The `Eden` Model – Feministic Dialectic Treatment for Girls at Risk in Residential Care
Most therapeutic models in boarding schools and residential treatment centers in Israel are based on personal and interpersonal psychological approaches, yet only few are based on social perspectives, especially on feminist ones. Our team in `Eden`, a non-profit organization that activates a residential treatment center for teenage girls since 2005, have developed a new, innovative, therapeutic model based on the feministic perspective and the DBT. We suggest the condition of `at risk` girls can and should be observed as an outcome of social oppression, and we offer to reframe their self perception in order to help them live a life worth living. The `Eden` model is based on the motivational approach, mindfulness, and a non-judgmental world view that deeply believes in and to every girl, providing practices and skills to cope with stress and emotional regulation. The main dialectical tension of our approach is that the girls do the best they can under their life circumstances, yet they always have to work harder. We help them tell a new narrative, in which they are not guilty of the traumas that defined their lives but they are the only ones that can save themselves. The `Eden` model was developed throughout years of experience with girls coping with CPTSD in our residential treatment center and has proven itself useful in improving emotional, behavioral and interpersonal states. It is especially productive in reducing self harm behaviors. For the last few years we teach our model to others professional teams in Israel.