Therapeutic Community

3Trees is a therapeutic on-the-land community for young people aged 13-18 years who have experienced sexual abuse and who rely on high-risk behaviours to cope (e.g., self-harm, substance misuse, disordered eating habits, etc). It includes young people of all or no gender and is not limited by psychiatric diagnoses.

The aims of the therapeutic community are to help young people:

Understand their traumatic experiences and how it affects them and their relationships today.

Treat primary mental health problems and offer alternatives to high-risk behaviour that prevents them from living the life they want.

Build resilience to future stressors through social connectedness (i.e., sense of belonging) between peers and within a healthier family system.

This will be achieved through an individually tailored constellation of (a) individual evidence-based therapy for trauma and high-risk behaviour (e.g., Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Dialectical Behaviour Therapy) using a variety of expressive modalities (e.g., art, sand tray), (b) family therapy for young people, parents, and siblings (e.g., Satir Transformational Systemic Therapy), and (c) group activities centred around social connectedness and reward (community and electives: e.g., wilderness activities, woodwork, equine connections, music, arts, yoga, kayaking, theatre, etc. ).