North Dakota Therapeutic Boarding School for Girls

We are a Therapeutic Academy for girls from North Dakota and across the entire United States. We enroll girls from all over the US and international enrollments from 5 countries and counting!

The Evangelhouse therapeutic boarding school was established in 1995 to serve Christian families with a quality residential treatment option for troubled teen girls.  Evangelhouse pioneered a treatment model that blends licensed behavioral healthcare with the structure of a traditional Christian boarding school.

Therapeutic Boarding Schools Vs. Traditional Boarding Schools 

Therapeutic boarding schools like Evangelhouse share many similarities with typical boarding schools. However, as an added benefit, girls at Evangelhouse receive:

1.  Regular counseling with a qualified therapist for group and individual therapy sessions.
2. Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) sessions
3. Equine Therapy
4. Strong bonds: Girls living together at Evangelhouse form lifetime friendships. This is crucial for social development in girls. Our focus on building a positive peer culture is key to ensuring all girls at Evangelhouse create strong peer bonds based on positivity and mutual respect. 
5. A home-like setting with fewer students and more staff than a standard dorm
6.  Lower student-teacher ratio than in a traditional boarding school
7. A wide range of sports activities and community service opportunities for character building.

While some traditional boarding schools do offer therapeutic services with enrollment, the focus is always on the academic portion and therapy is more than likely an afterthought. Additionally, in traditional boarding schools, teachers do not meet with therapists and the school typically would not host regular treatment team meetings. 

At Evangelhouse North Dakota Therapeutic Boarding School for Girls, every staff member is aware of the issues each student is going through. Teachers, coaches, counselors, and program staff alike all know how to respond to each student based on their therapeutic goals. We focus on addressing the behavioral and emotional needs of adolescent teen girls foremost, and a significant focus is also put on the academic portion of the program. Unfortunately, a standard educational environment like a typical boarding school cannot handle the issues typically presented in a student that requires a therapeutic boarding school. 

Another difference between traditional boarding schools and a therapeutic boarding school like Evangelhouse Christian Academy is the attention we give to the cognitive learning issues our students may have. Students come into the program that is typically undergoing stress or family conflict. Even if a child is doing well in school, in most cases that child’s academic performance will take off to even higher levels once their stressors are properly addressed. This is why having academics as part of a mental health program can be valuable. 

In a traditional learning environment, teachers would not be prepared to accelerate a child’s academic work so quickly as their mental health issues improve. At Evangelhouse Christian Academy, your daughter will benefit from having a host of professionals on her side as she makes progress. Our teachers and licensed therapists will ensure that your daughter is on track academically. We will ensure she develops healthy long-lasting relationships.

Girls That Need a Therapeutic Boarding School in North Dakota

•   In 2016, an estimated 17% of adults aged 18 and older (about 99,199 people) in North Dakota met the criteria for any mental illness in the past year. This is less than the national annual average (18.3%) [30].
•   A total of 4.0% of North Dakota adults aged 18 or over (about 23,454 people) in 2016 had a serious mental illness (SMI) in the past year; this figure is similar to the corresponding national annual average percentage (4.1%).
•   The estimated 83% of adults in North Dakota with no diagnosed mental health condition includes, among others, individuals with undiagnosed mental health challenges and individuals who could benefit from primary prevention and early intervention strategies.
•   8.9 percent of teen girls in North Dakota experiment with drugs every month.
•   16.4 percent of teen girls in North Dakota abuse alcohol.
•   9.5 percent of teen girls engage in binge drinking.

The Evangelhouse Community

The unique setting at Evangelhouse Therapeutic Boarding School for Girls provides a safe community that we believe allows our students to grow and study. In our community, we eliminate many of the outside world’s stressors that can hinder our residents from performing well academically and feeling well emotionally. Many of the stressors in our outside world may create overwhelming situations for our teens that are difficult to cope with. In the interest of fostering beneficial change in our teenage girls, we help them to develop coping strategies. 

Milieu Therapy at Evangelhouse

The main goal of Milieu treatment programming is to eliminate the stressors that can trigger negative emotions from our teenage residents. In turn, when we achieve de-risking of our residents, we produce a therapeutic setting.  Under the protection of a controlled therapeutic setting, our residents are able to develop new coping mechanisms. These new coping mechanisms become their personal set of tools to better cope with and understand the world. As our residents become more familiar with the routine at Evangelhouse, their ability to feel safe increases. Likewise, in a mutually safe environment, the peer group is able to build trust and make great progress in promoting emotional growth within each individual.

