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Residential Treatment for Teen Girls and Gender Diverse Youth

The Youth Residential Treatment (YRT), established in 2014, is a 16 bed, 24-hour residential treatment facility licensed to treat adolescent females (inclusive of transgender and gender expansive youth assigned female at birth) between the ages of 12-17. Those who are admitted have a mental health diagnosis and are not able to remain safely in the community.

This secure level of care allows for adolescents to be observed, evaluated, and treated by our multi-disciplinary team. We believe that each teen’s treatment is individualized and unique to their presenting problems, which makes it difficult to standardize the length of stay. Our length of stay may vary between one to three months.

"YRT, thank you so much for everything. My daughter is comfortable in her own skin now and has taken her tools and teachings to heart. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.”
Parent testimonial

Virtual Tour of Our Treatment Center

Facility Amenities

Our residential treatment center provides a friendly and inviting environment for patients:

  • Double occupancy rooms to encourage peer support and positive social interactions.
  • Meals served family style with staff.
  • Bright and sunny day rooms and classrooms to create a peaceful and safe healing space.
“The treatment team was amazing. They communicated well with us. Dr. Samdura went above and beyond to help us and make sure my daughter was getting the treatment she needed. Everybody we encountered was amazing, helpful, and answered all of our questions.”
Parent testimonial

Treating Teen Mental Health with a Multidisciplinary Team

Our highly trained, multidisciplinary group of specialists and mental health professionals are actively involved in your teen's treatment. Our team of multidisciplinary providers work collaboratively with teens and their parents to set treatment goals and develop an individualized treatment plan:

  • Board-certified child psychiatrist
  • Psychologist / psychologist trainee under the supervision of a licensed psychologist
  • Social worker or mental health counselor
  • Education coordinator
  • Expressive therapists (music, art, and recreation therapy)
  • Nurses
  • Psychiatric technicians
  • Registered dietitian (as needed)

Family Role in Treatment

Parents play an active and crucial role by being involved in helping in the development of your teens’ treatment goals, actively participating in family therapy, attending our family DBT group, weekly phone calls and visits throughout your teens stay.

Girl draws picture in art therapy

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Common Behavioral & Mental Health Issues in Teens

Girl climbs rock wall during ROPES Challenge Course

We have expertise in the following, but not limited to:

Our clients may struggle with a range of behaviors:

  • Mood instability
  • Running away behavior
  • Substance use
  • Arguing with their parents
  • Poor coping skills
  • Self-injury/self-harming behavior
  • Poor self-image
  • Ongoing suicidal thoughts or attempts
”The groups and how welcoming, fun, caring the staff is here. Honestly, they made being here more easy to accept...I feel [my mom and I] both got to be heard and I feel like [our relationship] is going to get stronger.”
Patient testimonial

Treatments & Therapies

In our program, we use dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT) — an evidence-based treatment we use for teens who have a difficult time controlling their emotions and behaviors.

Emotional and behavioral dysregulation (abnormality or impairment) often contribute to a teen’s ability to develop a stable sense of self. This includes making and maintaining fulfilling, healthy relationships with peers and family. Behavior that is impulsive or avoidant can be a result of emotion dysregulation or an effort to try to regulate or gain control.

The following five skill sets have been designed to treat the problems that are associated with emotional dysregulation:

  • Mindfulness assists adolescents with increasing their self-awareness and attentional control while decreasing suffering and increasing pleasure. 
  • Distress tolerance teaches ways to decrease impulsivity and accept reality as it is.
  • Emotion regulation teaches a teen how to increase positive emotions and decrease negative emotions.
  • Interpersonal effectiveness teaches teens how to improve in making and maintaining relationships with peer and family members and build self-respect.
  • Walking the middle path skills teach ways to decrease family conflict through validation, behavior change principles, and dialectical thinking and behaving.

Our program also uses behavior management techniques to promote and generalize positive behavioral change at home, school, and in the community. Research supports positive reinforcement as the most effective behavior management technique used to increase a desired behavior. The program uses a variety of positive behavioral supports to help shape and assist clients in making positive choices both in the program and in the community.

Expressive Therapy

Expressive therapy helps clients express their feelings in a safe and supportive environment. This type of treatment draws on metaphor, symbolic representation, and somatic (relating to the body) awareness. Our skilled, licensed expressive therapists will lead art, music, and recreation groups. Recreational therapy will also include our ROPES Challenge Course.

Our On-Site Educational Academy

During treatment in our facility, teens will spend a block of time each day engaged in academic work through our Cognia-accredited, on-site private school — University Academy. Our academy bridges the gap between school and treatment by providing modified educational services during the day.

Many of our students have experienced academic challenges as a result of their mental health issues. In giving teens the opportunity to continue their academic studies throughout treatment, our team is able to observe how they cope with academic challenges, stress, and homework.

In addition, our academic program compliments the therapeutic program by teaching and reinforcing effective coping skills for teens that can be used in any academic setting. Our goal is to help your teen move forward with their academic credit and goals while they are in treatment.

“I could tell that their therapist really cared about my child’s well-being and progress. She had support at all hours. When she was having a hard time, there was always someone there for her to talk to. They were patient with her and never gave up. It seems like they thought of everything that they could do to help her succeed. The teacher in school was very caring about her learning and was wonderful and intuitive about individualized learning and working with my child’s strengths."
Parent testimonial

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