What Is Nature Therapy for Teens?
How Nature Supports Evidence-Based Therapy
At ThreePeaks Ascent, your teen receives individualized, evidence-based clinical treatment in the calming, nature-immersed setting of southern Utah’s desert. Away from many of the distractions and pressures of everyday life, your son or daughter will have the opportunity to slow down, become more present, and focus on their mental and emotional health.
Nature creates a supportive environment for meaningful clinical work. Licensed mental health professionals guide your teen through treatment tailored to their individual needs, helping them understand their emotions, develop healthier coping skills, and work toward lasting behavioral change.
Through the combination of clinician-led treatment and a structured residential environment, your teen can practice new skills, build confidence, and strengthen relationships, preparing them to apply what they learn beyond treatment.
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How Does Nature Enhance Evidence-Based Therapy for Teens?
Watching your teen act out or struggle with their mental and emotional health is devastating as a parent, and finding the right treatment environment for your teen can make a meaningful impact on their well-being. They have the opportunity to change their environment, step out of the negative cycle that they have been stuck in, and live in a treatment environment where they can focus more fully on treatment.
Our 150-acre campus in southern Utah provides a structured, nature-immersed setting where teens receive individualized, evidence-based treatment. For some teens, weekly outpatient therapy or intensive outpatient treatment may not provide the level of support they need to make meaningful progress. When familiar routines, stressors, and surroundings continue to make change difficult, stepping into a new environment can create more space to focus on treatment and practice healthier ways of responding.
At ThreePeaks Ascent, the natural setting offers a break from many everyday distractions and pressures, creating more opportunities for teens to slow down, become present, and engage in the therapeutic process. Licensed mental health professionals will guide your teen through treatment tailored to their individual needs, while the structured residential environment allows them to practice the skills they learn throughout daily life, not just during a therapy session.
Being outside or being in a nature-oriented kind of setting requires a presentness that's different. Nature provides an opportunity for healing that's different from sitting in an office.
— Matt Hoag, Ph.D., Psychologist at ThreePeaks Ascent
How Does Nature Help Nervous System Regulation?
When your teen’s mental health is suffering, it can be hard to focus and work through what they are feeling. The pressures of everyday life that they face make it hard to find a sense of calm and can feel like they are stuck in a never-ending negative cycle.
Your teen can receive treatment in a structured short-term residential setting that is surrounded by the natural landscape of southern Utah. This environment offers a break from the negative everyday distractions that are adding to your child’s struggles. They can live in a safe and supportive environment that allows them to slow down and engage in treatment. Research suggests that time spent in natural environments may support stress reduction, attention, and emotional well-being.
Nature supports the treatment environment, while licensed clinicians guide the therapeutic work. Through individualized, evidence-based therapy, your teen can learn to understand their responses to stress and emotional triggers and develop healthier coping skills. Their clinical team will help them take what they learn in therapy and apply these skills to the daily, hands-on challenges that they will work through.
Over time, this combination of clinical treatment and guided practice can help your teen work toward:
Managing stress and difficult emotions
Recognizing their emotional triggers and learning healthier ways to respond to them.
Improving focus and engagement
Stepping away from everyday distractions and giving more attention to treatment.
Building self-awareness
Better understanding their thoughts, feelings, and reactions.
Developing emotional regulation skills
Practicing coping strategies they can use in relationships and everyday situations.
Your teen will feel calmer while going through treatment in a natural setting and will develop practical skills through clinical treatment that will benefit them throughout their life.
How Do Teens Practice Skills Beyond Therapy?
Learning healthy coping skills is one thing, but applying them when emotions run high can be much harder. A therapy session can help your teen learn how to manage frustration or anxiety and communicate their needs. At ThreePeaks Ascent, your teen has opportunities to practice these skills in real time throughout the day, with support from their therapist and Behavioral Health Technicians.
At ThreePeaks Ascent, everyday experiential activities create opportunities for teens to practice the skills they're learning in individual and group therapy.
Over time, clinical treatment and guided practice can help teens work toward:
- Learning to manage frustration: When a task feels difficult or doesn't go as expected, your teen can practice recognizing their frustration and choosing a healthier response instead of shutting down, lashing out, or walking away.
- Navigating disagreements with peers: Sharing a living space with other students and participating in daily group activities may naturally lead to conflict or misunderstandings. With guidance from residential mentors and clinical staff, your teen can work on their relational skills by practicing communicating their needs, listening to others, and working through disagreements respectfully.
- Recognizing emotional triggers in the moment: When your teen begins to feel anxious or upset during a daily activity, a residential mentor can help them recognize what they're feeling and use coping strategies they've been learning in therapy.
- Building confidence through practice: When your teen notices they're becoming angry or overwhelmed, they can work with staff to identify what's triggering the reaction and decide how to respond more constructively.
