Therapeutic boarding school
Encyclopedia
A therapeutic boarding school (TBS), alternatively known as an emotional growth boarding school, is a boarding school
based on the therapeutic community
model that offers an educational program together with specialized structure and supervision for students with emotional and behavioral problems, substance abuse
problems, or learning difficulties
.
In contrast with residential treatment programs
, which are more clinically focused and primarily provide Behaviour therapy
and treatment for adolescents with serious issues, the focus of a TBS is toward emotional and academic recovery involving structure and supervision for physical, emotional, behavioral, family, social, intellectual and academic development. Therapeutic and educational approaches vary greatly; with the approaches best described as a “tapestry” of interventions. The typical duration of student enrollment in a TBS range from one to two years. Students may receive either high school diploma
s or credits for transfer to other secondary school
s. Some therapeutic boarding schools hold educational accreditation
.
In his 2005 book, journalist David L. Marcus estimated that dozens of therapeutic schools have been established in the United States since the 1970s, operated by both private corporation
s and nonprofit agencies. David described one of these schools as follows:
The term "emotional growth education" was created by Linda Houghton in the early 1980s to describe workshops and other specialty programs at the first CEDU
School. The term was intended to clearly define how the curriculum used child development principles and healthy stages of growth to create self-esteem and develop greater skills in communication, work ethic, self-awareness and academic study. She used the principles of child development as described by Erik Erikson
to bring understanding of the emotional growth workshop curriculum to parents, faculty and referring professionals. Ms. Houghton went on to found two schools (Mount Bachelor Academy
and the King George School
) attempting to refine what she calls "holistic education" or "a new way of looking at things". These schools and programs were designed as models for the integration of emotional growth, academics, the arts and other specialized learning.
There are subtle differences between emotional growth and therapeutic schools. Emotional growth theory developed from the idea that immaturity was the reason for behavior problems in teens. With a tightly structured community where consequences for behavior were immediate and appropriate, the student might learn from his/her mistakes and grow appropriately. However, a strictly emotional growth curriculum is considered ineffective for students with deep-seated trauma or serious psychiatric disorders such as bipolar, anorexia, etc. A TBS will add clinical treatments to the emotional growth curriculum, including medications, for students with more serious disorders.
The original emotional growth programs rarely incorporated medications for the students. Over the years, as more schools and programs were created, the term "emotional growth" was used and misused to describe vastly different therapeutic schools that sometimes did not adhere to the basic components needed for true emotional growth education.
Troubled Teen Industry
The National Association of Therapeutic Schools and Programs
listed 140 schools and programs as of 2005. Educational consultants say the total number of programs available is closer to 300. The market for this industry appears to be expanding; there seemed to be less of a stigma about seeking therapy today. Educational consultant Lon Woodbury stated "All indications are that the market is still growing. The consensus is that increasing numbers of children are in trouble and are not growing up very well."
The disability rights organization, Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law
, opposes placement in therapeutic boarding schools, equating them with residential treatment center
s. The organization questions the appropriateness and efficacy of group placements, citing failure of some programs to address problems in the child’s home and community environment, lack of mental health services, and substandard educational programs. Concerns specifically related to private therapeutic boarding schools include inappropriate discipline techniques, medical neglect, restricted communication (such as lack of access to child protection and advocacy hotlines), and lack of monitoring and regulation. Bazelon promotes community-based services on the basis that they are more effective and less costly than residential placement.
From late 2007 through 2008, a coalition of medical and psychological organizations that including members of Alliance for the Safe, Therapeutic and Appropriate use of Residential Treatment (ASTART) and the Community Alliance for the Ethical Treatment of Youth
(CAFETY), provided testimony and support that led to the creation of the Stop Child Abuse in Residential Programs for Teens Act of 2008 by the United States Congress
Committee on Education and Labor.
certified by BYU
in terms of internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and concurrent validity as well as being a valid and reliable self-report measure of psychosocial distress in youth psychotherapy research.
The Federal Trade Commission has issued guides for parents considering residential treatment programs.
