About Us
Our Mission
To advance the field of behavioral health by improving evidence-based training in group therapy settings thereby improving patient outcomes.
What We Do
We've trained over 1,000 clinicians to date. The Institute for the Advancement of Group Therapy engages a skilled team of clinicians and trainers to deliver highly effective trainings and ongoing supervision, which then enables individual clinicians to deliver engaging, effective therapeutic interventions in group settings.
As a result of our trainings, patient engagement and satisfaction grows significantly, leading to both better outcomes for the patients as well as increased referrals for the providers they work for. Because our program goes beyond the simple transfer of information to teaching the actual skills that patients need to use in the real world, patients have higher rates of success in recovery from addiction and behavioral health issues, which, in turn, leads to more referrals and even better contracts with insurance payers.
Meet Our Executive Director
Andrew Bordt
Andrew has extensive knowledge of pedagogy and practice in therapeutic, educational, and corporate settings. After receiving his MEd from the University of Illinois, Andrew became a Certified Disney Trainer through The Walt Disney Company world-renowned facilitator training program. Andrew went on to lead training and development programming for institutions in China and the US. One commonality he found across all roles was the importance effective group delivery had on results. Group facilitation is much different than one-on-one instruction or therapy. For any group to be truly effective, each participant in the group must be actively involved at all times. Groups must be dynamic, built on a foundation of trust and respect, promote active skill-building, and create a culture of mutual support to be effective.
Andrew's first experience with group therapy sessions and recovery meetings stemmed from his own personal struggle with addiction, anxiety, and his desire to live a healthier, more productive life. He saw that group therapy was lacking in terms of the best practices already incorporated into most other fields.
Andrew is proud to lead The Institute for the Advancement of Group Therapy as it addresses gaps in current group-therapy models and skills up clinicians in order to provide the best care possible to patients. With hundreds of therapists trained across the US in IAGT's techniques, Andrew is excited to make IAGT the standard in the field for quality group therapy delivery.
Andrew Bordt