Therapeutic boarding schools

The Shelterwood Story
- A Therapeutic Boarding School Is Born

If the time comes when looking into schools for troubled teens is a priority, families want to know they are exploring the right options. After all, results matter, but so does knowing that precious children are taken care of in an environment that’s loving, supportive and inspirational. The Shelterwood story clearly demonstrates what sets us apart from other schools for troubled for girls and boys.

Our name itself offers keen insight into our philosophy and how we approach therapy, teaching and inspiring teens to work toward a brighter future. "Shelterwood" is a forestry technique whereby certain trees, which cannot tolerate the intensity of the sun, are sheltered on the forest floor by older, more mature trees until they can stand and grow on their own. In the same way, Shelterwood provides a place where a troubled teen can be sheltered from the intensity of their adolescence, freeing them to work through their personal issues as they grow in a safe environment until they can be reunited in a new atmosphere in the home. We stand apart from other schools for troubled teens in this philosophy of growth and are distinct in our love for the troubled teen.

Our ministry began caring for teens in 1980 when a father looking for help for his daughter approached the late Richard Beach, founder of Doulos Ministries. At the time, Richard was mentoring a number of recent college graduates and felt that he could be of some service. One of the students volunteered to mentor the young girl and another person who had been recently trained as a therapist offered to provide counseling. Seeing his family restored, the father encouraged Richard to reach out to other families and continue to provide a home for struggling teens. This laid the foundation for how Shelterwood grew over time to stand apart from standard programs for troubled youth.

Now, more than thirty years later, Shelterwood is still on course, having served over a thousand families with our at-risk youth programs. We have recently moved operations from Branson, MO, to a beautiful new facility on 200 acres near the Missouri River Basin of Independence, MO. A non-profit, faith-based organization, Shelterwood is also licensed as a Residential Child Care Facility (RCCF) through Missouri State's Division of Family Services.

Shelterwood stands apart from other boarding schools for girls and boys because of our deep-seeded commitment to treating the whole child and the whole family. We believe in getting to the heart of issues through relational therapy, while ensuring teens in our care obtain the very best educational and spiritual experience possible. Our state-of-the-art teaching facilities ensure that teens stay on task, while our counseling team and mentor staff work to ensure that teens in our care feel safe, secure, and stimulated.

As it is in forestry, so it goes in the Shelterwood environment. Our programs for troubled youth are here to help protect teens from the difficulty of adolescence, support a new approach to life, help them grow, and transplant them back into their homes stronger and more resistant to trouble. As teens work through these stages of change, it becomes obvious when the teen is ready to return home. Healthy teens will demonstrate empathy for others and take responsibility for themselves. They will interact with friends and family in a new, less self-serving way. Even their facial expressions will lighten as the burden of guilt and shame is lifted. This brighter countenance becomes visible for all to see but it is the result of an internal heart change.

To find out more about what makes Shelterwood and our at-risk youth programs different from other boarding schools, treatment centers, military schools, boot camps, wilderness programs or even Christian boarding schools, we invite you to read more about our programs. We also invite your questions. Just contact us directly for information or begin the application process online.