subject: Turning Winds - Why Alternative Education Works for Troubled Teens [print this page] Turning Winds - Why Alternative Education Works for Troubled Teens
These days, there are more alternative schools that are able to respond more to the needs of troubled teens than traditional schools can. Parents who can see their children not performing well in traditional schools or those who have children with special needs discover that their children fare better in alternative schools than traditional ones. Turning Winds is a type of alternative school that caters to teens with different challenges. It's a therapeutic boarding school where students can be given individual therapy while still earning academic credits.
Why should you consider therapeutic boarding schools?
There are situations where a child doesn't need too much intensive therapy and could cope with his/her challenges through going to sessions a few times each week. In such instances, it's not ideal to take the child away from his/her usual environment. Howeer, there are also situations where such frequency of counseling is not effective. The sessions are too few and far between to make any real impact, and the child is still overwhelmed with influences outside of home and therapy. On the other hand, children with ADD/ADHD, dyslexia, and other conditions may also benefit better from being initially enrolled in a school where the staff and academic programs are geared specifically towards helping them excel academically.
Therapeutic schools like Turning Winds integrate therapy as a vital component throughout the entire program. Each child starts off with an individualized roadmap based on initial psychoanalysis which is adjusted based on his/her progress. At Turning Winds, they make it a point to make all school activities therapeutic in nature. Their therapy is also carried out by licensed and experienced professionals who are passionate about what they do.
Turning Winds also utilizes outdoor therapy activities which can be greatly instrumental in helping students develop life skills and form responsible decision making even after the program is finished. During outdoor therapy, they can learn how to make calculated and intelligent risks, assertiveness, cooperation with others, anger management, positive communication, and more. It can also help teens realize that it's possible to accomplish something in life. Teens tend to open up more and develop better self-image and self-esteem when they explore outside their comfort zone in an environment where they don't fear rejection. Turning Winds can provide them that kind of environment and the support that they need throughout the process.
Turning Winds is not meant for short-term treatment. Ideally, the length of stay should at least be 12 months. Turning Winds has had a good success rate in working with teens that have anger management issues, failing grades at traditional schools, underachieving, impulsivity, sexually acting out, ADD/ADHD, weight issues, depression, and more. From their point of view, any child can change if they are only given the right kind of help and placed in the right kind of environment.
"Before I came to Turning Winds my life was lost. I had no direction or hope for the future. I had no motivation to carry on or to live my life, and then I came to Turning Winds. I found out a lot of things about myself and for the first time in a long time, I loved myself. Now, I am moving on in my life and I have hope for the future with confidence in myself. With my family and Turning Winds' support, I have come so far. Turning Winds has saved my life."
-Kaitlyn
"Turning Winds has saved my life. I learned Direction here. I decided that I did not want to use drugs for the rest of my life. I also came to the reality that if I had not been sent to Turning Winds right now I would be dead. I have learned that no matter how hard things get, I can push through. I'm much stronger than before. I never realized how stuck in my own ways I was and addicted I really was. Turning Winds has given me help to change myself."
