In 1953, Reverend James Crowe had a vision for a place where “wayward” young people could find a “reorientation of self.” His vision was a working ranch where young men (we expanded to include girls in the ’70s) would get the guidance and support they needed to find a path to a promising future. That’s when Idaho Youth Ranch was born.

Psychological or emotional trauma is defined as “damage to the mind that occurs as a result of a distressing event. Trauma is often the result of an overwhelming amount of stress that exceeds one's ability to cope, or integrate the emotions involved with that experience.”

In 1985, Dr. Vincent Felitti was the Chief of Preventative Medicine at Kaiser Permanente. He was doing a study on long-term health outcomes when he noticed that people who had traumatic pasts tended to have more dire health outcomes such as heart disease and diabetes. So strong was the trend, he turned the focus of his research to understanding more about how adversity in childhood related to health outcomes in adults.

One of the many approaches we take at Idaho Youth Ranch is a form of therapy called Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT).

It’s easy for adults to believe that because children are small, their emotions are also small or somehow less real. This could not be further from the truth.

Some kinds of stress are good for the body, and some types aren't. Here's everything you need to know about "toxic stress" and the role it plays in childhood PTSD.