Troubled adolescents often benefit from Trails Carolina’s wilderness experience. Surrounded by nature, they can open up more and discuss issues with professional counsellors who are there for support and listenership.
Winding Gap serves as their basecamp where they can acquire new skills and earn high school credits, giving them an opportunity to prepare themselves for life outside of the program.
Outdoor Therapy
Trails Carolina Horror Stories offers innovative wilderness therapy programs for troubled teens. While traditional residential treatment programs may focus on discipline alone, Trails Carolina takes an integrative approach to rehabilitation that helps its students focus on what matters in life while learning new skills in natural settings. Their staff has over two decades of combined wilderness therapy experience!
Trails Carolina reviews often highlight its strong academic setup. Students work directly with certified teachers on classroom-based coursework or may bring their own material for consideration.
The company places great emphasis on family engagement. They do so through midpoint parent workshops and an optional Common Ground experience; weekly calls with families to review progress and address family dynamics ensure they remain engaged during their time on the program and build strong support systems at home.
Residential Therapy
Trails Carolina provides a holistic wilderness therapy experience designed to build resilience and self-awareness in its participants. Families and therapists alike praise Trails Carolina’s unique combination of wilderness experience with evidence-based therapy as effective.
This program offers weekly individual and family therapy, a primary therapist for each student, as well as an in-depth assessment with input from all staff. Therapists develop and regularly review each student’s individualized treatment plan.
At Trails, Seth learned how to express his emotions more freely, avoid his family more effectively and increase self-esteem through better communication and building self-esteem. After graduating from Trails he was more engaged in life than before pursuing his goal of becoming a wildlife biologist. Additionally, Trails emphasizes family involvement through midpoint parent workshops and Common Ground experiences to assist students reintegrating back into their home environments successfully.
Academic Programming
Trails Carolina provides students with academic programming that includes outdoor activities like hiking and expeditions in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Trails Carolina also provides academic lessons designed to keep them engaged with school while developing valuable lifelong skills that they’ll take with them after graduation.
Trails Carolina recognizes that time spent in nature can rejuvenate, heal and reset one’s perspective on life, which is why their curriculum incorporates wilderness lessons, wellness practices and equine therapy – helping students build confidence and resiliency while simultaneously equipping them with essential lifelong success skills.
Students join single-gender, age-appropriate groups led by licensed therapists that allow them to shed distractions such as social media and peers while they gain insight into their behaviors, beliefs and motivations as well as develop new skills that provide a positive outlook on life.
Alumni Support
After their time at Trails Carolina has concluded, students and their family are welcome to attend alumni support classes for further assistance on re-entering school or dealing with perception. This support series has already proven incredibly popular – two classes were already held this year alone!
Trails stands out from other wilderness therapy programs by emphasizing family participation. Parents are invited to be involved with their therapy during midpoint parent workshops, while siblings are welcome at Common Ground experiences. Trails also provides workshops and resources designed to strengthen family systems and communication while transitioning students back into their homes.
Trails Carolina staff strives to give participants the best outcomes from therapy, which is why they invest so heavily in their alumni program. Graduates can connect with alumni who provide resources necessary for overcoming social anxiety, technology addiction and obsession, attachment issues or school refusal.