Searching for a Troubled Teen Program in Iowa for Your Troubled Teenager? Is Your Child Acting Out Behaviorally, in Peril from Self-Destructive Activities, or Has Become Despondent, Entitled, or Uncaring? Has Your Child Suddenly Rejected Your Family and Everything Your Family Holds Dear There in Iowa?
Stillwater Academy, located in Utah, is a Troubled Teen Program that helps such troubled teens from Iowa and from across the country. We provide a unique treatment model that also helps the teen’s family recover from the unexpected disruptions and anxiety caused by their child’s inappropriate actions and attitudes.
Our acclaimed therapeutic program and school may be a strong option for your child since we provide unparalleled therapy not often available in adolescent Troubled Teen Programs in Iowa. The Stillwater professional team is made up of seasoned and caring therapists, doctors, and mentors from around the country. We compiled an “A-Team” here in Utah to help troubled teens like yours get on the right path again.
Immersed in our positive environment, with access to therapeutic tools, reinforcement, encouragement, and with time to practice new behaviors, your your teen will begin to excel. As you are looking at Troubled Teen Programs in Iowa it is because you are worried for your teen’s future and want to get help before they become an adult.
Perhaps you’ve tried weekly therapy sessions with a counselor in Iowa but those have been successful. Maybe you feel embarrassed that your teen has gotten on the wrong path in life, blaming yourself for your child’s behavior, or you question if you are a “bad parent.” Let us say emphatically that even the best parents in the world can have a troubled teen.
Your Child Probably Doesn’t Know Why They are Acting the Way They Do, Nor Why You Are So Worried About It!
The fact is, most troubled teens don’t understand why they act and think as they do. They can feel sad, angry, or like they’ll explode at any moment and don’t know why. Or, they don’t at all care about anything or anyone – they feel numb. Years down the road, they’ll look back and wonder what in the world they were thinking when they were a troubled teenager. But today, it has become clear that their out-of-control, despondent, or uncaring behavior can lead to serious and even deadly outcomes. So, desiring to keep their child safe and to protect their child’s future, they seek out troubled teen treatment programs like Stillwater in order to get concentrated help.
Self-destructive and uncaring behavior, or a teen overwhelmed with negative thoughts, is not normal. The affected child may unknowingly be responding to traumatic events in their life, like adoption, death or illness of someone close, moving to a new city, parental conflict or separation, conflict with authority figures, early childhood abuse, drug use, social media addiction, bullying, or even guilt. The child may have had a life impacting incident that you don’t even know about. Or, they may have been seeking attention from troublemaker peers that then became a negative influence. They may feel entitled and are unwilling to accept direction, correction, or adhere to society’s established norms. Some teens need to learn that “freedom” has limits; it doesn’t mean they can do anything they want to, any time they want to do it.
We’ll First Uncover the Root Causes of Your Teen’s Troubles, so Recovery Can be Made
The expert therapy team at Stillwater can bring out the underlying roots of anger, despondency, misbehavior, and a lack of attention or emotional control. They will work with your teen daily to uncover and solve their deepest fears and their subconscious grounds for discontent. Teens here learn to take responsibility for their feelings, thoughts, actions, and reactions. They develop a clearer self-concept and become more serious about preparing for their future.
We’ll help them not only cope but to hope and dream again for a happy, meaningful, and successful life. We’ll also give them time on campus to test their wings – to use the tools and concepts they’ve learned. They’ll be working daily on their new thinking and behaviors, which will make their new more positive behaviors more habitual before returning home. These weeks on campus allows your child to practice newly learned skills in a safe, reinforcing environment.
The basic components of our therapeutic program include honest but respectful communication. To delve deeper our therapists use various therapeutic tools, like Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Rational Emotive Therapy, Experiential Therapy, Play Therapy, Reality Therapy, Equine-Assisted Therapy, EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) Therapy, and others. The focus is always on healing your troubled child, so they can quickly go back home to Iowa and we’ll also provide aftercare, so your teen doesn’t fall back into their old ways.
As a Key Aspect of Our Therapy for Teens from Iowa Equine Therapy Gives Behavioral Feedback
A key part of the Stillwater therapeutic milieu is the therapeutic animals, especially horses, that we use as perfect behavioral feedback tools. Horses, in particular, automatically reflect the emotions of the teen handling them. A badly treated horse will, in turn, be out of control and reject direction by the handler. A calm and controlled attitude by the handler (your teenager) will give the horse reason to also be calm and controlled – accepting direction.
So, equine therapy provides the student unparalleled opportunities to see how their behaviors, outbursts, and reactions affect others. Lessons learned while working with horses will help amplify other therapy modes by providing a clear assessment of their attitudinal progress. Moreover, caring for an animal also helps build responsibility and character. It affords the teen a new nonjudgmental friend to talk to, instead of holding it all in.
