Project-Based Behavioral Therapy (PBBT)

Project based behavioral therapy is a modality being further developed and researched by Blythe Zemel, a current UC Graduate Student. Blythe Zemel currently is completing her internship under supervision with Communities in Schools San Antonio and will be moving into private clinical practice in 2027 to pursue her Ph.D to further research project based behavioral therapy. 

Project based behavioral therapy is inspired by various modalities of learning and therapeutic interventions. Through her time working as an educational instructor, Blythe became an advocate for project-based instruction related to STEM to better train and engage students into high-pay skilled jobs. Blythe started a nonprofit, Girl with Grit, and developed a project-based curriculum with Education Service Center Region 20. This collaboration was based on her vision of project-based learning being a solution for school retention rates, attendance in behavioral intervention classrooms, student failure rate, and a need to develop future workforce pathways. 

As students did projects, Blythe would watch the increase in confidence, self-efficacy, task-orientation, resilience, and skills amongst students, she informally saw that it improved their overall mental health. Her belief became that project-based interventions were not something just applicable to learning in classrooms, project-based interventions should also be applicable in therapeutic settings. We see that evidenced by play therapy, art therapy, and sand-tray therapy. In these therapeutic modalities, one is healing through doing and expressing in a hands-on way.

Much like project-based learning, project-based behavioral therapy engages clients through hands-on activities that require task-orientation and stress tolerance. In project-based behavioral therapy, the therapist’s role is to guide their client up to success through projects by breaking down tasks, barriers, and offering guidance until project completion and success.

Blythe’s informal data and research leads her to believe that success can trigger neurotransmitters such as dopamine and make it a cyclical pattern positively reinforced by feel-good hormones. Additionally, completion of projects not only boosts executive functioning and skills-based performance, but also increases confidence. Projects created by clients must be sent home with clients and displayed if the client is prideful. This is similar to keeping art intact and on display. 

The goal of project based interventions is to help with both task orientation (e.g. following instructions or tasks one step at a time)