Our Work

Mother Talking With Unhappy Teenage Daughter On Sofa

Growing girls, by addressing their unique, anxiety – based mental health issues that present as eating disorders, self – harm, obsessive – compulsive behaviours, depression, and low self – esteem, requires a specialized approach. One that is science – based, accessible, and provided by qualified therapists who are trained and specialize in the treatment of adolescent girls and young women.

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Our Charitable Objectives

our charitable objectives flow chart
watercolor illustration of girl with sunglasses

Growing financial
access to therapy

In 2020, Statistics Canada reported that 27% of youth aged 15 to 24 had moderate to severe anxiety. Yet, Statistics Canada also reported that 50% of those surveyed who were seeking therapy did not have their needs met because they didn’t know where to go or couldn’t afford to pay for treatment.

Arnica Foundation provides financial support for counselling to families in financial need. The Foundation does not provide direct therapy services. Instead, therapy is delivered through qualified mental health therapists with a unified approach incorporating science – based treatments of Attachment Theory, Emotionally Focused Therapy, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), Interpersonal Neurobiology, and Affective Neuroscience.

Currently, Arnica Foundation is supporting families who receive therapy at Juno House, a specialist treatment centre for adolescent girls and young women. As financial capacity grows, therapy from other qualified therapists will also be subsidized.

Subsidies are provided on a sliding – scale basis, depending on the level of support required by the families.

“Juno was a life saver for our daughter as well as our family. Our daughter experienced unrelenting bullying at her school. It almost destroyed her soul. Here was a beautiful, smart, kind girl who had lost all her self confidence, was doing self harm to herself, and had an eating issue and massive anxiety. We watched before our eyes her fading away on us. Her friends deserted her leaving her extremely lonely.
In our naivety, we believed her issue could be ‘fixed’ in 10 sessions or less. Did we have a lot to learn. How we as parents were inadvertently creating some of her anxiety. We learnt how to help our daughter become the person she is today. As a family it has made us all stronger and tighter.”

 
A PARENT

Unified therapeutic approach

Arnica Foundation partners with therapists who use a unified treatment approach combining effective, science – based therapies.

Attachment – based therapy is based on research that found a strong early attachment to at least one primary caregiver is necessary for children to have a sense of security and the supportive foundation they need to freely interact with their environment, to explore, to learn from new experiences, and to connect with others.

Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) prioritizes emotion and emotional regulation in key relationship interactions. Clients uncover and experience their emotions in the present before they can adaptively change their emotions in future relationships.

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy is an extensively researched, effective psychotherapy method proven to help

people recover from trauma and other distressing life experiences, including PTSD, anxiety, depression, and panic disorders. EMDR is also used when attachment injury has occurred.

Interpersonal Neurobiology weaves research from many different scientific areas, such as cognitive science, neuroscience, mathematics, psychology and physics, into a framework for therapy. At the heart of this therapy is the concept of “brain integration” which is seen as the essential mechanism of health.

Affective Neuroscience combines neuroscience with the psychological study of personality, emotion and mood. It examines how the brain creates emotional responses, or has learned to dismiss them. This provides the understanding to treat anxiety – based issues from a brain science perspective.

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Growing therapists

Arnica Foundation is working to expand the number of specialized therapists to meet the overwhelming demand for girls’ mental health treatment.

Arnica Foundation funds training for therapists to specialize in the treatment of adolescent girls, young women, and their families. This training, by experts in the treatment of adolescent girls and young women, consists of individual and group training, supervision and mentoring, and pulls together training utilizing Attachment Theory, Emotionally Focused Therapy, EMDR, Interpersonal Neurobiology, and Affective Neuroscience. These science – based approaches are key in the specialized treatment of adolescent girls and young women.

Teenage Girl Visits Doctor's Office Suffering With Depression Upset
“This training program is a rare opportunity in our field, where therapists can learn intensively and experientially how to be confident, competent, and effective therapists. More programs should be designed like this with a clear therapeutic model, detailed educational components, as well as ongoing supervision. The field of therapy needs this style of teaching and application more than ever and I am forever grateful to have had the opportunity to learn what I have, the way that I have. I am a better therapist, educator, and professional because of it.”

Andrea Halwas Larsen. BA, MFA, PhD, REACE
Juno House Associate

Softball team huddle before the start of a softball game in color.

Growing community support

Parents, teachers, family physicians, nurses, dieticians and others in the community nurture and help adolescent girls and young women grow into leaders of tomorrow.

Arnica Foundation funds educational initiatives within the broader professional community. Professional development workshops and training seminars help to educate these professionals on proven treatment methods and how they can better work with the primary therapists.

Arnica Foundation also funds initiatives that focus on early parenthood training and emotional coaching for parents.

Arnica Foundation is pleased to sponsor community educational presentations by Juno House through Alberta Health Services ‘Community Educations Service’.

“CES and Juno House have partnered for 10+ years, delivering thoughtful, practical and engaging presentations on teen mental health and wellness to hundreds of families and caregivers.
Always striving to help end the stigma around teen mental health issues, notably in girls, Juno House speakers have consistently delivered current, evidence – based content with relevant, achievable tools and strategies to help navigate raising youth in today’s world. Feedback received noted that registrants were significantly impacted and were left feeling encouraged and more confident to be able to help not only the children they love but also themselves.”

ALBERTA HEALTH SERVICES COMMUNITY EDUCATION SERVICE