Related Concepts
Related Institutions
Boarding school
A boarding school is a school where some or all pupils study and live during the school year with their fellow students and possibly teachers and/or administrators. The word 'boarding' is used in the sense of "bed and board," i.e., lodging and meals...
based on the therapeutic community
Therapeutic community
Therapeutic community is a term applied to a participative, group-based approach to long-term mental illness, personality disorders and drug addiction...
model that offers an educational program together with specialized structure and supervision for students with emotional and behavioral problems, substance abuse
Substance abuse
A substance-related disorder is an umbrella term used to describe several different conditions associated with several different substances .A substance related disorder is a condition in which an individual uses or abuses a...
problems, or learning difficulties
Learning disability
Learning disability is a classification including several disorders in which a person has difficulty learning in a typical manner, usually caused by an unknown factor or factors...
.
In contrast with residential treatment programs
Residential treatment center
A residential treatment center , sometimes called a rehab, is a live-in health care facility providing therapy for substance abuse, mental illness, or other behavioral problems...
, which are more clinically focused and primarily provide Behaviour therapy
Behaviour therapy
Behaviour therapy, or behavior therapy is an approach to psychotherapy based on learning theory which aims to treat psychopathology through techniques designed to reinforce desired and eliminate undesired behaviours.-History:...
and treatment for adolescents with serious issues, the focus of a TBS is toward emotional and academic recovery involving structure and supervision for physical, emotional, behavioral, family, social, intellectual and academic development. Therapeutic and educational approaches vary greatly; with the approaches best described as a “tapestry” of interventions. The typical duration of student enrollment in a TBS range from one to two years. Students may receive either high school diploma
High school diploma
A high school diploma is a diploma awarded for the completion of high school. In the United States and Canada, it is considered the minimum education required for government jobs and higher education. An equivalent is the GED.-Past diploma styles:...
s or credits for transfer to other secondary school
Secondary school
Secondary school is a term used to describe an educational institution where the final stage of schooling, known as secondary education and usually compulsory up to a specified age, takes place...
s. Some therapeutic boarding schools hold educational accreditation
Educational accreditation
Educational accreditation is a type of quality assurance process under which services and operations of educational institutions or programs are evaluated by an external body to determine if applicable standards are met...
.
In his 2005 book, journalist David L. Marcus estimated that dozens of therapeutic schools have been established in the United States since the 1970s, operated by both private corporation
Corporation
A corporation is created under the laws of a state as a separate legal entity that has privileges and liabilities that are distinct from those of its members. There are many different forms of corporations, most of which are used to conduct business. Early corporations were established by charter...
s and nonprofit agencies. David described one of these schools as follows:
[The school's] curriculum defies easy explanations. It was a patchwork of theories of leading behavioral psychologists of the twentieth century, mixed with techniques from twelve-step programs, California feel-good movements, Big Sur group processingGroup dynamicsGroup dynamics refers to a system of behaviors and psychological processes that occur within a social group , or between social groups...
, and Esalen-style encounters. The curriculum drew from the pioneering Swiss philosopher and psychologist Jean PiagetJean PiagetJean Piaget was a French-speaking Swiss developmental psychologist and philosopher known for his epistemological studies with children. His theory of cognitive development and epistemological view are together called "genetic epistemology"....
, who believed that children must learn at their own pace. And Erik EriksonErik EriksonErik Erikson was a Danish-German-American developmental psychologist and psychoanalyst known for his theory on social development of human beings. He may be most famous for coining the phrase identity crisis. His son, Kai T...
, who argued that a person’s ability to resolve conflicts during critical transitions early in life is an indicator for later happiness. And, especially at base camp, [The school] borrowed from Abraham MaslowAbraham MaslowAbraham Harold Maslow was an American professor of psychology at Brandeis University, Brooklyn College, New School for Social Research and Columbia University who created Maslow's hierarchy of needs...
. He had charted a hierarchy of needsMaslow's hierarchy of needsMaslow's hierarchy of needs is a theory in psychology, proposed by Abraham Maslow in his 1943 paper A Theory of Human Motivation. Maslow subsequently extended the idea to include his observations of humans' innate curiosity...
, starting with the physical – air, food, water – and ascending through self-esteem, belonging, love, and finally to truth and beauty.
The school wasn't trying to turn rampaging teenagers into cherubic clones. It was trying to help kids rediscover their talents, to give them tools to deal with inevitable setbacks and pain. [The school] started by reducing newcomers to coping with primordial needs – potable water, shelter, a comfortable temperature. As they fulfilled Maslow’s hierarchy, they started to think about who they really were.
History
Emotional Growth EducationThe term "emotional growth education" was created by Linda Houghton in the early 1980s to describe workshops and other specialty programs at the first CEDU
CEDU
CEDU Educational Services, Inc., known simply as CEDU , was founded in 1967 by Mel Wasserman and his wife Brigitta. The company owned and operated several therapeutic boarding schools and behavior modification programs in California and Idaho....
