Why choose La Europa Academy?


As a parent, choosing the right treatment program for your daughter is an intense and emotional experience. You want to ensure your daughter's safety, provide her with the appropriate level of therapeutic support and select a program where she will not only grow but also thrive!  

Here are some of the questions you may be asking as you make this decision:

  • What makes La Europa Academy unique?  The traditional approach to counseling is to talk, talk, talk! Most of the girls who come to us have had lots of talk therapy prior to enrollment, with only limited success.  La Europa Academy was founded in 2005 based on research and on our conviction that people best process and work through emotionally traumatic events in ways that blend direct and indirect approaches. We believe the Expressive Arts, which can be either of these approaches, enjoy several poweful advantages that make them ideal for many adolescents in crisis: (1) Most of us don't want to talk or think about certain things in our past.  Using the Expressive Arts, our girls can make meaningful progress on difficult issues, without necessarily deciding to "tackle" the issue or without us feeling threatened by it. In part, this is because the arts help girls to "externalize" their pain--to get it out on paper, canvas, etc., where it is much safer to process and talk about. We believe this sense of safety and comfort are a key reason why we can make breakthroughs and gain insight where others might not.   (2) The latest research clearly suggests that we experience and store emotional trauma (e.g. adoption, sexual abuse, etc.) in a very different part of our brain than our verbal and logical centers. Significantly, Expressive Art therapies focus on the parts of the brain where trauma resides, making us better equipped, we believe, to resolve core issues.   (3) In the process of doing art therapy, our girls convey information about their issues they often cannot articulate and, in some cases, about which their conscious brain was not aware.  A fully trained and observant art therapist can then use this information in the healing process. We believe this allows us to help "stuck" girls (making no clinical progress) get "unstuck," speeding up time in treatment and improving outcomes.  

  • What makes the La Europa Expressive Arts program so effective?  Two words, focus and training.  At La Europa Academy, using the Expressive Arts to heal is what we do and what we were created to do--it's our identity, and it's what we are striving to do better than anyone!  And it's this focus which insists on the best training.  La Europa Academy boasts a Nationally Certified Art Therapist with a master's degree in Art Therapy as well as a master's degree in Marriage and Family Therapy. Our program is based on the best practices and latest research and is run by someone trained to work with difficult and clinically complex girls.   

  • Is this the right level of care for my daughter? Most of the families who consider La Europa Academy have already tried other levels of care such as outpatient therapy or day treatment. Residential treatment is recommended when an adolescent continues to exhibit high-risk behaviors and does not appear to be able to apply what she is learning through other therapeutic avenues. Residential treatment will immerse your daughter in the process of change and give her daily opportunities to practice new skills.  While a residential level of care may be needed, not all residential programs provide the same type of atmosphere in which to work. Someresidential treatment programs are designed to be more institutional. La Europa is designed as a combination between structured, nurturing home and boarding school with a high level of educational and clinical care and a very high staff to student ratio.

  • Will the program focus on my daughter in a way that reinforces an image of her as "sick" or "broken?" Parents often worry that residential placement will further develop a negative self-image in their daughter. At La Europa Academy, we believe in a strength-based approach. We understand that her identity is fragile at this stage and she needs positive reinforcement to see her own strengths and talents. With our robust arts-focus and challenging academic program, La Europa Academy is designed to allow your daughter many opportunities to discover who she is, build and diversify her confidence and demonstrate her strengths. The urban location of our facility is strategic, allowing for proximity and access to community based activities like cultural events, urban art exhibitions, recreational and service opportunities. She experiences the benefits associated with being in and part of a residential community thereby strengthening her skills for transfer when she reaches the completion of program. The La Europa experience is designed to prepare girls for transitions to mainstream life options for her next-step following treatment.

  • Why is an expressive therapy focus important? Your daughter has probably had quite a bit of experience with talk therapy and may have even demonstrated some change. However, research shows that access to right brain information through an expressive therapy focus is much more effective in deepening and solidifying change. Behavioral triggers can be below the threshold of conscious awareness and expressive therapies allow access to this information. This helps the student increase her ability to tune into emotion, senses and non-verbal cues, which reinforces her learning in talk therapy. Expressive therapies have specifically been proven effective with eating disorders, anxiety and depression but are used to strengthen therapy for all issues. Parents will see some of the powerful ways art therapy is used when they tour the La Europa program.

  • What is the difference between a therapeutic boarding school and residential treatment? A therapeutic boarding school is designed to provide a school environment that includes a therapeutic component as support. This does not provide the complex and intensive level of clinical services that a residential treatment center environment provides. At La Europa, our goal is to provide intensive services to help move students forward more quickly so that they can function in a therapeutic boarding school, regular boarding school or home setting.

  • Our daughter is bright--will she be bored by the academics? La Europa was designed as a college preparatory program. Our academics are rigorous, but we do take into account that the students are simultaneously doing intensive emotional work. We have the ability to offer any class at an honors level to keep students engaged and challenged.

  • What if our daughter has an IEP? At La Europa, we have a special educator on staff and can accommodate all learning styles and challenges. Our teachers use multi-modal teaching strategies to help engage students at all levels. And we have weekly Study Skills classes to help students with organization, time management, test-taking strategies and taking notes. We will work with the student's school district to maintain the student's IEP status.

  • What is your success rate? It is very difficult to measure the effectiveness of such a complex treatment model. One family is interested in academic progress, another wants improved family relationship and others would consider abstinence from addictive behaviors success. La Europa Academy is currently engaged in an outcome study which measures the girl's ability to regulate her emotions (mood, anxiety), engage in pro-social behavior (follow rules, make positive choices), decrease compulsive behaviors and increase school performance. We survey all students at the time of admission, again at discharge, and then six months post discharge. There is no compiled data yet available from this study.

  • How do you prepare the girls for transition? Preparation for transition begins almost from the start of treatment with parents establishing goals related to a minimum level of behavioral change needed for the student to be successful at home or boarding school. Students also set goals for themselves. As the student progresses through the program, parents' and student's goals are frequently re-visited and revised. This helps the team (which consists of the professionals at La Europa, the parents, the educational consultant or referral source and the student) gauge when she is ready to leave the program. Prior to the completion of Level 4, parents identify whether the student is going home or stepping down to another structured environment like a therapeutic boarding school. This decision will determine the path the student will take to prepare for her transition. Therapeutic home visits, increased privileges and freedom, adjusted therapy schedule (increased family or individual depending on the needs) and appropriate academics will be put in place to help the student prepare for leaving La Europa. Our proximity to community events and interaction will also help her prepare for the next step. As she nears her departure date, the La Europa team will be working with parents and the educational consultant or referral source to establish a home contract, and we will be providing a liaison between current treatment and future providers.