Troubled Teens Resources

Schools for Troubled teens that incorporate animal assisted or equine assisted therapy as part of the curriculum for their population of troubled teens are creating an extremely valuable learning experience. The angry and shut down teen has the rare opportunity to rip the walls down from his heart, discovering a measure of safety in loving a dog or a horse.

The horse stable is part of the landscape at the County Home School and for James and DeQuan, it’s also part of the program.

“It’s just you and the horse, talking to the horse and I got comfortable with them and now I’m here just picking up manure and walking the horses around,” James says.

“It wasn’t too bad. I was like OK, I’m going to check it out. Horses can’t be too bad as long as they don’t bite,” DeQuan says.

Troubled teen boarding schools vary in their approach and emphasis on this highly effective therapy, but the essential benefits derived, beyond opening a channel to the teens heart, is an understanding of empathy, taking on responsibility, and the discipline that the teen will learn simply by having a living being depend on them.

“For kids who have never perhaps been around a horse in their life, this is a wonderful opportunity and you combine that with that experiential learning and we teach them a whole dimension about themselves that they haven’t had an opportunity to experience before and the belief if that they will transition some of those skills back into the community into their own career goals and life skills and try to stay out of trouble.”
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“I’m going to say it’s the best environment I could be in. It teaches you responsibility that’s going to come in later on in life,” James says.

(Sources)