Therapy for Girls

Copper Canyon Academy offers an extremely comprehensive therapeutic program for troubled teenage girls. Girls and their families have the opportunity to participate in individual therapy, group therapy, AA Meetings, family therapy, parent seminars, family workshops, equine therapy, and canine therapy.

All Copper Canyon Academy therapists are licensed by the Arizona Board of Behavioral Health Services.

Individual Therapy

Students at Copper Canyon Academy therapeutic boarding school for teenage girls meet weekly for one hour with their assigned therapist. Therapists also reserve additional time each week for any students who need additional time. The therapists at Copper Canyon Academy are Masters level and licensed, or licensed eligible, by the Arizona Board of Behavioral Health Services with a wide range of training, skills and approaches. The primary approach is cognitive/behavioral therapy. Some of the therapists have extensive training and backgrounds in working with parent child conflict, academic issues, attachment disorder, depression, substance abuse, victims of sexual abuse and trauma.

Group Therapy

Each therapist has a maximum caseload of twelve students. This group of students meets four hours a week with their assigned therapist. The purpose of this group is for the students to further explore their issues in a supportive environment of their peers. Adolescents are much more driven by their need for peer acceptance than by any concern for an adults' opinion. In the same way that a negative peer group can lead a teen astray, a positive peer culture makes a significant impact on a teen's desire to do the right thing.

Community Group

Students participate in a community group each week. This group focuses on a wide range of activities designed to practice social skills, enhance self-esteem, and discuss topics such as values. The other group is facilitated by one of the licensed therapists on a rotating basis. The second group is more "process" oriented, using 12 step work to teach recovery skills, addressing community issues, such as the tone and temperature of the community culture and providing students a forum for giving and receiving feedback.

Psychiatric Services

Students who are on psychotropic medications when they arrive at Copper Canyon Academy are reviewed regularly by our Psychiatrist, Dr. James Cahill, who is a Child and Adolescent Specialist and is knowledgeable and experienced in the field of adolescent medicine. Our Psychiatrist works diligently with students and families to manage the student's medications with the safest and most therapeutic medications on the market ultimately with the goal to decrease or eliminate medication use whenever possible.

Parent Calls

Parents are invited to call their student's therapist weekly during their student's stay at Copper Canyon Academy.

As the student earns phone calls and on and off campus visits with the parents, the calls to the therapist decrease to every other week. The purpose of each call is to begin the work of looking at the family dynamics that have contributed to the need to place the child and to begin to develop more effective parenting and communication skills.

Parent Seminars

Two powerful personal growth Seminars are offered to the parents of all students at Copper Canyon Academy. These Seminars focus on the parents' own personal issues and assist the parents in taking accountability for their part in the family dynamic that lead to the child's behavior. If the child returns to the same environment in which the behavior occurred originally, the likelihood of relapse is high. Visit http://www.aspenseminars.com to learn more.

Family Workshops

Family workshops with the parents and student in attendance together provide an opportunity for the families to gain clarity about their family dynamics, improve parenting skills, to work on unresolved issues and to rebuild communication and trust. A Family Living Agreement, developed jointly by the parents and the student helps guide the transition home.

Treatment Team

The treatment team at Copper Canyon Academy is a group of staff who meet weekly to review students. The treatment team consists of all therapists, teachers, shift leaders from the residential staff and representatives from administration. Because students present themselves in a different light to people in various roles, the purpose of the team is to share information about the students in order to obtain a well rounded view of how the student is performing in all areas.

Students who are reviewed include those who are applying to move to the next level, students who need special interventions, who are on "staff watch" or on silence from other students. The therapists and teachers both write reports regarding their students. Student's who are identified in the report as having problems with her program, will be reviewed.

The purpose of the treatment team is to ensure that no student "falls through the cracks". The input of information from the entire range of staff functions, ensures that if a student is performing well in one area of her program, but is struggling in another area, the discrepancy will be noted and appropriate interventions will be employed.