Our Counseling Methods
In your quest to find the right therapeutic boarding school to meet your teen and family’s needs, chances are you’ve wondered a great deal about the kind of support and care provided. After all, you want the best for your child. Ensuring a high chance for success is simply vital to you.
Shelterwood is different from other boarding schools for girls and boys that you may have explored. Combining the three important facets of therapy, education and community service, we create an environment that is supportive, loving and educational for the teens in our care. Since we specialize in helping teens through some of the most challenging of adolescent obstacles, it is our belief that therapy is important, but it should be a little different than what people are often used to.
As a parent, it probably won’t surprise you to learn that teens don’t like the office-oriented design of traditional therapy. Counseling at Shelterwood occurs all the time – using a variety of methods. We provide both individual and family counseling at least one time each week and group counseling two times a week by a therapist with a Master’s degree. But the whole point of a residential teen treatment program is to provide a therapeutic environment where teen counseling and observation is taking place 24/7 – where real life essentially happens at school and during meals, while doing chores and hanging out during recreation. This ‘life sharpening life’ environment is the transformational advantage of residential treatment in Shelterwood. Using each crisis, conflict, and event to inject ourselves into the lives of the teens is the ‘secret sauce’ that makes Shelterwood unique among therapeutic boarding schools or even other Christian programs.
Counseling
Our mentor staff have joined our teen ministry in an effort to affect the lives of hurting teens. They are not there merely to provide supervision until the next therapy session. The life that they are sacrificing and sharing is the therapy. They are giving of themselves in an effort to restore the life of a teen. No amount of money can purchase this type of care because it is a gift and the motivation comes from our love of Jesus.
We believe that the true restoration of the heart and soul comes from Jesus Christ. Our entire staff – from cooks, teachers, mentors, house staff and counselors – is nurturing their own personal relationships with Jesus. You see, at Shelterwood we’re more than just a private therapeutic center, we are also committed to doing ministry within our community and working with other boarding schools throughout the country to provide high quality care for teens and families. Our teens enjoy support in three key areas of life.
Therapy – As we’ve discussed, we take an around-the-clock approach to making sure teens get the support they need to overcome obstacles that may stand in their way.
Education – Like many other boarding schools for girls and boys, we place a strong emphasis on the educational facet of our program. We believe it is vital for teens in our care to stay on task with their studies so they can easily transition back into their own schools when their time with us has come to a successful conclusion.
Service – Shelterwood is guided by strong Christian principles and works to support local community needs. Every six to eight weeks we set aside our regular programming and ask the students of the program and the staff to work in a voluntary capacity for five days. We help build homes for the under-privileged, hand out food at the local soup kitchen, fold clothes at the second hand store, or work to clean local parks. Helping teens grow means teaching them how to serve others and we make an effort to lead by example.
If your family is ready to explore therapeutic boarding schools or treatment programs we invite you to take a closer look at Shelterwood. While therapy is a major part of what we provide here, you’ll discover there’s much more to our program than sessions in an office.
