Trails Carolina Therapeutic Wilderness Program has earned rave reviews for its effectiveness, garnering both positive feedback and praise from clients and reviewers alike. The personalized treatment plans, qualified staff members, nature-based approach and family involvement all play a critical role in its success.
Trails Carolina can sometimes cause controversy among its participant families; therefore, it is crucial for those considering participating in this program to conduct comprehensive research and seek advice from mental health experts before making their decision.
Personalized Treatment
Trails Carolina is known for its tailored treatment plans and unique setting in the wilderness, which helps participants refocus on their goals and priorities. Additionally, Trails Carolina promotes interpersonal skill building to strengthen relationships among family members, peers, and authority figures – some participants even report improved academic performance after returning from Trails Carolina.
Trails Carolina “Investigation” wilderness therapy program was proven effective by an 8-year independent study on families & students, yielding positive effects on student behavior, emotional well being, family dynamics and student participation in outdoor activities and educational curriculum – providing comprehensive care to its participants. With its team of therapists, counselors and field guides providing holistic care alongside outdoor activities.
Individualized treatment plans in our program begin with an assessment to ascertain individual participant needs and then are created by an experienced team of licensed therapists integrating various therapeutic modalities and experiential activities into a personalized treatment plan.
Trails Carolina provides participants with an environment in which they can learn to cope with and overcome their challenges by participating in individual and group therapy sessions, experiential learning activities and outdoor adventure-based therapy sessions. Furthermore, Trails Carolina’s holistic approach focuses on treating behavioral and emotional issues at their roots.
Qualified Staff
Trails Carolina allegations of abuse and neglect have sent shockwaves through the wilderness therapy industry, prompting regulatory bodies to launch an investigation. These horror stories serve as a stark reminder that any program must prioritize participant safety first and foremost. Furthermore, this ongoing probe should serve as a wakeup call for parents and guardians looking into programs for their children, demanding transparency and accountability from providers.
Trails Carolina employs a staff of highly-qualified therapists, counselors, and wilderness guides who specialize in working with adolescents and their families to address mental health issues. Over their many years of experience they have created an innovative therapeutic curriculum combining outdoor adventure therapy with traditional clinical therapy for long-term healing and sustainable change among their clients.
Trails’ holistic approach includes daily group therapy sessions for adolescents to build their social skills and enhance communication, and provides family therapy services so their loved ones can understand their challenges while working to enhance family dynamics.
Trails has designed its initial day to ensure a seamless transition for new students, from outfitting them with gear and meeting their group and peers to offering flexible curriculum to meet individual student needs by integrating academic coursework into wilderness experiences whenever applicable.
Nature-Based Approach
Western North Carolina mountains provide more than just an idyllic setting for at-risk youth to rewrite their stories and embark on brighter futures; they also provide an immersive therapeutic experience combining wilderness challenges and classroom instruction into one comprehensive program to positively change lives of teens at risk.
Outdoor therapy sessions provide an ideal setting for individual and group therapy sessions, where students learn coping strategies to navigate emotional difficulties while developing healthy, adaptive behaviors they can implement at home. At Trails Carolina, therapists are adept in various therapeutic modalities – including cognitive behavioral therapy and dialectical behavior therapy – which they combine with field instructors who possess extensive wilderness training to deliver an immersive therapeutic experience that transforms lives.
Trails students also benefit from academic support provided by full-time certified teachers at Trails Academy; these educators assist them in strengthening their classroom skills and reintegrating into the school system, offering high school credits in subjects like World History or Physical Education; or they can work on coursework brought from home.
A combination of outdoor learning experiences with classroom learning helps motivate at-risk students to stay engaged with their education. A study published in Frontiers in Psychology demonstrated how exposure to nature increases academic learning, engagement and motivation among youth. Through Trails Carolina program components such as this educational rehabilitation approach, 96% of graduates showed improvement in externalizing behaviors or rule breaking behaviors one year post graduation.
Family Involvement
At Trails, we understand that long-term success for children depends on family involvement and participation. That is why our wilderness therapy programs engage the entire family system for maximum change over time.
At Our Families Can, we work closely with every family to address issues contributing to emotional and behavioral challenges for teens, such as teaching parents how to effectively communicate, build empathy and promote healthy conflict resolution within the home environment. By helping these teens develop self-advocacy skills necessary to overcome challenges they are experiencing and thrive more fully, we’re providing our families with support to address any barriers preventing growth.
Our unique wilderness therapy approach also provides opportunities for parents to experience transformation of their own. Parallel family programming assists parents in better comprehending the struggles their child is experiencing while building mutual respect and trust with one another – creating an all-around perspective which ultimately results in improved family relationships and greater emotional well-being for everyone involved.
Family Therapy Sessions at Family Institute offer much more than weekly calls from a Primary Therapist; our beautiful campus provides many family therapy sessions in addition to Family-with-Family Calls and our groundbreaking Common Ground adventure family therapy experience that allow families to support one another during this trying time.
Once a program nears its conclusion, we bring families together for a powerful and memorable graduation weekend experience. Families will practice open communication while developing practical tools to manage challenges at home.