- Practicing mindfulness and awareness: Time spent in the natural environment can create opportunities to pause, notice their surroundings, and become more aware of their thoughts, feelings, and physical responses.
These experiences are not a replacement for clinical therapy. Instead, they give your teen opportunities to put what they're learning into practice outside of a therapy session, with guidance from their treatment team.
Life will inevitably bring difficult situations, and learning how to navigate these challenges in healthy ways, especially at a young age, can give your teen valuable skills to carry with them long after residential treatment. Whether they're navigating frustration, working through a disagreement, or learning to respond differently to a challenging experience, teens have opportunities to apply what they're learning in real time, with support from their treatment team.
The Seven Principles for Highly Effective Nature-Based Treatment
Nature is the setting for evidence-based therapy for teens struggling with their mental, emotional, and behavioral health. Our approach to residential treatment in an outdoor environment is guided by seven principles that bring together healthy relationships, family involvement, personal growth, and evidence-based clinical care. These principles help teens apply what they learn in treatment to their everyday lives.
- Foster Healthy, Appropriate Relationships: Strengthen communication and develop healthier relationships with peers and adults built on trust.
- Involve the Entire Family in Treatment: Help families strengthen relationships, communication, and support their teen’s progress beyond treatment.
- Provide a Novel and Challenging Environment: Offer a change from familiar routines and opportunities to approach challenges from a new perspective.
- Build Skills Through Experiential Learning: Give teens opportunities to practice responsibility and problem-solving in everyday situations.
- Use an Integrated Care Approach: Address each teen's individual needs through a coordinated approach to mental, emotional, behavioral, and academic well-being.
- Provide Evidence-Based Treatment: Use clinically supported interventions tailored to each teen's needs and treatment goals.
- Use Ceremony and Nature to Support Change and Growth: Recognize progress and help teens reflect on the growth they've made throughout treatment.
What Are The Types of Nature-Based Therapies?
Nature therapy includes approaches such as adventure therapy, horticulture therapy, and forest bathing. ThreePeaks Ascent uses structured nature-based residential treatment integrated with clinical therapy.
Therapies that are rooted in nature employ a range of practices to harness the healing potential inherent within natural environments. Although ThreePeaks Ascent doesn’t incorporate all of these nature therapies, nature-based programs may utilize the following techniques:
- Nature-based residential treatment: immersed in nature & free from distractions, teens with mental, emotional, & behavioral struggles work with seasoned therapists to heal & gain the skills needed to thrive with their families.
- Adventure Therapy: This involves engaging in outdoor activities like hiking, rock climbing, rafting, etc. to explore nature and promote personal growth in an individual or group setting.
- Animal-Assisted Therapy/Interventions: These approaches incorporate interactions with animals, such as petting, feeding, or building a therapeutic relationship with animals like dogs or horses.
- Arts and Crafts in Nature: This combines creative activities like painting, sculpture, or using natural materials (e.g. clay, grass, wood) with the natural environment as inspiration and setting.
- Blue Mind Therapy: Interactions with aquatic environments, such as being near oceans, rivers, or lakes, which have been shown to have a psychologically restorative effect and promote calm and tranquility.
- Conservation-Based Therapy: This pairs physical exercise with the protection and restoration of natural spaces.
- Dark Nature Therapy: Activities in this type take place at night, such as stargazing.
- Green Exercise or Green Therapy: This involves physical activities like walking, running, or cycling in green spaces like parks or forests.
- Therapeutic Farming: Participants engage in farming activities like growing crops or caring for farm animals.
- Horticulture Therapy/Therapeutic Horticulture: This focuses on therapeutic gardening and growing plants. Horticultural therapy can lead to activities like selling produce at a farmer's market.
- Forest Bathing/Therapy or Shinrin-Yoku: A mindful practice of using the five senses to fully immerse oneself in a forest environment.
- Nature Walks and Nature Meditation: Simple activities like mindful walking or sitting meditation in natural settings.
Different nature-based programs offer therapeutic benefits for specific recovery needs and personal preferences. Each approach utilizes the environment to improve well-being by tapping into our inherent connection with the natural world. Overall, these programs channel the power of nature to promote human health and happiness.
Why Choose ThreePeaks Ascent's Nature-based Therapy Program for Teens
What Is the Next Step for Families Considering Nature Therapy?
If you're a parent or guardian of a teenager struggling with mental or emotional challenges, finding the right help can be overwhelming. ThreePeaks Ascent is here to help. Our nature-based residential treatment program may be just what your child needs, and our experienced team is available to answer any questions you may have.
We know that taking this step for your teen's recovery and prospects is crucial. With our comprehensive support and a nurturing environment, your child will begin a journey towards healing and well-being.
Our program expertly combines clinical excellence with the therapeutic benefits of nature, offering your teen the best chance for emotional growth and success. Don't hesitate to contact us today to learn more about how our program can benefit your family. Together, we can help your teen thrive.
