A UNIQUE APPROACH TO CHILD DEVELOPMENT and FAMILY COUNSELING

HOW OUR MISSION and CORE VALUES became a Therapeutic MODEL

WHY does GATEWAYS for Youth & Families borrow from DBT and EAT and similar counseling techniques in our work at the Ranch?

It’s really simple. We think they work best for shaping and transforming lives. They stop people from acting in ways that interfere with their ability to move forward and give them tools to cope with the challenges that will come to them after they’ve left our care. It’s what we’ve seen work on people, what they come back to us time and again at the Ranch to report, to meet the new people who work at the Ranch, share their stories and reflect back on how they’ve changed and grown since their time with us.

Dyslin Ranch was first established as a 15 acre working ranch to house teenage boys who had aged out of the Children’s Industrial Home and teach them an occupation. Over the course of the next fifty years there was a shift in the delivery of social services and support of orphaned or neglected children became a function of the government, who contracted for services with the Ranch. Over time, we acquired 16 more acres and added a therapeutic treatment center for teenage boys and girls and offices to house our family support services at the Ranch location. We entered into a contract to house and treat juvenile offenders coming out of detention.

Through all the changes, we continued to use farming techniques as hands-on therapy and the basis for teaching independent living skills Our core values of self-reliance, personal responsibility and community service is consistent with the heritage of our organization and the nature of the people who settled the Pacific Northwest and founded GATEWAYS for Youth & Families. In fact, we’re expanding our emphasis on the rural character of our environment and using our natural setting to accentuate our therapeutic model.

The Dyslin Ranch is the location these days for more than just youth development and teen counseling. We’ve relocated our corporate headquarters there, along with our foster care case managers and Family Services, and we’ve added an early education center and after school programs for elementary age children to round out our continuum of services to children.

GATEWAYS for Youth & Families was founded as a private social services agency. The stated purpose was to care for children whose families were unable to provide adequate food, shelter, medical care or supervision because of death, illness, poverty or other disabling mental, physical or social conditions. GATEWAYS for Youth & Families philosophies and methods have been consistent through five generations.

From the beginning, parents were urged to provide such support as they could, and young people to actively participate in and financially support their own development. Moreover, the organization raised funds not only through seeking private donations and public support, but also in part through self-supporting commerce. The name, the way services are delivered and the words we use to describe those services evolved with the generations that followed; however, the core values and mission remain the same. We provide care and services to improve the lives of children when their families cannot.

The mission in modern times is stated as Shaping Young Lives, Providing a Community Safety Net and Transforming Families so They Can Thrive Since 1890. The core values of the organization are more than just slogans, they are used as the guiding principles for every new program from co-parenting education to equine assisted therapy. We continue to serve children and their families and promote self-reliance, personal responsibility and community service.

 

WHAT IS DIALECTIC BEHAVIORAL THERAPY?

Dialectic Behavior Therapy (DBT) is a set of tools to help people recognize and manage their own problems.

The term 'dialectical' comes from the field of philosophy. It is a method of logic and reasoning.

The root “dia” in the word dialectic means two. Dialectic behavioral therapy helps clients manage their lives when two seemingly contradictory realities coexist.

DBT was originally developed by Dr. Marcia Linehan of the University of Washington to work with suicidal and para-suicidal clients with a diagnosis of Borderline Personality Disorder. The therapeutic model has been effective in treatments of a variety of problems that afflict the population that we serve at the Ranch, addiction, eating disorders, and common cognitive dysfunctions of juveniles in foster care or the justice system.

DBT is also effective as a youth development model, in that it provides a tool set useful in managing interpersonal conflicts and stressors likely to arise during the teenage years. That is why we've adapted the concept to our Ranch style of counseling. We don't do DBT in a formal sense. Instead, we've borrowed from the model and several other cognitive and behavioral change models, including animal assisted activities, and found the common thread that flows from our mission and core value statements.

Much of what we teach clients in skills development may seem like common sense advice you would get from a “father-knows-best” or “leave-it-to-beaver” type mentor on managing difficult moments and emotional triggers, if those fictitious characters of 50s TV sitcom fame ever dealt with how to overcome thoughts of suicide, or cope with life after experiences of rape, incest, domestic violence, child abuse, methamphetamine or cocaine addiction, alcoholism or mental illness.

The dialectical approach to understanding and treatment of human problems is non-dogmatic, open and oriented to present self and interpersonal exchange. It is a mentoring process, similar to classic child/parent interaction and involves acquisition of concrete skills.

Our methods are consistent with the Linehan theorum that success is dependant on the quality of the relationship between the student and teacher or client and counselor. The emphasis is on this being a real human relationship in which both members matter and in which the needs of both have to be considered. The approach is a team approach.

Our methods differ from the classic Linehan model, in that we’ve adapted our model to meet the needs of the teens and adults we are most likely to encounter, and the times, places and ways that we interact with them.

To read more about DBT and how it works as a development model- click here.

WHY AN EQUESTRIAN CENTER AT GATEWAYS DYSLIN RANCH?

So, why horses?

The bond between children and horses is legendary. But the legends are based in reality, and now in medical science. Equine assisted therapy is an effective tool for those deemed “at-risk” - who require therapy to help them stay on the right track, or to find the right track. It also works well for children who are recovering from the effects of violence, abuse, or neglect. Furthermore, it is a tool to teach children who have not suffered any particular ill effects from the adults in their life the core values treasured by the GATEWAYS organization, self-reliance, personal responsibility and community service. In our modern, urban-centered culture, even moderate to middle-income level children are denied this character building experience due to lack of funds or program resources. The Jessie Dyslin Ranch Equestrian Center’s Equine Assisted Activities Programs will offer opportunities for growth and healing to children who would otherwise not have them.

Equine Assisted Activities include personal development, education and therapeutic interventions and utilize experiential learning. Experiential learning is learning by doing. It occurs when a person is interacting with the environment, including the people, animals and situations involved. Therapeutic Riding is a growing and widely-accepted treatment for rehabilitating a range of physical, mental, and emotional disabilities. Riders experience increased self-confidence and improvement in strength, balance, coordination, attention span, language and social skills. It involves an ongoing therapeutic relationship with clearly established treatment goals and objectives developed by the counselor in conjunction with the client. The therapeutic team includes an appropriately credentialed mental health or rehabilitation professional and an equestrian specialist.

Equestrian Assisted Therapy is more than “horsemanship and riding classes." Equine therapy, which involves clinical professionals, has been shown to be effective in treating a variety of mental health and human development needs and behavioral issues, such as attention deficit disorder, substance abuse, eating disorders, abuse issues, depression, anxiety, anger management, conflict resolution, relationship problems and communications.

Horses offer several advantages. For one thing, their size offers a perfect opportunity for some to overcome fear and develop confidence. "Accomplishing a task involving the horse, in spite of those fears, creates confidence and provides for wonderful metaphors for dealing with other intimidating and challenging situations." Horses are social animals, with distinct personalities, attitudes and moods. Working with them and caring for them requires effort --there's no easy way out. No quick tricks.

“A lot of animals are used in therapy,” explained one. But with horses, there's the respect factor. “You can't bully them. If you give respect, you get respect.” Horses have the ability to mirror exactly what human body language is telling them. People complain that the horse is stubborn or antagonistic. “But the lesson to be learned is that if they change themselves, the horses respond differently.”