evaluate themselves and others from various perspectives and learn ways to create balance with life demands. Skills to reinforce emotional tolerance will help minimize future crisis while skills to improve interpersonal relationships will help to create greater self-worth. This is an open group and weekly participation is required. 

To learn more, please call us at 703-876-8480 or contact us by email or call 703-876-8480. 

This therapy group is for adults seeking a safe and nurturing place to explore feelings, patterns of behavior and understand their motivations to deepen connections with others. Group members are encouraged to tolerate and verbalize the uncomfortable feelings of anger, anxiety, sadness, frustration, loneliness, and/or distress that may arise due to the group therapy experience. 

For more information about our groups, please contact us by email or call 703-876-8480. 

These groups help parents build skills while encouraging increased connection and resilience at home. The following are some of the topics addressed, creating a more peaceful home environment, managing strong emotions and challenging behavior more effectively at home, setting realistic expectations, and decreasing sibling rivalry. 

In addition to practicing skills using the worksheets from Cathi Cohen’s workbook Raise Your Parenting IQ, our therapists incorporate many different modalities to achieve the group’s goals, such as CBT techniques, role-plays, mindfulness exercises, games, and other interactive techniques to help teach and reinforce skills. 

To learn more, please  contact us by email or call 703-876-8480. 

This group is geared towards adults who struggle with suicidal thinking and/or disruptive behaviors such as maladaptive coping strategies and self-harm. Many group members have been diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder and have had a history of hospitalization. 

DBT skills group emphasizes Marsha Linehan’s four core concepts to help regulate our clients’ emotions and behaviors: Mindfulness, Distress Tolerance, Emotion Regulation, and Interpersonal Effectiveness. Along with these and other skills that focus on acceptance and change, group members will learn to tolerate emotional-stress that is free of judgment and urges. 

An intake assessment is required before starting a group for all new clients. All clients must also attend a group orientation session and purchase Marsha Linehan’s book, DBT Skills and Training Handouts and Worksheets (available for purchase online or at our office). 

Group members are also required to attend individual therapy sessions to remain in the group. For more information about our groups, please contact us by email or call 703-876-8480. 

In Step’s Animal Crossing Therapy Group is for the Animal Crossing enthusiast in your family who is in need of social interaction with peers and refinement of interpersonal skills. This group uniquely meets children where their natural interests lie to sustain their motivation to connect socially and learn cooperative play and social problem-solving. 

Group members will meet weekly on In Step’s very own Animal Crossing New Horizons island using their own Nintendo Switch Animal Crossing game while simultaneously meeting over Zoom. Each week the group leader will lead a discussion and in-game activity that targets the social goals. 

To learn more, please call us at 703-876-8480 or contact us by email.

In Step’s Minecraft Social development group is intended for children ages 7 and up who love to play Minecraft and are in need of development and practice of social skills with peers. This group uniquely meets children where their natural interests lie in order to sustain their motivation, encourage social reciprocity and team building, and change self-limiting behaviors. This group will address important social skills such as initiating social interactions, collaborating, problem solving, compromising, and negotiating with peers in a virtual environment. 

Group members will be expected to join the group through videoconferencing via Zoom and engage in game play in a private Minecraft Realm designed specifically for the group. Each week the group leader will lead a discussion and project which targets social skill development and communication goals. 

To learn more, please call us at 703-876-8480 or contact us by email.

These are social skills groups for Stepping Stones graduates. In these groups, children who have already graduated from our Stepping Stones program can return or continue in ongoing social skills training groups that are less structured and curriculum based than the Stepping Stones program groups. 

The goals of these groups are to: reinforce and practice learned social skills through exercises, activities and role play; use learned problem-solving skills to address issues at home and at school; and gain support from peers who have similar struggles. 

These groups meet continuously on a weekly basis. Children graduate from these groups when agreed upon goals have been met. 

To learn more, please call us at 703-876-8480 or contact us by email. 

The goal of these groups is to increase group members’ self-confidence, decrease anxiety in social situations, and give them the tools and awareness to feel more at ease with themselves. This increased understanding and confidence will empower them to develop more satisfying relationships with friends and family. Our therapists incorporate many different modalities to achieve the goals of the group, such as CBT techniques, activities/drawing, role-plays, mindfulness exercises, games, and other interactive techniques to help teach and reinforce skills. 

While the group members may struggle to navigate their increasingly complex social worlds, they fundamentally demonstrate solid social skill development. These therapy groups are geared towards girls who struggle in the following areas: self-esteem, social anxiety, social problem solving, conflict resolution, feelings of social isolation, body image concerns, and/or emotional regulation.

To learn more, please call us at 703-876-8480 or contact us by email.

Based on the evidence-based work of Daniel LeGoff, Gina Gomez De La Cuesta, GW Krauss, and Simon Baron-Cohen, our LEGO Social Development Groups are ongoing therapy groups specifically geared towards neurodiverse youth. 

These groups are for children in elementary and middle school who struggle socially unless they are engaged with peers in a high-interest activity, in this case building LEGOs. These group members work together to build group identity and task focus.  

LEGO® is a trademark of the LEGO Group of companies which does not sponsor, authorize or endorse this site. 

To learn more, please call us at 703-876-8480 or contact us by email. 

Stepping Stones is an evidence-based social skills group therapy program developed by In Step’s Founder, Cathi Cohen LCSW, CGP in 1990. Parent and child groups run simultaneously and are led by licensed clinicians. The groups meet once a week for approximately 40 weeks.  

Stepping Stones is geared towards elementary and middle school-age children and their parents; children with social deficits, difficulty reading and responding to social cues, listening issues, lacking in self-awareness and perspective taking, trouble communicating strong emotions effectively.  

*Children with High Functioning Autism and/or more severe social communication delays may be referred into our LEGO Social Development Groups. 

For more information about our Stepping Stones program or to find out about groups starting soon, please contact us by email or call 703-876-8480.