Our Intensive, Integrated Approach to Therapy

Our program integrates Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Techniques with Biblical and Faith-Based Counseling.  This process allows our counselors to work with the students to establish what deep-rooted heart issues may exist and collaborate with scripture to discover what God has to say about those things and how we overcome these issues.

Daily Accountability to Counseling

Students will receive daily accountability that encourages them to take an active role in their journey to wellness and freedom.  This is accomplished through various proven methods. 

Solution-Focused Therapy

KCGA counselors work with residential staff to establish solution-focused therapy techniques to help students overcome their unique life-controlling problems.  This approach allows us to address lifelong issues In a comparatively short 12-month program.  Our trained staff work with students to develop shared goals.  These goals are agreed upon by the student and are intended to illuminate problem areas and help them find practical alternative solutions to problem areas in their lives.

Psycho-Educational Therapy

Many of our students enter the program with a distorted perspective of themselves and those around them.  Through our regularly implemented process of Psycho-Educational Therapy, students will learn to acknowledge these potentially harmful perspectives and establish new ways of responding to them.  The intended result is a young girl who has gained self-control and restraint when faced with former behaviors that were destructive. 

Our counselors guide our students through writing “their personal story.”  Over 15 months, each student at KCGA is held responsible for understanding the reality of the circumstances that brought them to where they are today.  They must then be able to express the “new reality” they are looking forward to embracing beyond completion.  Each student’s story is different, and upon completion, they are allowed to share where they came from and where they are going.

Rational Detachment

This is a process by which our staff can separate the emotions behind a crisis from physical and verbal assaults.  This is often more difficult for parents & loved ones to practice due to the deeply personal connection between the individual in trouble and the one being assaulted. However, by successfully implementing rational detachment, KCGA staff can often de-escalate what would otherwise be a traumatic experience.

Motivational Interviewing

KCGA staff regularly use Motivational Interviewing techniques in two specific ways.

• Personal Development Reports are given to students when staff witness areas of growth.  These written assignments are taken into account in counseling and provide students with an opportunity to share about the event, Receive an alternative character quality that is more positive, and reflect on how things could have been handled differently.
• Awareness Meetings are intended to provide a student with a short time out and a guided conversation that affirms the emotion they are experiencing while challenging them on their response to that emotion.

Equine Therapy

KCGA is where girls can experience relational healing, restoration, and personal growth through equine therapy in a non-threatening faith-based environment.  The girls travel to a local ranch where they receive six weeks of certified Equine Therapy.  The equine therapy experience is often a highlight of the student’s time here.  Interaction with horses in various situations allows girls to recognize and overcome issues hindering their personal and interpersonal relationships.  Students learn by doing.  Horses can be “powerful teachers” as they respond to the herd around them.  With the help of skilled facilitators and challenging activities, experiential learning becomes a type of self-therapy, as the girls learn to calmly and confidently handle any relational challenge. 

>> MORE ABOUT OUR EQUINE THERAPY

Structural Family Therapy

The students at KCGA will work diligently on their personal growth over 15 months.  For this reason, we also encourage families to do the hard work of self-assessment.  Our staff help guide parents/guardians through various complex family dynamics at each visit. In addition, we tackle challenging parenting techniques and encourage healthy changes in the areas of boundaries, alignment, and power within the family.

Group Therapy

Every week, students will be allowed to participate in a guided group therapy session where they can hear stories of peer encouragement.  During this time, they will be encouraged to share the truths that they have come to embrace without revealing the intimate details of their struggles. 

Exit Sessions

Nearing the end of the program, parents can expect to have several family counseling sessions explicitly aimed at addressing significant issues that have surfaced throughout the program.  These sessions intend to provide a roadmap to reintegration and reuniting broken relationships.

KCGA offers various therapeutic and spiritual growth methods to help turn around the lives of girls who come here.  These are girls who have been struggling with rebellion or misbehavior or are self-destructing.  While each girl receives a first-class education and 24/7 care, the focus of our counseling staff is to provide a life-changing experience for your girl.