Wellness Services for Teens

Every teen in residential care gets at least 60 minutes of structured wellness programming each day. It's written into The Horizon Guarantee.

‍

Trauma-informed yoga and movement. Gentle, choice-based movement that helps teens notice and settle their bodies. Nothing is forced, poses are invitations, and teens can sit out any part. Families can also opt their teen out of yoga entirely — just tell your Care Coordinator.

‍

Somatic groups. Body-based skills groups that teach teens to recognize what stress, anger, and fear feel like physically, and what to do in the moment to bring their nervous system back down.

‍

Mindfulness. Short, practical practices — breathwork, grounding, and guided attention — that help teens respond to big emotions with clarity instead of overwhelm. The same skills show up in DBT, so teens practice them in more than one place.

‍

Music therapy and lessons. Making, playing, and listening to music gives teens a way to express what's hard to say out loud. Teens can also take music lessons, building a skill they can keep using after treatment.

‍

Pet therapy. Time with animals lowers the guard for teens who find people hard to trust. For many kids, it's the calmest part of their day.

‍

Wellness services work alongside our Fitness & Wellness Program — daily movement, nutrition, and sleep led by a full-time Wellness Coordinator, plus training at The Barbell Saves Project.

Wellness services take place in our homes in Peoria, Glendale and Buckeye — real houses, not a hospital unit — and on outings in the community.

• With clinical therapies. Wellness services complement individual, group, and family therapy — they never replace them. Skills practiced in a mindfulness or somatic group are the same ones teens use in CBT and DBT.
  
  ‍
• With the Neuro Program. Neurofeedback works at the brain level; wellness services work at the body level. Both target regulation through different channels.
  ‍
  
• With family therapy. Teens bring the skills they learn home, and families learn what those skills look like in family sessions.
  ‍
  
• By level of care. The full daily wellness schedule runs through residential and PHP. At IOP, wellness steps down with the level of care.

• You'll never be forced to talk or share before you're ready
• A lot of this is hands-on — movement, breathing, music, animals
• You can sit out any pose or exercise
• You'll learn ways to handle anxiety, anger, and stress that you can use anywhere

Wellness services are part of every teen's treatment plan, not a separate track. They're especially helpful if your teen has struggled with talk-based therapy, experiences chronic stress or sleep problems, shuts down emotionally, or learns better by doing.