See Why Stillwater May Be a Better Option than Other Troubled Teen Programs in Iowa Including Our Emphasis on Academic Repair and Improvement
You don’t want your child to fall through the cracks academically while they get their behavior under control, and neither do we! Education goes on here year-round, and class sizes at Stillwater are small. The accredited curriculum is customized, so each student learns at their own level and pace, overseen and encouraged by licensed teachers. Such focused academic attention has proven especially helpful for struggling teens with failing grades, attention deficits, or learning disorders.
Students here begin to thrive educationally as they also grow behaviorally, emotionally, and mentally. Academic courses like Math, Science, English, History, and Art, along with others, all begin to make sense and come to life for our students – some of whom have never excelled in school. In fact, on average, students see a 1.5 grade-point increase in their cumulative GPA during their stay in our program.
The National Association of Special Education Teachers recognizes Stillwater Academy as a School of Excellence, the highest award given by the organization. Curriculum specialists develop the coursework at Stillwater Academy, so all courses meet state and national accreditation agency standards. This process includes post-secondary dual credit courses and allows your student to earn high school and higher education credits at the same time to allow for the easy transfer of credits back to their school in Iowa.
There Could Be Troubled Teen Programs in Iowa But Based on the Therapies Provided Stillwater in Utah the Better Choice
Everyone at the Stillwater Academy Troubled Teen Program – from our administrators to clinical staff to the school teachers and housing parents – has a purpose and goal. That is, to support and enhance the therapy the teen receives while here. These 24/7 reinforcements are also why the residential part of the program is so instrumental in bringing about lasting change.
Our campus is a safe place for recovery, for your teen to heal from previous harmful choices, and to repeatedly practice new, more positive behaviors. When a student slips back into their old negative habits, they are lovingly corrected by our staff, and even by other students. When the day ends, our student houses become a fantastic informal time to reflect as students process and practice the treatment and advice they received during the day.
Our family-like recovery homes help the students learn how to live and think better with 24/7 supervision and guidance from well-trained, state-licensed house parents. They interact with each teen and provide valuable support. The recovery process for troubled teens is greatly improved by having trained staff members offering correction, reinforcement, a listening ear, and encouragement.
Other Troubled Teen Programs in Iowa Can Help Turn Around a Troubled Teen, But If You Live Too Close, Enrolling Your Teen in a Troubled Teen Program in Iowa May Not Be Advised. Here’s Why…
Your teenager may have some equally troubled teenage friends in the local community who will gladly come to “rescue” them from the facility if they can. That’s why when enrolling students in our program in Utah, we reject those from the immediate 100-mile radius around our campus. There is too great a chance for your teen, while still in their defiance early in the program, to connect with their local friends. And there are too many known local places for them to go into hiding. Moreover, the greater distance the teen is from your hometown in Iowa the better they will understand the urgency of getting with the program and cooperating with their therapists.
We Understand that We are Further Away than Other Options for Troubled teen treatment in Iowa But that is Not So Important to Most Parents – What Matters Most is Getting the Right Answer, the First Time
The Stillwater team has been helping teens for nearly 40 years – so there isn’t anything we haven’t seen or any teen that can pull the wool over our eyes – we’ve seen it all! We welcome you to contact us today. We can evaluate your teen to discern if a Troubled Teen Program like ours is needed, and if Stillwater is a perfect fit for your child.
We firmly believe that lifelong change happens in the heart and that positive actions need repetition over time to grow into regular habits. We’re not interested in instant or superficial fixes. Really, we mean it, so call us with your questions, or take our free troubled teen online assessment on this site to see if your teen is a good fit for Stillwater.
By the way, many costs during your child’s time at Stillwater are usually covered by medical insurance, so contact us today to learn more and get pre-qualified. We have openings right now. Call (385) 352-3371.
More about troubled teen Troubled Teen Programs in Iowa: Iowa (IA) is a state located in the Midwestern United States, an area often referred to as the “American Heartland”. It derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many American Indian tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration. Iowa was a part of the French colony of New France. After the Louisiana Purchase, settlers laid the foundation for an agriculture-based economy in the heart of the Corn Belt. Iowa is often known as the “Food Capital of the World”. However, Iowa’s economy, culture, and landscape are diverse. In the latter half of the 20th century, Iowa’s agricultural economy transitioned to a diversified economy of advanced manufacturing, processing, financial services, biotechnology, and green energy. The ten largest cities in Iowa are: Des Moines, 206,688; Cedar Rapids, 128,119; Davenport, 101,363; Sioux City, 82,719; Iowa City, 70,133; Waterloo, 68,297; Council Bluffs, 62,115; Ames, 60,634; West Des Moines, 59,296. Excerpt about Troubled Teen Programs in Iowa used with permission from Wikipedia. |