There are many advantages to participating in Milieu therapy. One advantage is that our teenagers learn to accept responsibility for their own actions. Another advantage is that they learn how to open up and disclose their difficulties. Our peer group receives regular feedback during therapy and this allows our residents to observe how their actions affect the community. This therapy setting offers them time to process and reflect on the consequences of the actions or decisions they have made in the past and how they can improve moving forward. 

At Evangelhouse, our residents will participate in milieu therapy and gain coping skills that will help them in the real world.

Christian Therapeutic Academy Focused On Academics

At Evangelhouse Therapeutic Boarding School for Girls, licensed teachers with advanced degrees administer a nationally accredited curriculum through the Louisiana Department of Education. Our unique and thorough therapeutic evaluation process guides education planning for each student. Student-to-teacher ratios accommodate learning difficulties presented by complex mood and behavior disorders. An integrative classroom day incorporates biblical teaching, group counseling, and academic work. We offer three educational tracts within our boarding school academic program. The individual attention we provide can support students who are advanced academically alongside those who may struggle.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, about 5% of high school students in the United States drop out each year. We know this affects a student’s future employment, earnings, potential health and so much more. We also know that students who have mental health issues at school are more likely to have poor school adjustment, fewer friends, more family discord, and future potential problems like drug and alcohol use, dropping out, and more. Recent studies also reveal that the mental health of teens gets worse as academic problems grow.

Today is the day to take action to set your daughter’s academic path in the right direction. We can help get her back on track quickly and support her as she blossoms into the bright, high-achieving student she is destined to be. 

At Evangelhouse Therapeutic Boarding School for Girls, an integrative classroom day incorporates biblical teaching, group counseling, and academic work. We offer three educational tracts within our boarding school academic program. The individual attention we provide can support students who are advanced academically alongside those who may struggle. Our goal for academics is to quickly adjust to your daughter’s learning level which often improves as stressors and behavioral problems subside. 

Individualized Attention at our Christian Academy for Girls

At Evangelhouse Therapeutic Boarding School for Girls we have seen many issues over the years plague young girls in grades 6-12. Today’s issues are more profound than ever. It used to be that just picking a career, or finding a marital partner was the most a girl had to worry about. 

Today’s modern fast-paced world is much different. Girls go online to socialize and connect. They are in social competitions for likes on social media, and they are pressured to take photos showing their best sides in the public for followers. Online bullying and other cyber pressures are unique to this generation of girls. 

Below are 5 issues that are different today for girls:

“Fitting in”

From buying the right clothes to hanging out with the right people, fitting in today is harder than ever. Part of this is due to how publicly the typical teen lives thanks to the internet. Often, the pressure to fit in is too much. This is when the outside help of a therapeutic boarding school like Evangelhouse is warranted.

Motivation

Teenagers have gotten more secluded in their virtual worlds. No longer are teens motivated by getting their own car or a job. It’s often difficult to find motivation for a young teen that does not involve something related to a screen. At Evangelhouse Christian Academy, we help girls find that inner spark and re-discover who they are. 

Disrespect

Teens are surrounded by disrespect today. They see it in the movies they watch and the online games they play. It’s pervasive in modern music as well. Even female “role models” in modern pop music sing songs that are often disrespectful to themselves. At Evangelhouse Christian Academy we help young ladies build self-respect through our positive peer culture.

Depression and Anxiety

Interacting mainly online has been linked to depression and anxiety. We look at photos of others online and it’s just human nature to compare. Being cooped up at home and cut off from the rest of the world only adds to the sensation.

Teens are suffering from depression and anxiety perhaps more than ever before. Many teens’ online “friends” will post only the best photos on vacation after taking multiple shots. This leaves followers feeling inadequate and that they are somehow missing out.

At Evangelhouse Christian Academy, we treat depression, anxiety, and a host of other issues. Individual, family, and group therapy interventions are structured within the Evangelhouse Lifeleaf™ system. This state-of-the-art system challenges students to work beyond symptom improvement. This unique integrative approach leads students to maturity, insight, and self-awareness. The blend of Christian values and professional clinical psychotherapy includes:

• Professional assessment, diagnosis, and treatment planning
• Weekly individual therapy
• Weekly group therapy
• Parent and family therapy
• Weekly therapeutic emphasis groups
• Weekly DBT Therapy skills group
• The unique Evangelhouse stages of change system
• Experiential family therapy retreats
• EMDR Trauma Therapy is available as needed

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