Trails Carolina Bio
Who are we?
Trails Carolina is a licensed wilderness therapy program in North Carolina’s rolling Blue Ridge Mountains. We focus on helping youth between the ages of 10 and 17 struggling with mental or behavioral health issues, technology addiction, interpersonal conflict, identity issues, or poor academic achievement.
Our program is designed to support youth to overcome challenges and discover their full potential through various environments and therapeutic experiences. At Trails, students move through a wilderness therapy setting, travel to residential base camps, and return to the wilderness once more.
This cycle mimics school and home settings by bringing dynamic social and environmental change to the student experience. This inclusive approach teaches students the resilience to make sustainable, positive strides after graduation.
Our staff at Trails works with each child and family to create individualized treatment plans. Trauma informed licensed clinicians, an expert wilderness team, certified teachers, and special activities staff combine their efforts to guide your child to holistic well being.
Who do we serve?
At Trails, we serve all youth between the ages of 10 17. Each group is segmented by age, gender identity, and clinical niche. By defining peer groups, students get to practice building healthy relationships with individuals their age. This practice smooths the transition back into traditional classrooms.
Families typically come to us when their child struggles with mental health or behavioral challenges such as anxiety, depression, attachment issues, technology addiction, substance use, or strain in familial and academic settings.
Many of our students experience internal issues that become externalized. For example, isolation, acting out, and aggressive behavior are unhealthy habits we help our students process and shift away from.
Our emotional distress is amplified when someone we love is experiencing mental or behavioral health issues. Trails’ dedicated family therapist empowers families to reinforce therapeutic lessons and heal alongside their children. Our staff wants to help your family communicate effectively and rebuild your relationship.
How do we help?
Trails Carolina offers students a step into the beauty of the Blue Ridge Mountains, away from the overwhelming stimuli of their everyday world. We have curated our program facilities to create a research based, therapeutic environment.
Our unique blend of wilderness outposts and residential-style base camps helps students learn adaptability and resilience. When students find success in each of these spheres, their self
confidence blooms. The transitional environments at Trails allow each individual to practice developing skills in safe spaces without fear of failure.
Students will move through a programming rotation two and a half to three times during their stay at Trails. This includes a two week backpacking expedition, a week at our equine and academic focused base camp, Winding Gap, and a week at the mind body connection base camp, Sky Valley.
We ask students to step into new experiences with bravery and hope, with the guidance of licensed therapists and caring field staff. Through this process, students confidently establish healthy habits to carry forward as they reintegrate with their peers, community, and family back home.
For true success, we must do more than help each child thrive. This is why Trails Carolina has a comprehensive system to help families heal and learn the skills to encourage positive growth after graduation.
Trails offer families weekly coaching calls, a parent skills workshop, weekly calls with your child’s primary therapist, and weekly zoom classes to learn the grounding meditation and yoga techniques we teach all our students.
Not only does family involvement improve the success of an individual’s treatment, but it also sets the grounds for long-lasting change. Relationship repair is vital to ongoing connection and trust between family members.
Uniquely aligned with our focus on the clinical benefits of transitional care: we offer a three day family and student program in the middle of a student’s stay, along with a four day family integration opportunity, Common Ground, at the end. This resource allows families to practice skills and reconnect upon program completion with the safety and support of our staff.
Clinical Methodology
Trails concentrate on building healthy relationships, discovering personal strengths, and developing transferable skills such as self awareness, positive communication, conflict resolution, self advocacy, and coping skills. These therapeutic lessons are organically integrated into youths’ everyday experiences.
Our evidence proven therapeutic approach centers around gradual change and supporting students through strength-based, trauma-informed therapy.
In this new wilderness therapy model, we successfully enhance student growth by combining the clinically proven benefits of nature immersion and structured home bases for practicing newfound skills. As students learn to overcome the inherent challenges of expeditions, their confidence and perspectives shift.
By bringing together experts from diverse fields, programming adapts to each individual’s talents and learning styles to provide the best care.
Academic Approach
During their academic rotation, students enter into educational programs where they integrate skills and tools learned in the wilderness setting into an environment resembling life after Trails. Often, difficulties in school settings mirror mental health or behavioral struggles.
