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~ Leaning Into FULL Empowerment ~
Where students find their VOICE,
acknowledge their VALUES,
and initiate their VISION
L.I.F.E. at Outback is an empowerment curriculum specifically designed to help students find Voice, Values, and Vision. Our program works with adolescents between the ages of 13 and 17 who are struggling with fully forming their identity with competence and integrity. The students who come to L.I.F.E. at Outback often struggle with anxiety, depression, trauma, self-worth, adoption, attachment, unhealthy relationships, effects of social media, and declining family dynamics.
With the support of staff, students examine what plays a role in the socialization of teens assigned female at birth in conjunction with mental health challenges. Research continues to show that animals can provide significant mental health benefits such as a reduction in anxiety, grief, isolation, depression while improving empathy, trust, engagement in treatment, and focus & attention. As such, Outback utilizes therapeutic interventions through the use of emotional support “comfort” dogs who live with the students daily.
By embracing and accepting their personal strengths found embedded within their story, students develop self-empathy and find validation of who they are as they share with others.
Our students practice assertive communication and seek effective strategies that allow them to find ways to move through their experiences and identify personal values. They face new encounters and allow old patterns of disconnection to fall away.
Research on adolescents shows that individual development occurs through more highly articulated and expanded relational experience. Students work to address inter-relational conflicts, build empathy, and seek collective accomplishments.
Our dogs live with the students and are a part of the therapeutic process and group milieu. They train and care for the dogs of LIFE. This intentional involvement of dogs within the curriculum draws eye-opening parallels that inform and empower the students.
