Florida Therapeutic Boarding School for Girls

The Evangelhouse therapeutic boarding school was established in 1995 to serve Christian families with a quality residential treatment option for troubled teen girls. We are a Christian Therapeutic Boarding School for girls from Florida and all over the southeast. Just a short drive away, we serve girls from Florida and across the US.

At Evangelhouse, we get so many girls from Florida we created this page for Florida families looking for a Christian all-girls boarding school. Girls in large cities like Miami, Tampa, Orlando, Tallahassee, and Jacksonville face unique mental health challenges.

Therapeutic Boarding School for Florida Girls

Researchers have found that gender-specific rehab is the most effective way to treat mental health and addiction issues. Evangelhouse Academy is only for girls grades 6-12. We also don’t accept girls with higher-level issues that would be disruptive to our program. This would include girls with severe drug addictions, psychosis, significant running away, or cruelty towards animals.

With our positive peer culture focus, your daughter will learn to set boundaries with other girls. Because we are girls only, she will not have the distractions of boys and relationships around.  In our therapeutic milieu, she will learn to be assertive with her female peers in a safe environment.

Evangelhouse is organized around five areas of wellness in which students grow – Spiritual, Therapeutic, Academic, Social, and Physical. This structure provides a holistic perspective of a student’s level of functioning. Our professional services address the following symptoms and their underlying root causes in each area of wellness.

Quarterly, students participate in high-ropes confidence training and are taught to take on challenging tasks with the help of their peers. They are challenged to become aware of their communication habits and how to make meaningful contributions to others. Students’ unique leadership styles are identified and honed, as they learn to work cooperatively within a group.

At Evangelhouse Christian Academy, 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.

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.

Florida Teens and the Need for Intervention

•   Suicide is the third leading cause of death among young people ages 15 to 24 in Florida.
•   One out of five girls ages twelve to seventeen had experienced major depression within the last year.
•   8.9 percent of teens in Florida’s major cities experiment with drugs every month.
•   16.4 percent of teens abuse alcohol
•   9.5 percent engage in binge drinking
•   7.7 percent of children in Florida between 4 and 17 are diagnosed with ADHD every year.

Florida state-level resources:https://www.fldoe.org/mental-health/

National level resources: Promoting Adjustment and Helping Children Cope

American Academy of Pediatrics web page with resources for providing psychological support to help ensure that health care facilities, medical providers, and adults who may be in a position to help are prepared to meet the emotional needs of children and help to mitigate mental health consequences of disasters.

We are a short distance away from most cities in Florida including Tampa, St Pete, Orlando, Miami, Tallahassee, Jacksonville, Ocala, Clearwater, Daytona, Ft Lauderdale, and more. Florida families love our location as it’s a short drive for participating in family workshops. Yet, it’s far enough away that your daughter’s peer group will be removed and will not be a constant distraction.

Helping with Depression, Trauma, and Bulling Issues

At Evangelhouse Christian Academy, we are an ideal environment to help teen girls learn how to overcome the trauma of being bullied. Cyberbullying has become a common topic in therapeutic research today. Being bullied online has surpassed bullying as the most common kind of harassment experienced by teen girls in the United States.

Teens can use Snapchat, Instagram, Tik Tok, and Twitter to communicate with one another and other positive identity development uses. That being said, being online can cause a lot of different problems for a variety of reasons. Social media has many positive uses, but its negatives can include low self-esteem due to constant comparison with others, feelings of being “ugly” or not having enough friends, and it also exposes young girls to being bullied online.

While peer pressure isn’t a new problem, being online and using social media apps has elevated it to new heights. Sexting, for example, is a big source of concern for many families. We provide a positive Christian environment where we seek to instill the core values girls today need.

At Evangelhouse, our girls develop character and build their relationship skills. As a result, they are able to act in a mature and responsible manner online when they transition back home. Instead of socializing online with no supervision, girls at Evangelhouse socialize in the therapeutic setting with counselors and other trained staff observing or participating in the conversation. 

High-Quality Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT).

Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), which is a kind of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), aims to improve erroneous beliefs, actions, and ideas in order to lessen BPD symptoms.

DBT, however, is distinct from conventional CBT. How? by putting an emphasis on respecting the other person’s feelings and views. Actually, DBT was among the first CBT therapies to include mindfulness techniques to aid in achieving this acceptance.

DBT is predicated on the notion that difficulties controlling one’s emotions is the primary issue faced by those with BPD (also called emotion dysregulation). Many of the problematic actions that BPD sufferers engage in (such as intentional self-harm) are considered to result from difficulties controlling their emotions.

We offer both DBT and CBT at Evangelhouse Academy. Give us a call today to explore how DBT or CBT techniques may be of benefit for you daughter.