Christian boarding schools and other therapeutic boarding school options and residential programs for troubled teens, boys and girls, with teen counseling.

Teen Counseling

Jan Gregston & Student

Each Heartlight resident meets weekly with a designated counselor who utilizes a biblical model of counseling in approach. Each full-time on-site counselor is responsible for the emotional care of approximately 10-15 students.

Counselors lead two group sessions and an individual counseling session with the student each week. They are intricately involved in the lives of the young people counseled, as well as with the parents, becoming the “point of contact” for each family.

Parents are phoned each week after the individual counseling session with the teenager to provide an update and to discuss important therapy issues. Counselors also meet with the parents during the on-site retreats and family weekends and communicate with the family via email.

Counseling Also Involves the Family

The goal of the counselor’s interaction with the family and the training of parents by Mark Gregston during the three Parent Retreats (one approximately every 3 months) is to ensure there are proper expectations regarding the behavior of the teen at each stage of the program and to help the family prepare for the eventual return of the teen to home. When a parent knows what to expect, they can more readily deal with the counseled teen on the proper level — to love him or her unconditionally. They also are more likely to be firm with their teenager to stick with the counseling program until the therapist says they are ready to leave, which helps the student engage in the counseling quicker, reducing the amount of time needed at Heartlight.

Our in-house Christian counselors constantly interact with Heartlight residential staff and leadership regarding the progress of the resident’s emotions and behavior. The counselor determines, with the assistance of house staff and the administrative team, when a resident is ready to move up a step in the Level program.

The Heartlight residential counseling center for troubled teens ensures not only improved attitude and behavior, but also a changed atmosphere upon the teen’s return home.



Christian residential schools and behavioral therapy for troubled teens with teen counseling to improve behavior problems of teenagers struggling with anger, oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), attention deficit, attention deficit disorder (ADD), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), substance abuse, depression, reactive attachment disorder (RAD), intermittent explosive disorder (IED), obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), eating disorders, self-harm, or rebellion.

THERAPEUTIC BOARDING SCHOOLS AND BEHAVIORAL THERAPY FOR TROUBLED TEENS, BOYS OR GIRLS.

Heartlight's therapeutic schools provide troubled teens with the help and counseling troubled teens need. It gives time for the whole family to heal. Everyone can then look past the anger and teenage rebellion to focus on the troubled teenager's healing. Our Christian residential schools serve Texas, California, Oregon and Washington on the West Coast and Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Nevada in the Southwest, from Arkansas, Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, Louisiana, and Mississippi, Michigan, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois in the Central States, from Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, and Idaho in the north, and from Georgia, Florida, Virginia, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and New Jersey along the east coast. Teens come to Heartlight from throughout the U.S. and Canada.

Heartlight is a Christian boarding school with loving and relational behavioral
therapy for troubled teens; a therapeutic boarding school for
girls and therapeutic boarding school for boys.