Second Nature embraces the importance of holistic health as a key part of the therapy process.  We understand the integral connection between physical, emotional and relational health.  Our program incorporates fundamental DBT (Dialectical Behavior Therapy) principles, especially mindfulness, as well as yoga and nutrition. Adopting a non-judgmental approach and developing a stronger sense of acceptance (for self and others) is a key component of maturation and preparation for becoming a higher functioning adult. These holistic practices amplify the therapeutic experience and aid in the development of new habits.  These habits create not only a shift in your child’s sense of self but in their ability to reconnect with family and other healthy relationships.  These holistic practices are closely connected to preparations for a healthier adult life.

Therapy in nature is the perfect setting to develop the facets of DBT, namely mindfulness, interpersonal effectiveness, distress tolerance, and emotional regulation. We also utilize principles of walking the middle path, an adolescent dbt track that emphasizes compromise between family members.  When rigidity is replaced with collaboration it naturally breeds connection.  Nature is a uniquely peaceful setting from which to learn heightened awareness.  The combination of nature and constant group therapy creates key opportunities for emotional regulation and distress tolerance.  As these skills are developed, interpersonal effectiveness is substantially improved.  The result is a healthier, more mature, adolescent who is reconnecting with family and creating a healthier sense of self.

Mindfulness is described as those self-regulation practices that focus on training attention and awareness in order to bring mental processes under greater voluntary control and thereby foster general mental well-being and development and/or specific capacities such as calmness, clarity and concentration (Walsh & Shapiro, 2006). Mindfulness has been shown to have empirical benefits according to the American Psychological Association, Harvard researchers and the Clinical Psychology Review. These benefits include:

  • promotion of awareness
  • decreasing rumination
  • association with attentional capacities via improved working memory
  • contributions to effective emotional regulation strategies
  • associations with cognitive flexibility
  • associations with relationship satisfaction
  • changes in the amygdala last after meditation ends
  • increases in subjective well-being
  • reductions in psychological symptoms and emotional reactivity
  • improvements in behavioral regulation

Mindfulness is a non-elaborative, non-judgmental, present-centered awareness, in which each thought, feeling, or sensation that arises in the attention field is acknowledged and accepted as it is (Bishop et al. 2004).  Awareness is the state or ability to perceive, feel or be conscious of events, objects or sensory patterns.  Mindfulness enables us to differentiate streams of awareness from one another and then link them.  Being mindful is profoundly integrative (Dan Siegel).

Yoga 

The benefits of yoga are well researched (Harvard Mental Health Letter, International Journal of Yoga, Healthline) and include the following: 

  • reducing perceived stress as well as modulating (tone down) stress responses systems, reducing anxiety (52% PTSD symptoms after 10 weeks of yoga in one study)
  • decreasing physiological arousal (heart rate, blood pressure, respiration)
  • yoga practitioners had the highest pain tolerance and lowest pain-related brain activity
  • more energy, brighter moods, better-eating habits
  • management of depression (decrease cortisol) and insomnia
  • decrease migraine frequency and intensity
  • facilitate an improved sense of well being

Mindfulness is a non-elaborative, non-judgmental, present-centered awareness, in which each thought, feeling, or sensation that arises in the attention field is acknowledged and accepted as it is (Bishop et al. 2004).  Awareness is the state or ability to perceive, feel or be conscious of events, objects or sensory patterns. Mindfulness enables us to differentiate streams of awareness from one another and then link them.  Being mindful is profoundly integrative (Dan Siegel). 

Healthy Eating

In addition to mindfulness and yoga, Second Nature understands the importance of diet on physical and emotional health.  Each group is provided fresh food drops two times per week in order to provide menu variety as well as keep pack weight to a minimum. Fresh water is also delivered daily. All group meal plans are dietician-approved and include a range of organic, vegetarian and vegan options. Second Nature believes in the philosophy of mind, body and relational development for a healthy lifestyle.

Easily prepared meals are chosen for outdoor cooking while still providing a healthy variety of foods. Breakfasts include granola, rolled oats, Cream of Wheat, eggs, and fruit. Lunches include tortillas with cheese, tuna, bacon, tofu, peanut butter, fruit, fresh vegetables, and trail mix. Dinners include marinara and pesto pasta, vegetable stews, beans and rice, hamburger/chicken/tofu stir-fries, and much more. In addition to the twice-weekly larger food deliveries, fresh fruits and vegetables are brought out several times per week. Special diets are also accommodated.