Mustard Seed Society

Our purpose includes maintaining an
environment free of distractions,
free of excuses, and full of choices.

Mission Statement:

To provide a safe, therapeutic, Christian environment where adolescents, adults, parents and families can find healing from spiritual, emotional and psychological crises.
To develop within each unique individual healthy, life-changing coping skills.
To employ adventure-based and equine assisted psychotherapy techniques in order to provide healthy outlets for unresolved emotional and psychological conflict.

Purpose:

To provide a therapeutic community for at-risk juveniles in order to deter them from entering or returning to the correctional system and to prepare them for productive, independent living.
To provide adventure-based-counseling using a ropes challenge course and equine assisted psychotherapy in order for the juvenile to develop self-esteem, learn to stretch beyond their comfort zone, learn to problem solve, and learn to make good choices for themselves while at the same time making choices that are good for the community.
To provide juveniles with opportunities to develop life skills
To provide academic instruction for the juvenile.
To provide interactive therapy situations for the juvenile and their parents for the purpose of building trust, responsibility, and a sense of commitment to family.
To provide opportunities for emotional, psychological, and spiritual growth.
To provide counseling services for juveniles and family in aftercare.
To provide interactive therapy opportunities for other populations.

Experiential Aspect:

Our program is wrapped around an experiential therapeutic process. This process includes activities on the ropes course that give participants an opportunity to identify their own strengths and weaknesses and to learn how to identify how they might fit and function productively in their community.

Horses add a unique and powerful component to our program. Horses have emotions and a social system much like humans. They are very sensitive to the emotional environment and they communicate clearly what they sense through their behavior. Their feedback is insightful concerning our emotional state and their response to us gives us information about how our choices and behavior interfere with accomplishing our goals. Horses are transparent and honest, which makes them especially powerful communicators. Activities with the horses take place primarily on the ground. These activities include challenges and games with the horses.

As we process the activities we help participants apply what they experience with the horses to their own lives, thus helping them learn how to think in new ways so that they can make life-changing choices that will lead them to a healthy and productive future.