Therapeutic After School Program
Our therapeutic after school program, known as Club Aspen, is designed for youth ages 12-17 who are struggling with areas such as:
Trauma
Anxiety
Depression
Anger management
Self-harm
Social and communication skills
Life skills
Taking care of themselves
Personal safety
Defiance
Motivation
Club Aspen runs in the afternoons Monday, Wednesday, and Thursdays. During school breaks, extended hours may be available and often includes days for elementary schoolers. Youth attend for 1 to 3 days per week, depending on their unique needs and goals.
3:30pm - Drop off
5:45pm - Pickup
Club Aspen is completely free for Medicaid clients. For others, affordable private pay rates and scholarships are available.
To get started, schedule a tour today with our care team.
At Club Aspen, teens make friends and develop real-world coping and life skills through fun, engaging experiences such as:
Board games
Team-building games
Sports
Art
Music
Psychodrama
Video games
Cooking
Club Aspen pulls from modalities such as DBT, CBT, Trauma Systems Therapy, and more to support your teen and their unique needs. Here, all are welcome and there is something for everyone!
FAQs
How do I know if my youth is right for group?
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Youth enjoy and benefit from our group when they are working on healthy relationships, identifying and communicating emotions, building effective coping strategies, and navigating the complex challenges of growing up in today’s world. The most common diagnoses we see include anxiety, depression, and trauma-related conditions. While our providers do not specialize in autism, some of our youth do have Level 1 ASD and have found support in the program.
Youth may not be ready for this type of group if they have a very high level of social anxiety, would struggle to keep themselves or others safe during group, need a lot of 1:1 support, or have skills to build first before being group-ready. Our team will work with you to help determine if Club Aspen may be a good fit for your family now or later.
How do I get started?
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Getting started is simple. Reach out through our contact form or give us a call. Our intake team will have a brief phone conversation with you to review our program and if we might be a good fit for your family. We will then see you and your child for a virtual intake and develop a treatment plan together.
We want all group participants to be successful and have the right skills to be group-ready. Our team will work together with you and your child to decide how to help your child build the scaffolding to walk into group confidently. We tailor this specifically to meet each child’s needs.
Before starting group, we will complete a tour with you and your youth to become familiar with the space, answer any final questions, and be ready for the first day. We can’t wait to see you!
I work during the day but this sounds like a great program for my youth. How can I get them there?
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Transportation is available! Please let us know and we can send you a sheet of NEMT (non-emergent medical transportation) providers. AlphaMed (alphameddispatch@gmail.com, 719-749-3385) is the most commonly used company at our office. This is covered by Medicaid/CHP+ and available at a fee for commercial insurance. Please note that TPC staff cannot install car seats or buckle children in.
What should we bring each day?
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Please bring a water bottle, sunscreen, snacks, and close-toed shoes. Youth may leave a modest supply of snacks at the office if they choose. Note that staff and peers are not permitted to apply sunscreen on youth. Long pants are required on equine days - yes, it might be hot! Clothes may get dirty and should be appropriate for physical activity. Please label any items.
We understand that electronic devices are an important part of youth’s lives. Therefore, we permit them to be used during recreational/free time and support youth in healthy use of their devices. However, staff are not able to closely monitor these devices and we encourage families to establish guardrails that make sense for their child and their household. Youth may be asked to leave devices at home if this privilege is misused.
Staff are not permitted to administer medications. If your youth needs to have rescue medication such as an EpiPen or an inhaler on them, please let our staff know.
Youth who bring any substances, weapons, or paraphernalia may be asked to leave the program.
Yes! Youth that attend Club Aspen can have participate in any of our other therapy programs, depending on their unique needs. We also celebrate youth who have great relationships with therapists in the community that they would like to continue working with while they participate in group. We welcome any care coordination with signed releases of information.
We love to hear your child is benefitting from group and enjoys coming! Many youth develop positive relationships with other participants and staff and grow to look forward to attending, even if they were nervous at first.
Each youth has a uniquely tailored treatment plan, which may change in frequency as their needs change. Youth are scheduled for the same day(s) each week, and we ask families to please cancel or reschedule with notice so we can plan accordingly. Most of our group participants are engaged for 2-3 semesters, although this varies for each person. This is a medical service, so unfortunately we can’t keep them forever and it is bittersweet when a youth graduates! Our team will work with you and your child to help make this process smooth, expected, and positive.
Caregiver involvement is essential to client success. We hope parents and loved ones are able to participate in their child or teen’s healing journey. A member of your child’s team will meet with you and your child about every 3 months to review progress and goals together. These individual or family sessions are often covered by insurance or our billing department can work with you to determine an affordable private pay or sliding scale rate.
More frequent sessions may be scheduled as needed, based on your child’s unique treatment goals and symptoms. When we all work together, we can help your child thrive.
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We love working with our IOP (intensive outpatient program) and PHP (partial hospitalization program) partners and are able to refer to these programs when desired and appropriate. Club Aspen, however, is not an IOP or PHP.
Club Aspen is a social-emotional group for adolescents. This is a lower level of care. It is designed to support youth who are desiring long-term support in developing healthy friendships, tolerating distress, managing anger, finding healthy coping strategies, and developing life skills for adolescence and beyond - but do not need the more intensive services of an IOP or PHP at this time. Youth are able to maintain safety during the group experience.