Helping families
Our Approach
As humans we are biologically wired for human connection. Healthy relationships regulate the nervous system through co-regulation, reducing perceived threats and improving emotional control. We promote the fostering of healthy relationships by having team based workouts and challenges, establishing peer leadership roles, creating an uplifting culture of support among peers, and meeting each patient where they are at in their relationship building capacity.
Good sleep hygiene helps restore parasympathetic dominance, improves the body’s ability to regulate blood pressure, and lowers cortisol and inflammation. When the nervous system is better regulated, youth are more capable of managing stress, controlling impulses, and responding thoughtfully rather than reacting emotionally. Sunlight also increases serotonin production, which plays a key role in emotional regulation and stability. Additionally, regular sun exposure helps reduce inflammation,which is important because chronic inflammation can suppress vagal function and contribute to heightened emotional reactivity.
Physical activity is a powerful therapeutic driver for change. Exercise improves mood by reducing stress, anxiety, and depression. Teenagers are under a lot of threats to their self confidence whether it be societal or by their peers. Physical activity puts the relationship between input and output in their own hands, this increases autonomy and self control which in turn increases safety. Each patient will receive a tailored Physical Fitness plan and will be administered by a certified strength and conditioning professional.
Many patients that are in our care operate in chronic fight, flight, freeze nervous system states. The goal for the Human Performance department is to improve nervous system flexibility by creating repeated exposures to stress in a controlled environment. As patients stack wins they will become more resilient and learn that physiologically that they can be stressed but still feel safe.
VHG spares no expense to ensure proper supplementation to our patients. The gut and the brain are in constant communication. When gut health is poor anxiety and irritability rise, when gut health improves so does baseline stress thresholds and cognitive clarity.
Who am I? What matters to me? What kind of person do I want to become? These are questions that can create a lot of stress to an adolescent trying to navigate their place in the world. The goal of Human Performance is to increase the physical awareness of the body in space (Kinesthesis) which then will bring a sense of belonging and control thus increasing safety and ability to return to baseline.
Bringing a Holistic Human Performance model in the residential treatment space has never been done before. The goal is to create physical autonomy in our patients thus increasing safety which would in turn allow the walls to come down and have the patient more open to treatment. We push our patients to improve in all avenues across all 6 pillars of mental health within their capacity to do so. Patients will come to us at all different levels but the goal for all patients is simple – establish new baselines.
Our Approach
Preparation
Ready to take the first step toward healing and growth? Let’s work together to create a brighter future for your family.
“The adolescent behavioral health space has a scale problem. Bigger systems, smaller humans. What gets lost is the middle, where clinical depth meets actual relationship. Velocity is being built in that middle. Families will feel the difference, which is ultimately the only metric that matters.”
Matthew Ray Scott Principal/Managing Director at FEED The Agency.