School. The term was intended to clearly define how the curriculum used child development principles and healthy stages of growth to create self-esteem and develop greater skills in communication, work ethic, self-awareness and academic study. She used the principles of child development as described by Erik Erikson
Erik Erikson
Erik Erikson was a Danish-German-American developmental psychologist and psychoanalyst known for his theory on social development of human beings. He may be most famous for coining the phrase identity crisis. His son, Kai T...
to bring understanding of the emotional growth workshop curriculum to parents, faculty and referring professionals. Ms. Houghton went on to found two schools (Mount Bachelor Academy
Mount Bachelor Academy
Mount Bachelor Academy was a private co-educational, therapeutic boarding school providing help to families of adolescents experiencing emotional and behavioral disorders including, minor Depressive Disorder, Oppositional Defiant Disorder, Substance abuse, and ADHD as well as help for teenagers...
and the King George School
King George School (Sutton, Vermont)
The King George School was a private year-round coeducational therapeutic boarding high school in a rural location in Sutton, Vermont, for students with alternative learning styles, attention difficulties, or behavioral and emotional problems which had contributed to learning problems...
) attempting to refine what she calls "holistic education" or "a new way of looking at things". These schools and programs were designed as models for the integration of emotional growth, academics, the arts and other specialized learning.
There are subtle differences between emotional growth and therapeutic schools. Emotional growth theory developed from the idea that immaturity was the reason for behavior problems in teens. With a tightly structured community where consequences for behavior were immediate and appropriate, the student might learn from his/her mistakes and grow appropriately. However, a strictly emotional growth curriculum is considered ineffective for students with deep-seated trauma or serious psychiatric disorders such as bipolar, anorexia, etc. A TBS will add clinical treatments to the emotional growth curriculum, including medications, for students with more serious disorders.
The original emotional growth programs rarely incorporated medications for the students. Over the years, as more schools and programs were created, the term "emotional growth" was used and misused to describe vastly different therapeutic schools that sometimes did not adhere to the basic components needed for true emotional growth education.
Troubled Teen Industry
The National Association of Therapeutic Schools and Programs
National Association of Therapeutic Schools and Programs
The National Association of Therapeutic Schools and Programs is a United States organization of therapeutic schools, residential treatment programs, wilderness programs, outdoor therapeutic programs, young adult programs and home-based residential programs for adolescents and young adults with...
listed 140 schools and programs as of 2005. Educational consultants say the total number of programs available is closer to 300. The market for this industry appears to be expanding; there seemed to be less of a stigma about seeking therapy today. Educational consultant Lon Woodbury stated "All indications are that the market is still growing. The consensus is that increasing numbers of children are in trouble and are not growing up very well."
The disability rights organization, Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law
Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law
The Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law is a national legal-advocacy organization representing people with mental disabilities in the USA. Originally known as The Mental Health Law Project, the Center was founded as a national public-interest organization in 1972 by a group of specialized...
, opposes placement in therapeutic boarding schools, equating them with residential treatment center
Residential treatment center
A residential treatment center , sometimes called a rehab, is a live-in health care facility providing therapy for substance abuse, mental illness, or other behavioral problems...
s. The organization questions the appropriateness and efficacy of group placements, citing failure of some programs to address problems in the child’s home and community environment, lack of mental health services, and substandard educational programs. Concerns specifically related to private therapeutic boarding schools include inappropriate discipline techniques, medical neglect, restricted communication (such as lack of access to child protection and advocacy hotlines), and lack of monitoring and regulation. Bazelon promotes community-based services on the basis that they are more effective and less costly than residential placement.
From late 2007 through 2008, a coalition of medical and psychological organizations that including members of Alliance for the Safe, Therapeutic and Appropriate use of Residential Treatment (ASTART) and the Community Alliance for the Ethical Treatment of Youth
Community Alliance for the Ethical Treatment of Youth
The Community Alliance For the Ethical Treatment of Youth, or CAFETY, is an advocacy group for people enrolled in residential treatment programs for at-risk teenagers. The group's mission includes advocating for access to advocates, due process, alternatives to aversive behavioral interventions,...
(CAFETY), provided testimony and support that led to the creation of the Stop Child Abuse in Residential Programs for Teens Act of 2008 by the United States Congress
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
Committee on Education and Labor.
