Delaware Therapeutic Boarding School for Girls

We are a Therapeutic Boarding School for girls from Delaware. We serve girls from Delaware and across the US in our small, home-like setting in the southeast.

At Evangelhouse, we get so many girls from Delaware we created this page for Delaware families looking for a Christian all-girls boarding school. Girls in large cities like Wilmington, Dover, and Newark face unique mental health challenges.

The strength of the Evangelhouse program is based on our ability to establish a supportive community environment for your daughter. Essentially, we have developed communities within communities that have layers of support deriving from residential, clinical, and academic staff. Each staff member is responsible for leading comparable-aged girls on similar topics that are formed based on the unique emotional needs your daughter presents. These communities aim to be more like a family, with more warmth and acceptance.

Therapeutic Boarding School for Delaware Girls

Our therapeutic boarding school for Delaware girls emphasizes and promotes community service. There are many benefits that our students receive by participating in this aspect of the program. One benefit is learning by doing to develop strong working relationships. While students are giving back to their communities, they are learning how to become responsible and respectful. They grow to understand that teamwork is established on the basis of trust in that each individual promises to deliver on their responsibilities to the program. The Evangelhouse community service program fosters a friendly social environment that engages our teenage girls to work with staff and colleagues.  This aspect of the program in turn nurtures their confidence and trust in each other outside of the academic setting. 

Your daughter will benefit by living in a structured community like Evangelhouse. Part of the experience of this community is becoming a member of positive peer culture. Receiving helpful feedback from her peers will be helpful to your daughter as she learns to work with her peer group to overcome challenges.  When your daughter experiences positive connections with her peers, it will foster her positive self-esteem and image. The therapist’s role during individual sessions includes facilitation and observation while in the milieu. The therapist also provides feedback and direction. To sum it up, the peer-group connection at Evangelhouse is a vital experience because it will foster your daughter’s positive growth.

During milieu therapy, every member of the peer group has a responsibility for their own welfare as well as for the welfare of the group. Milieu therapy provides a safe setting where your daughter is encouraged to share emotional issues. Prior to the therapy session, the group will establish norms and expectations and then come to an agreement on how to enforce them. Therapists commonly initiate a talking point on the basis of how a decision or behavior affected the larger group. One goal of milieu therapy is for the community member to develop relationship skills. Another goal is to develop adaptive coping methods. The overall process fosters positive growth and connectivity to the community of peers.

Growing Mental Health Concerns in Delaware

You can find local resources in Delaware here: https://dhss.delaware.gov/dsamh/

•   In Delaware, like in many states across the nation, the statistics paint a troubling reality. Over 30,000 adults, 9,000 adolescents, and more than 82 percent of our prison population struggle with mental illness or substance use disorder.
•   Nationally, 11 is the average age of onset of a behavioral health disorder, and 22.5 percent of the general population are struggling with mental illness.
•   Unfortunately, far too many Delawareans do not seek treatment, do not know where to turn for help, or do not have the resources available to get the help they need.
•   One out of five girls ages twelve to seventeen had experienced major depression within the last year.
•   8.9 percent of teens experiment with drugs every month.
•   16.4 percent of teens abuse alcohol
•   9.5 percent engage in binge drinking

How Does Delaware’s Public Mental Health System Work?

What is a Therapeutic Boarding School?

The definition of a therapeutic boarding school is, “A therapy-based program where school-aged children attend group and individual therapy sessions while keeping up with academic work as required by the Department of Education.” Therapeutic boarding schools (TBS) are residential schools designed to treat a host of issues including anxiety, depression, relationship problems, and more. The focus of therapeutic boarding schools is troubled teenagers. Teen girls are rehabilitated socially and academically in therapeutic boarding schools, heading off major issues before adulthood.

The admissions criteria of a Therapeutic Boarding School are generally stricter than in a Residential Treatment Center (RTC). That is because RTC’s usually take teens with more severe issues. RTC’s are better equipped to handle teens that are suicidal, need restraints, or intensive medical interventions.   

