Tailored Residential Therapy for Your Son's Mental Health at Discovery Ranch
Your son deserves the best care available, which is exactly what he will receive at Discovery Ranch. Our clinical services are second to none in our industry. Our comprehensive treatment program includes Masters and Doctorate level clinicians, unique therapy services, a full-time certified nurse, and highly-trained staff. In addition, a full-service hospital is available ten minutes from our campus.
- Highly Experienced Therapists - With an average of over 23 years of experience, our therapists are experts in helping teenage boys navigate mental health crises, and providing the best care possible for your child.
- More Therapy Hours - At Discovery Ranch, we understand that healing takes time. That's why we offer between 10 and 15 hours of individual, family, group, and experiential therapy sessions per week for each teenage boy, providing ample opportunity for growth and progress.
- Personalized Treatment Options - We believe that every teenage boy is unique and deserves individualized treatment. That's why we offer a wide variety of therapy options, including individual therapy, family therapy, experiential therapy, recreation therapy, DBT, equine therapy, neurofeedback, and more. Our diverse selection allows us to tailor treatment specifically to your child's needs.
Therapy Services
The therapy services at Discover Ranch are uniquely capable of addressing your son’s needs. We use a combination of traditional therapy methods and experiential learning activities to create an environment in which your son will be most receptive to making positive changes in his life. As a result of our unique approach, your son will be involved in meaningful therapeutic experiences all day.
Therapy plays a crucial role in promoting the well-being of adolescents at Discovery Ranch.
Therapy that every student takes part in, including:
- Individual therapy - During individual therapy, your son meets with an experienced therapist every week for one-on-one sessions. These sessions are conducted in a private setting, providing a comfortable and confidential environment for him to address his mental health struggles. With this personalized approach, the therapist will specifically tailor the treatment, focusing on exploring the root causes of your son's difficulties, relieving his symptoms, and empowering him to succeed in the future.
- Family therapy - We believe that your son’s healing process must include your whole family. At Discovery Ranch, each family participates in at least one hour of weekly family therapy through video conference. Your dedicated family therapist will collaborate with your family to identify and understand the dynamics within your relationships, communication patterns, and conflicts. Your therapist will then work with your whole family to improve family relationships, enhance communication, and resolve issues.
- Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) - DBT groups are therapeutic sessions that follow a structured format. During these sessions, teenagers are taught important psychosocial skills such as mindfulness, emotion regulation, distress tolerance, and interpersonal effectiveness. These groups offer a nurturing environment for your son to actively engage in practicing and discussing these skills alongside other students.
- Recreational therapy - Recreational therapy supports the healthy development of teenage boys by engaging them in challenging recreational activities. These activities cultivate resilience, grit, and a strong sense of identity. They play a vital role in the therapeutic process, promoting personal growth and overall well-being.
- Equine therapy - Equine therapy is a method that utilizes the unique bond between horses and individuals to foster emotional growth, self-awareness, and self-discovery. Here at Discovery Ranch, we offer equine therapy to teenagers, providing them with valuable opportunities for self-reflection, personal growth, and the development of trust in a non-conventional therapeutic environment.
- Social skills development - The social skills development groups provided by Discovery Ranch are designed to improve teenagers' communication abilities, build stronger relationships, and enhance their interpersonal interactions. These groups offer a supportive environment where teenagers can practice their social skills, develop their emotional intelligence, and cultivate positive relationships with their peers. This is crucial for their overall development and well-being.
- Process groups - Process groups are weekly gatherings where students gather to "process" what is happening in their lives right now. In these sessions, they can discuss ways to enhance their community and foster stronger connections with their peers. With guidance from a master's level therapist, students will acquire and apply social skills, conflict resolution skills, and relationship-building skills. Most importantly, they will learn how to seek and offer support to one another during challenging emotional times.
- Caseload intervention groups - Each week, our therapists will lead small groups of students from their caseload on experiential therapy outings. These outings offer students the chance to put into practice the skills and insights they have gained from individual therapy within a supportive group environment. Additionally, these groups enable therapists to observe students in real-life situations and recognize any negative patterns or coping strategies that may have been overlooked in traditional talk therapy. The therapists can then offer immediate guidance and feedback.
