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Going to a therapeutic boarding school may be quite a scary prospect for both parents and teens. There are so many stereotypes surrounding boarding schools therapeutic or otherwise. However, not all of these stereotypes are true. Here are a few facts that may be helpful if you are interested to know more about therapeutic boarding schools:
- Accommodations - Many people are immediately concerned about boarding schools' therapeutic component and think that it's just a psychiatric ward. Therapeutic boarding schools don't lock students in padded cells. There are many types of boarding schools that are therapeutic in nature. Some of them are designed to be like a home environment, with only a few students enrolled at a time, depending on the license that they acquire. Some boarding schools therapeutic programs are based on wilderness therapy which involves going out and camping in the wilderness for a short time.
- Therapy and counseling - The therapy and counseling carried out in therapeutic boarding schools are conducted by licensed practitioners and involve finding out students' individual needs and situations. Each student will have his/her own personal roadmap to keep track of his/her progress. In most schools, there will also be regular group counseling sessions which is very useful in helping students freely express their ideas and feelings in a peer group environment.
- Accessibility - Parents can still reach their children while in school through phone, periodic visits, as well as family therapy and letter-writing programs. Even schools that have wilderness therapy programs have satellite phones which will make teachers and students accessible when they are away from the main campus.
- Length of stay - The length of stay varies widely because each child and situation is different. Ideally, students should stay for no less than 90 days, but there are times when the length of stay may be shorter or longer, depending on how a student responds to the therapy and counseling.
- Quality of academic programs - Many therapeutic boarding schools have an excellent academic curriculum as well as a wide variety of extracurricular activities. The great thing about it is that students can learn in an environment that is quite different from a traditional classroom. Students are encouraged to develop their curiosity about the things around them and to learn to start setting goals again. The class sizes are also quite small compared to mainstream public schools. Each student can be given sufficient attention by the teachers and are helped in terms of developing good study habits and a better attitude about education.
- Aftercare - It goes without saying that the atmosphere inside these boarding schools will be quite different from the world outside. All effort will be made to make sure that students are prepared for the transition back to their home and community, but in most cases, teens will have a hard time adjusting unless they are given sufficient support. Good boarding schools' therapeutic programs will include aftercare. There are schools that have tie-ups with different therapists in different states and cities around the country to make sure that students are guided and helped as they transition back to their home and to mainstream schools.
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