Our Therapeutic Approach
We specialize in treating a wide array of issues for young men at Equinox, a residential therapy program for teens. These issues may include loss, trauma, attachment, and addictive patterns of behavior and thought, depression, anxiety, and anger. Highly complex issues such as these require specialized approaches to bring recovery and healing.
Our clinicians have been trained in an assortment of therapeutic frameworks which include:
- Eye-Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)
- Somatic Experiencing
- Trauma-focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
- Neurosequential Therapeutics
- Family Systems Theory
- Brainspotting
Our clinical model integrates leading therapeutic approaches including milieu, individual, group, and family therapy.
The 3 Pillars of our Clinical Approach
The Equinox clinical program is based on the following 3 pillars, which form a solid foundation for positive growth and development. This dynamic approach has been developed over many years of experience.
Relationship-Based
Our belief at Equinox is that therapeutic connection through relationship is the number one factor for change. For us this begins with employing the right people, and training them effectively in fostering and maintaining these relationships with our clients and families. It is in these connections that healing and change happens.
Principle-Driven
Internal growth is created by a process of interventions directed at helping our boys embrace values and become young men of character. The journey of developing a positive value system (the Hero’s Code) and learning to allow these “codes” to drive their choices and behavior is a powerful process of growth. When these values become internal and solid, then change becomes solid and takes them into adulthood with the strength they need to maintain and grow their lives.
Experientially-Applied
This therapeutic approach focuses on using experiences to shift one’s thinking and perspective both cognitively and emotionally. Some of what makes experiential therapy potentially so powerful is that it is a “backdoor” approach, dealing with the resistance that many adolescents will often present to avoid change. Experiential therapy can look like indoor or outdoor activities that can be fun, challenging, uncomfortable, and physical–which help to dismantle old ways of being and present new and healthy concepts that shift the brain so that it can take in healthy new perspectives.
Learn more about how we can help your son overcome his challenges.
Treating the Whole Person
The Equinox philosophy also includes a foundational belief in a holistic approach. The whole person is what we are looking at, not just the “problem areas” of their lives. This way we address the core issues behind the symptoms from multiple angles. The primary goal of this approach is to access those core issues so genuine healing can occur. We have repeatedly seen this bring change to lives of many youth, which is why it is central to our approach to healing and recovery.
Additionally, a holistic approach ensures that our physical, mental, emotional, spiritual and relational selves are all integrated. This “mind-body” philosophy has a large amount of data and research behind it, which shows that a deficiency in one area will impact all other areas. For more information on this, please refer to our “Student Life” section of this website, under Health and Fitness.
Principle-Driven Internal Motivation
Being principle-guided in our interventions places values and principles at the core of our students’ internal change. This framework has a high impact on changing lives and we have found this approach to be much more influential than focusing on consequences and rewards to modify behavior at our residential treatment program for troubled youth.
Developing Healthy Relationships
Our relationship-based focus accentuates the critical role of “people” and “relationships” in the healing process. As stated above, research has proven that this is essential for healing and recovery.
Learn By Doing
Experiential approaches to therapy have proven to be one of the most effective models in change for teens, especially boys. This emphasis on doing and moving engages different parts of the brain for a more comprehensive field of change. Because experiential therapy is active, participants can engage in a variety of activities, and learn by doing and experiencing rather than just by talking or listening.