Therapeutic Activities

The Brattleboro Retreat's Therapeutic Services Program is based on seeing each patient in terms of their abilities and potential as fully functioning individuals. The Therapeutic Services program encompasses creative arts therapy, movement, physical fitness, outdoor activities, and other recreational and leisure activities necessary for effectively coping with our stressful lives.

Throughout its history, the Brattleboro Retreat has recognized therapeutic services and their associated modalities of creative arts, recreation and adventure based therapy as important aspects of mental illness and addictions treatment. They are a significant and distinguishing feature of the Retreat’s treatment philosophy and integrated programming approach. Today, the Brattleboro Retreat continues to value these modalities, as well as talk and other therapies, believing that people respond to different methods of expression and learning.

Children and adolescents, developmentally, are often able to better express themselves through non-verbal means. Children are attuned to the expressive/creative arts of drawing, painting, sculpture, dancing, etc. It is non-threatening and relaxing. A child may not be able to tell you how she feels, but she can draw you a picture that will tell you more about how she feels than words could convey. At the same time, kids need to be physically active.

Adventure-based therapy includes use of the Retreat’s ropes course as well as many other outdoor recreational activities including: cross country skiing, snowshoeing, hiking, snorkeling and rock climbing. These activities provide children and adolescents with a sense of challenge, the opportunity to determine what is safe for them and define their own limits. It also provides for peer and social interactions.

Therapeutic recreation offers children a variety of safe and supported activities, geared towards addressing developmental levels and noted delays. All of these therapy modalities become integral components of an individual’s treatment plan.

  

Child/Adolescent Inpatient Services

  • Arts and Crafts for the smaller children.
  • Traditional games for the smaller children.
  • Traditional sports for some of the older children.
  • *Completely outfitted fitness room with instruction.

  

Child and Adolescent Residential Services

  • Therapeutic Adventure Program (TAP) including such activities as climbing, ice skating, ropes course, canoeing. Extensive athletic equipment is available.
  • Community reintegration, including dance and gymnastics.
  • Activities for the inpatients noted above are also available on a regular basis for residential children and adolescents.