Are High Schools For Troubled Youth Effective at Helping Your Teen Turn His Life Around?


As a parent, you want your teenager to become the best person they can be. However, when your teenager starts to struggle with emotional, mental health or behavioral issues, it can quickly slow down their development, life experiences and growth. Many parents turn to specialized high schools, known as therapeutic boarding schools, where their troubled teens can receive full-time structure and guidance on turning their lives around.

What is a Therapeutic Boarding School?

Therapeutic boarding schools are programs that are designed to provide therapy, academic instruction and life skills lessons for troubled teenagers who cannot find success in traditional schools. Often, the troubled teens struggle with home life as well, so removing them from their current environment is actually a good way to give them a chance at a new start. For many families, a therapeutic boarding school is the solution to the problem that they simply don't have the knowledge or resources to handle themselves.

Therapeutic boarding schools are a long-term program, ranging from 9 months to several years. They are heavily regulated by state laws and must provide top level care of students. While the teaching and healing philosophies may differ between schools, the goal is the same--to help troubled teens turn their lives around.

What is a Therapeutic Boarding School Like?

Just as the name implies, therapeutic boarding schools provide regular therapy as well as academic instruction. The best schools have licensed and certified staff members who work with the teens every day to help them get to the root of their emotional, behavioral and mental health issues. This includes licensed therapists who hold group and individual counseling sessions regularly. Certified teachers work with teens in the classroom to repair credits, get to grade level and even earn a high school diploma. Other staff members include house parents, mentors, life skills teachers and administrators. These trained professionals provide the structure and guidance that troubled teens need to go from problematic to promising.

At a therapeutic boarding school, teens learn the best ways to deal with their challenges, find their inner strengths, explore the wider world and make the transition from adolescence to adulthood. In the safe atmosphere of a therapeutic boarding school, teens can overcome their issues with substance abuse , depression, anxiety, ADD/ADHD, bipolar, eating disorders, adoption or abandonment issues, abuse trauma, and many other conditions. Teens can compare what a positive life can be like versus the negative atmosphere they used to dwell in.

When it’s time for parents to send their troubled teens to a therapeutic boarding school, they are often skeptical as to whether this specialized high school can really help their troubled teens turn their lives around. As long as parents find a school that has a proven history of success, matches their teen's needs, and meets all the state requirements for operation, the chances are very good that they will eventually see their teen transform into a successful young adult.

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