Certified, experienced teachers work closely with therapists to cater the curriculum to each student. Our goal is to meet each individual’s learning needs while inspiring them to engage with lessons from a place of internal motivation.
Daily lessons center around personal wellness, earth sciences, language arts, and history. Some classes take place in a traditional classroom setting, while our unique, experience based science center introduces students to an array of animals and science projects in an interactive fashion.
Trails’ natural science curriculum gives often misunderstood students a chance to connect with friends but commonly misunderstood animals such as amphibians, chickens, fish, insects, reptiles, and opossums. Students discover admiration and respect for wildlife through these unexpected animal relationships.
Our science classroom is powered by renewable solar energy panels built by previous students. In addition, resident Naturalist Science Steve engages students with wonder and curiosity through various science projects in the classroom, garden, and with farm animals.
Unique academic programming engages students in learning from an exciting new standpoint. We teach them to advocate for their education, kindling agency, and confidence.
As an accredited academic program, students can transfer their credits from our classrooms to their home districts. Credits vary based on age, with middle school students earning up to 2.5 credits and high schoolers earning up to 3 credits.
Activities to Supplement Therapy
We invite students to step out of their comfort zones and trust their ability to tackle challenges.
As clinicians, we recognize that well rounded treatment is vital for holistic change. Research shows that mental distress and trauma are stored throughout our bodies. At our Sky Valley base camp, students learn the benefits of this mind body connection through daily wellness programming.
Students are introduced to intentional breathing practices to help them regulate their emotions and feel grounded. In addition, supplemental mindfulness exercises such as yoga classes and meditation practices help build students’ therapeutic toolboxes.
Our culinary team helps students understand the practical side of the nutrition curriculum through hands on cooking classes. In addition, to help students continue on a successful path, each individual prepares a personalized self-care plan to support their reintegration and ongoing health.
At Trails, we know that each moment in therapy is an opportunity to grow, heal, and reconnect with ourselves as individuals and the people we love. We want every student to find success through authentic staff interaction and personalized programming.
Safety
Every team member is dedicated to creating an experience for each student that helps support their physical, mental, and emotional well being. In addition, our program has undergone a rigorous process to gain CARF and AEE accreditation. This means we have independent verification that our program keeps high standards for student rights, safety, services, and business ethics.
We ensure each staff member is qualified for their position on our team through background checks and rigorous training. In addition, we have intensive onboarding training, and Trails’ staff have regularly scheduled in service training and skill learning workshops.
Our advanced risk management system is implemented during field expeditions and during students’ residential base camp stays. Staff are trained in CPR, First Aid, and often as Wilderness First Responders. A consulting physician is available for students at all times.
Outcomes
Trails Carolina coordinated with the Center for Research, Assessment, and Treatment Efficacy (CReATE) of Asheville, NC, and the University of Arkansas’ Development Science department to create a comprehensive outcomes study to verify treatment efficacy for our students and families. This independently conducted study took place over five years to better understand the long term impact of Trails’ program.
The ongoing research measures critical data regarding mental and behavioral health at admission and graduation, as well as three months and twelve months after graduating from Trails.
Some examples of 12 month post graduation results include:
86% of students showed improvement in anxiety symptoms
93% of students showed improvement in depression symptoms
98% of students reported experiencing a decrease in suicidal thoughts
96% of students reported experiencing a reduction in substance use
97% of students reported a decrease in symptoms associated with ADHD
The proven results show overwhelming success for students’ behavioral and mental health and academic achievement. We are proud to share the data to demonstrate the long-term benefits of our wilderness therapy program.
Ownership
Trails’ leadership team has over 100 years of professional outdoor and therapeutic program experience. Our founder, Graham Shannonhouse, has more than 30 years of experience in wilderness therapy, while our executive team members each have 15 or more years of professional outdoor and program understanding.
Trails’ staff are dedicated to the growth and mental health support of our students and their families. We seek to provide families in need with skills and hope for a better future.
Trails Carolina was founded by a team dedicated to helping children and families with mental health challenges. Over half of the owners in our broader organization, Family Help & Wellness, are licensed therapists and experienced educators with a heartfelt commitment to trauma informed care.