Mental Resilience can be a massive tool for adolescents in today's society. A resilient person has strong coping skills and can marshal their available resources, ask for help when needed, and find ways to manage the situation they are facing. We have created the "Mental Resilience Group" at White River Academy. This group hyper-focuses on creating a healthy mindset where Resilience can begin to become habitual. We use wrestling as a way to show young men how they can do hard things. Our therapist Skyler Porter says, "Wrestling skills are used to assist clients in being more mindful of their mind and body connections to instill connectedness within themselves. The wrestling component is also used in promoting physical activity and engagement with others to learn how to be teachable and malleable."
"While wrestling is designed to learn how to overcome an opposite force, it is helpful in teaching them to "wrestle" with their struggles and problems to learn to grow as young men into adults."
The sport of wrestling is known for being difficult both physically and mentally. The harsh reality of wrestling is that it is you're very best vs. another's very best. You must work extremely hard to get your body in shape well enough to compete. As well as building your body, you have to shape your mind. Most wrestling matches are 3 two minute periods. This is a high-intensity activity for an elevated amount of time. The difficult aspect of wrestling also teaches young men to stick with something. Success is achieved when hard work and dedication meet. Young men learn that they can do complex things through this effective group. Skyler also says, "While wrestling is designed to learn how to overcome an opposite force, it is helpful in teaching them to "wrestle" with their struggles and problems to learn to grow as young men into adults." We understand that these young men need every available tool to combat life's adversities; that is why we use our mental resilience group to help them learn valuable habits. To learn more visit our website at White River Academy.