Effectiveness
In 2006, the results of a study conducted between 2003 and 2005 involving 993 students from 9 schools was presented at the 114th Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association. The study made use of the Youth outcome questionnaireYouth Outcome Questionnaire
The Youth Outcome Questionnaire is a collection of questions designed to collect data regarding the effectiveness of youth therapies. The Y-OQ is a parent report measure of treatment progress for children and adolescents receiving mental health interventions...
certified by BYU
BYU
-Education:* Brigham Young University, a university located in Provo, Utah, USA administered by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.**BYU Salt Lake Center, a satellite center in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA...
in terms of internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and concurrent validity as well as being a valid and reliable self-report measure of psychosocial distress in youth psychotherapy research.
The Federal Trade Commission has issued guides for parents considering residential treatment programs.
See also
Related Therapies- Adventure therapyAdventure therapyAdventure Therapy as a distinct and separate form of psychotherapy has only been prominent for less than 40 years. Influences from a variety of learning and psychological theories have contributed to the complex theoretical combination within adventure therapy . The underlying philosophy largely...
- Behaviour therapyBehaviour therapyBehaviour therapy, or behavior therapy is an approach to psychotherapy based on learning theory which aims to treat psychopathology through techniques designed to reinforce desired and eliminate undesired behaviours.-History:...
- Cognitive behavioral therapy
- Dialectical behavioral therapyDialectical behavioral therapyDialectical behavior therapy is a system of therapy originally developed by Marsha M. Linehan, a psychology researcher at the University of Washington, to treat people with borderline personality disorder...
- Milieu therapyMilieu TherapyMilieu Therapy is a form of psychotherapy that involves the use of therapeutic communities. Patients join a group of around 30, for between 9 and 18 months. During their stay, patients are encouraged to take responsibility for themselves and the others within the unit. Milieu therapy is thought to...
- Motivational interviewingMotivational interviewingMotivational interviewing refers to a counseling approach in part developed by clinical psychologists Professor William R Miller, Ph.D. and Professor Stephen Rollnick, Ph.D. The concept of motivational interviewing evolved from experience in the treatment of problem drinkers, and was first...
- Wilderness therapyWilderness therapyWilderness therapy is a subset of adventure-based therapy. It is the use of wilderness expeditions for the purpose of therapeutic intervention. There are a range of different types of wilderness therapy programs, with a range of models and approaches. Some grow out of a survival approach and some...
Related Concepts
- Educational learning differences
- Evidence-based practice
- Humanistic psychologyHumanistic psychologyHumanistic psychology is a psychological perspective which rose to prominence in the mid-20th century, drawing on the work of early pioneers like Carl Rogers and the philosophies of existentialism and phenomenology...
- Operant conditioningOperant conditioningOperant conditioning is a form of psychological learning during which an individual modifies the occurrence and form of its own behavior due to the association of the behavior with a stimulus...
- Therapeutic communityTherapeutic communityTherapeutic community is a term applied to a participative, group-based approach to long-term mental illness, personality disorders and drug addiction...
Related Institutions
- Alternative schoolAlternative schoolAlternative school is the name used in some parts of the world to describe an institution which provides part of alternative education. It is an educational establishment with a curriculum and methods that are nontraditional...
- Behavior modification facilityBehavior modification facilityA behavior modification facility is a residential educational and treatment institution enrolling adolescents who are perceived as displaying antisocial behavior, in an attempt to alter their conduct. As of 2008 there were about 650 nongovernmental, residential programs in the United States...
- Continuation high schoolContinuation high schoolA continuation high school is an alternative to a comprehensive high school primarily for students who are considered at-risk of not graduating at the normal pace. The requirements to graduate are the same but the scheduling is more flexible to allow students to earn their credits at a quicker...
- Outdoor educationOutdoor educationOutdoor education usually refers to organized learning that takes place in the outdoors. Outdoor education programs sometimes involve residential or journey-based experiences in which students participate in a variety of adventurous challenges in the form of outdoor activities such as hiking,...
- Residential educationResidential educationResidential Education, broadly defined, is a pre-college education provided in an environment where students both live and learn outside of their family homes. Varied forms of residential education have been in existence in the United States since before the nation's founding...
- Residential treatment centerResidential treatment centerA residential treatment center , sometimes called a rehab, is a live-in health care facility providing therapy for substance abuse, mental illness, or other behavioral problems...