Additional Therapy
In addition to the regularly scheduled therapy every week, each student will also have the opportunity to participate in an additional 1 to 5 hours of group therapy that is specifically designed to meet their individual needs. These personalized interventions may cover topics like:
- healthy relationships
- neurofeedback
- navigating adoption and attachment
- coping with grief and loss
- overcoming trauma & PTSD
and more depending on the current needs of the students at Discovery Ranch.
Psychiatric Services
During the first week at Discovery Ranch, your son will receive an evaluation from a licensed psychiatrist to determine his medication needs and how it can improve his treatment plan. The psychiatrist's main responsibility is to assess and adjust medications as necessary, aiming to have your son on the lowest effective dosage or even without medication. Students generally meet with the psychiatrist monthly, but more frequent visits are possible if adjustments are needed, without any additional cost.
Experiential Therapy
Your son will join in Experiential Therapy every week. He and his therapist might take part in equine therapy, a ropes course, or another recreational therapy activity. They will take your son out of his comfort zone so he can begin to address his issues. Our therapists, teachers, and highly trained staff are ready to help your son reach his potential.
Experiential Learning Activities will be part of your son’s everyday life. He will be involved in learning activities like caring for bottle-fed calves, community service projects, a sports league, and peer leadership projects. These daily activities extend the influence of therapy, which takes place both inside and outside the office. This will make your son more willing to openly participate in discussions about his behaviors and emotions. In this way, he will have the opportunity to practice the therapeutic principles that he is learning all day long.
Treatment Model
Discovery Ranch's teen treatment model is based on building strong relationships and helping your son discover his inner strengths. A cornerstone of our treatment model is Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT), which is a form of therapy that will teach your son new coping skills and strategies that will help him succeed.
In addition to traditional individual therapy, your son will learn and grow through experience-based activities on our working ranch. Each carefully structured activity will give your son the opportunity to practice relationship skills in a variety of settings.
With the help of therapists and mentors, your son will be able to address his problem behaviors while he is most responsive to learning. Therapists or mentors will often stop an activity so he can focus on what he has learned. The therapists or mentors will ask, “What skills have you learned that you can use right now?”
Your son will be having new and exciting experiences while building relationships every day. He may not realize that therapy is taking place, but he will be learning the skills he needs for a successful future.
Through these therapeutic activities, we will teach your son principles needed to be a successful adult. These principles include honesty, respect, responsibility, hard work, service and sacrifice, accountability, courage, selflessness, and empathy. Our strength-based approach will help your son recognizes the good in himself, while overcoming obstacles that are keeping him from success.
Nursing
At Discovery Ranch, the nurse, psychiatrist, and therapists work together to provide the best treatment for your son's changing needs. Our licensed full-time nurse is on-site Monday through Friday, and on-call nights and weekends. Generally, the nurse is responsible for dispensing medications, monitoring nutritional concerns, and serving as a liaison between parents, physicians, psychiatrists and the treatment team. The nurse is also responsible for the assessment, development, and maintenance of the boys health and well-being. In addition, the nurse assists with training mentors in medication administration, proper hygiene, and documentation requirements.
Coed Conference Events and Activities
Your son’s ability to build a healthy relationship with people of all genders is important. Discovery Ranch addresses this need through our Co-ed Conferences.
Your son will live with a small group of boys between the ages of 13-17. When your son is ready, he will have the opportunity to participate in co-ed activities with girls from another campus. The young women are from a separate program, located in a different part of the state of Utah. The boys' and girls' programs are run independently, and throughout the year the two programs coordinate and organize co-ed activities. Accordingly, staff from both programs supervise the activities.
When your son's therapist thinks he is ready, your son will have the chance to join the co-ed activities. Before he can participate, he must advance through the program and build trust. All the boys and girls involved in co-ed activities have proven to their therapists that they are ready to take this important step toward normalcy.
These activities might include zorb soccer, a beach party dinner, or a bonfire. Therapists and staff have observed the difference these co-ed activities make in the lives of the young men and women who take part in them. More importantly, the students themselves usually leave the activities feeling that they have grown.
Through our Hybrid Co-ed Program, your son will have the opportunity to practice building healthy relationships with other genders in a structured environment. You can have confidence in knowing your son is gaining important social skills in the safest, most clinically supportive environment possible.
