At Ascend, we hope to enhance transparency for incoming clients and their families by sharing a day in the life of one of our staff members each month. For the March spotlight, we’ve chosen to highlight one of our farm techs. With spring nearly sprung, she seems like the perfect choice to introduce you to some of the outside activities that happen at our Santa Clarita locations. Learn more about what Adina does at Ascend and how her work helps our clients thrive!
What Is A Farm Tech?
Farm techs at Ascend help take care of the animals in our farm-style programs. Whether you visit the boy’s program at Trails, the girl’s program at Canyons, or the neurodivergent program at Haven, animals are an essential part of treatment for these residential facilities.
While our clients do have chores that teach them about caring for these animals every day, we still need a full staff to ensure animal safety and comfort year-round. Adina and our other farm techs tend to horses, pigs, goats, sheep, and chickens at all three facilities. Adina, specifically, runs the chore groups to teach our clients about animal care and facilitates equine groups to acquaint our clients with the horses.
Why Animals?
Animal-assisted therapy is a hugely beneficial clinical technique that can help clients and their therapists address medical difficulties, autism-spectrum symptoms, behavioral problems, and emotional well-being concerns. Studies show that animal-assisted therapy has massive benefits that enhance other interventions, including CBT, DBT, and family therapy. Some common benefits of animal-assisted therapy for the teens under our care include:
- Improved sensory tolerance for clients
- Reduction in impulsive behaviors
- Enhanced socialization and group dynamics
- Provides a break from traditional treatment programs
Animals & Adina
For Adina, working with animals has always been a dream. When the opportunity came up for her to intern under our ecopsychologist, Nicole, she jumped at the chance. After some time as an intern, Ascend decided Adina was a good fit for our team and brought her on as a full staff member. Adina loves learning about and working with horses, especially when she gets to teach our clients about caring for them.
Being able to work with animals is such a privilege for Adina, and she feels so empowered when helping clients learn more about them as well. Adina gets to experience first-hand the growth and awareness clients develop when interacting with the animals at our facilities.
We Love Adina
Adina makes huge contributions to Ascend every day, and we appreciate her for her dedication and passion. One of the most unique things about Adina is that she loves chickens. As one of our many farm animals, they’re often overlooked by clients because they aren’t considered cute and cuddly. However, Adina knows that they represent many ideas from the ecopsychological therapeutic modality that can be applied to the treatment of young people and their families.
One way Adina introduces therapeutic concepts through chicken care is with the idea of being as gentle as possible but as firm as necessary. With chickens, we use this in the literal sense, as you need to handle them with care but hold on tight enough that they don’t fall or flap out of your arms. On a deeper, therapy-oriented level, this process applies to how people conduct themselves throughout life. Clients and parents can use this thought process to learn how to be assertive, maintain boundaries, and apply self-care without alienating friends and family.
Using animal-assisted and ecopsychological therapy in this way shows how Adina can help our clients connect animal care with behavioral modification. With her unique perspective on animal care, Adina shows clients how they can treat themselves and others better.
A Day in Her Life
For Adina, a day at Ascend revolves around animals. Every morning, she runs the barn chore group with the clients. They feed, water, and groom the animals — even scooping poop and cleaning enclosures. The clients also take the animals on walks and help them exercise. Some days, Adina also facilitates the equine group, where she takes clients out individually with a horse to work one-on-one.
When she’s not working directly with the clients, Adina helps with the general upkeep of the animals and the farms.
Keep Up With Us
It’s clear from her work that Adina is passionate about animals and delights in how the ones on our farms can help the clients at Ascend thrive. Like so many others on our team, she’s incredibly invested in the well-being and success of the clients who come through our residential treatment programs.
But Adina’s not the only one at Ascend making a difference! If you’re interested in more behind-the-scenes looks at what happens in treatment, check out a few other spotlights that showcase a day in the life of our therapists, mentors, and more!