Many students at therapeutic boarding schools have unique challenges. Students are served alongside peers with similar emotional, social, or behavioral challenges. Therapeutic boarding schools like Evangelhouse Christian Academy help troubled teens grow into the young adult they strive to be. 

Evangelhouse Christian Academy is well known for its emphasis on therapy. We give our girls an opportunity to fully address their concerns and to help them discover a new way of life while renewing their relationship with God. 

While all of the girls have come to Evangelhouse Christian Academy to heal, their diagnoses may not necessarily be the same. Together, girls form social bonds based on common recovery goals. In what we call a “positive peer culture” students at Evangelhouse learn to interact in a positive way. Discussion of inappropriate topics, or discussing something harmful in a positive way, is highly discouraged by the group. 

Evangelhouse Christian Academy’s therapeutically diversified setting treats a wide spectrum of issues. Due to our therapeutic setting and focus on positive peer culture, your daughter will be able to let go of her unhealthy identification in this atmosphere and instead identify with others and herself based on her talents. Qualified staff such as licensed therapists will help your daughter identify the root of her issues.

Our Campus

Troubled Teen girls from all over the world come to the Evangelhouse therapeutic boarding school for Delaware girls to grow emotionally, academically, and socially. Every aspect of the campus was chosen to promote recovery.

We have many on-campus activities from sports to horseback riding. Evangelhouse Christian Academy strikes the ideal balance between seclusion and accessibility. Our girls and their families have access to a variety of rehabilitative and recreational activities on a private and secure campus. The girls will have the opportunity to gain stability before participating in off-campus activities.

With supervision, students experience the social atmosphere, group therapeutic process, and spiritual tone of campus life. We nurture a positive peer culture that emphasizes social responsibility, accountability, and leadership. The staff leads weekly interactive small-group meetings to teach students character development within their current social interactions. Here students learn relevant ways to apply biblical teachings to their actions. As students progress, they learn to look beyond themselves to provide encouragement and support for others.

Students participate in a variety of positive peer culture development activities including:

• Biblical character development
• Discipleship small group meetings
• Leadership training
• Student council
• Weekly zone group staff feedback

Therapeutic Academy for Girls with Depression 

Depression is generally a more common, and potentially more impactful illness than most girls realize. Research tells us that an estimated 3.2 million teenagers in the United States experienced at least one major depressive episode. It’s no surprise that quality treatment options like Evangelhouse Christian Academy are in demand. Current statistics tell us that approximately 13% of teenagers will experience sadness before they reach adulthood.

At Evangelhouse Christian Academy, our students are included in a close-knit peer group. We limit our total census to just 16 girls at a time. Also, with the absence of smartphones, our girls learn how to express themselves and their frustrations face-to-face, not through a screen. Overuse of electronic devices may be preventing young people from hobbies, religion, sports, friendships, and socializing, which might help them avoid depression in the first place. 

Our mission is to enable our girls to learn the skills to overcome issues like depression, anger, relationship problems, ADHD, and more. Part of the program focuses on the transition home as students learn to manage their symptoms in the next environment.

Depression rates among adolescents, particularly among females, have risen over the past decade, with around 8% of teens reporting being depressed. If your daughter has depression, now is the time to get help. As behaviors become more ingrained the more they are practiced, it’s important to break the cycle with your child as soon as possible. Complete an admissions assessment today to get started.

At Evangelhouse Therapeutic Boarding School for girls from Delaware, we believe that physical education for girls is an important part of the therapeutic process. By allowing students to express themselves through a variety of supervised outdoor activities, they will learn valuable leadership skills that will help guide them through life.

If you have any questions about the program please call us at 1-800-924-4012 or visit our contact page.

Family Therapy at our All-Girls Therapeutic Boarding School

Family involvement in treatment and continuing recovery is crucial for young people in crisis. At Evangelhouse Christian Academy, family members will participate in family therapy. Keep in mind that treatment is a collaborative effort. Also, family engagement increases the chances of both the teenager and the family healing. Teens can thus heal and prosper in treatment.