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At Risk Youth Program
Helping Young People Move From Surviving to Thriving
Every young person deserves the opportunity to feel safe, valued, capable, and hopeful about their future.
Chayah Care's At-Risk Youth Program provides trauma-informed therapeutic experiences for young people who have experienced adversity, instability, abuse, neglect, family disruption, behavioral challenges, or other circumstances that can interfere with healthy development.
Through specialized mental health services and equine-assisted psychotherapy, Chayah Care creates a safe and supportive environment where youth can develop the skills, relationships, and confidence needed to move forward.
We provide individual therapy and will also provide group therapy at Residential facilities if there is a grassy area where we can set up a round pen.
Why Equine Assisted Therapy
For many young people, talking about difficult experiences can be challenging. Working alongside a therapy horse provides another way to engage in the therapeutic process.
Horses respond to body language, emotions, boundaries, and communication. This creates opportunities for youth to learn through experience rather than simply being told what to do.
With guidance from a licensed mental health professional and equine specialist, youth can practice:
- Trust and connection
- Healthy communication
- Emotional awareness and regulation
- Boundaries and personal responsibility
- Problem-solving
- Empathy
- Self-awareness
- Confidence and self-esteem
- Healthy coping skills
- Leadership and decision-making
The goal is to help young people recognize that the skills they develop with the horses can also be used in their relationships, families, schools, and communities.
Building Skills Through Experience
Our sessions incorporate therapeutic and experiential activities designed to meet youth where they are.
Activities may include:
Horse Connection & Safety
Learning appropriate interaction with horses while developing awareness of personal space, boundaries, body language, and safety.
Communication & Active Listening
Practicing clear communication, observation, patience, and listening through interactions with the horses and other participants.
Emotional Awareness
Identifying emotions, recognizing physical and behavioral responses to stress, and developing healthier ways to manage difficult feelings.
Problem-Solving & Decision-Making
Working through challenges with the horses provides opportunities to practice flexibility, persistence, critical thinking, and responsible decision-making.
Self-Expression & Identity
Creative activities allow youth to express emotions, experiences, values, strengths, hopes, and aspects of their identity that may be difficult to communicate verbally.
Empathy & Relationships
Youth learn to recognize and respond to the needs and cues of others while developing healthier interpersonal skills.
Strengths & Resilience
Participants are encouraged to identify their existing strengths and recognize their ability to overcome challenges, make positive choices, and develop new skills.
A Trauma-informed Approach
Chayah Care recognizes that challenging behaviors are often connected to experiences of trauma, loss, instability, or unmet needs.
Our approach emphasizes safety, connection, trust, choice, collaboration, and strengths.
Rather than defining a young person by their past experiences or behaviors, we seek to help them understand themselves, develop healthier responses, and recognize their capacity for growth.
Each participant is treated as an individual with unique experiences, strengths, needs, and goals.
OUR THERAPEUTIC ENVIRONMENT
The horses are not simply an activity or attraction. They are an integral part of the therapeutic environment.
Working with horses can create immediate opportunities to observe communication, boundaries, emotional responses, cooperation, frustration tolerance, and relationship patterns.
The therapist can then help the young person connect those experiences to everyday life.
What happens with the horse can become a doorway to understanding what happens within the young person.