Charles Boisvert
Charles Boisvert, professor of counseling, educational leadership and school psychology, calls his recently published academic book, co-authored by psychologist Mohiuddin Ahmed, “Mind Stimulation Therapy: Cognitive Interventions for Persons with Schizophrenia,” a product of his life’s work.
“We could have written it earlier,” Boisvert said. “It was a matter of putting all our work and knowledge down on paper. It’s been a long, thought-out process.”
Boisvert and Ahmed met in 1992, when Ahmed was already applying the methods of treating schizophrenic patients outlined in their book in his mental health practice.
The book presents a therapy intervention model – Multimodal Integrative Cognitive Stimulation Therapy – seen as an alternative approach to treating schizophrenic patients by incorporating forms of talk and behavioral therapy into medicinal treatment.
Boisvert said the model was developed through looking for ways to give schizophrenic patients more care than prescription medication to treat their illness.
“We had such good luck in practicing this model, which provides direction on tapping into areas of the brain in schizophrenic patients that are functional but not reachable,” Boisvert said. “It gives new ways of looking at treatment for those patients.”
The Multimodal Integrative Cognitive Stimulation Therapy model is described as emphasizing mind stimulation to enhance patients’ information processing and ability to engage in reality-based discussion. It is grounded in cognitive stimulation techniques that include body movement-mindfulness-relaxation, mind stimulation using group discussions, and mind stimulation using paper to pencil cognize and self-reflection exercises.
Boisvert said the book is practical, easy to follow and will appeal to clinicians, mental health centers, psychologists and hospitals. Boisvert is also incorporating the manual into his teaching.
The book also includes chapters on apply the Multimodal Integrative Cognitive Stimulation model to substance abuse and geriatric patients. There are also clinical vignettes that illustrate how the therapy model can be applied in actual practice and provides guides on responding to clinical encounters and issues raised during the therapy as well as handouts and worksheets to be used with clients.
“This approach does not replace treatment, but augments it,” Boisvert said. “It offers an innovative approach. We knew it made since to present the model in a clinical manual.”
The book was released in June by New York publishing house Routledge and has received several positive reviews by psychiatry professionals including Dr. David Osser, associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.
Boisvert has been a professor at Rhode Island College since 2000. He earned his bachelor’ degree at Le Moyne College, his master’s degree in agency counseling at Rhode Island College, and his Ph.D. in clinical psychology at the University of Rhode Island. He was a fellow at the Lahey Clinic, a nonprofit teaching hospital of Tufts University School of Medicine. His clinical practice is at the Rhode Island Center for Cognitive Behavioral Therapy in North Kingstown.
