Asheville Academy For Girls Recognizes Purposeful Parenting Month

Asheville Academy for Girls is doing their part to participate in Purposeful Parenting Month. As a leading residential treatment center, Asheville Academy for Girls understands the importance of building strong, positive relationships between children and parents.

Studies show that children with parents who monitor their behavior, are consistent with rules, and are warm and affectionate are more likely to develop close, personal relationships with their peers, have greater self esteem, and are better students.

Asheville Academy is a small, residential program for girls ages 10 - 14 who struggle with emotional and behavioral issues. Asheville Academy recognizes purposeful parenting by utilizing evidence-based therapeutic strategies to reconnect struggling girls with their parents.

Many of the young girls who come to Asheville Academy are in need of purposeful parenting, which is based on the idea that parents should be engaged and active in a child's life. Purposeful parenting also recognizes the importance of meaningful relationships between parents and children.

"Asheville Academy is a family systems model by design. We work with very young girls who will always be returning home after graduation," says Cat Jennings, executive director and owner of Asheville Academy for Girls. "If we are not educating our parents about their unique child, how to build a relationship with them, and an understanding of how to create appropriate expectations and boundaries for them, all the work we do with the girls would ultimately fail."

Every week at Asheville Academy for Girls, students have a 90 minute family call that connects parents with their daughter through communication with their daughter's therapist. Additionally, each week the child's teacher provides progress reports to parents. Parents are constantly informed of the child's success. Continued success for students at Asheville Academy depends almost entirely on the family dynamic back home.

"The families who come to Asheville Academy know it takes a commitment on their part to heal the whole family and they are all in," commented Jennings, "This is why we customize our frequent visits, which are scheduled to accommodate a family's ability to visit and practice in person with their daughter. We also hold quarterly two day family seminars where families work through issues and curriculum together."

Typically, the quarterly seminars at Asheville Academy for Girls include parent training, group parent therapy, psychoeducational development, and experiential learning. All of this happens with parents, their daughter, staff and other parents. Attendance is not required of parents, although most families don't miss out on this opportunity to practice purposeful parenting.

Below are resources recommended by Asheville Academy for Girls to promote purposeful parenting:

Office of Adolescent Health: www.hhs.gov/ash/oah/news/e-updates/eupdate-4.html

Partnership for Drug-Free Kids:
www.drugfree.org

Asheville Academy for Girls, based outside beautiful Asheville, NC, is a therapeutic boarding school for young girls ages 10-14. Asheville Academy for Girls understand the challenges young girls go through, and their advanced clinical approach and highly qualified staff helps young girls get back on the right track in their lives. At Asheville Academy, girls discover their inner confidence and reconnect with their families.