Thoughtful therapy is not something that can be imparted from books or seminars alone and is much more than a set of skills which are delivered willy-nilly according to the adolescent’s diagnosis. We are not simply in the business of instruction. It takes years to develop a “third ear,” to hear the underlying themes of a person’s life story and to help him or her to learn to pay attention to his or her own thoughts, so that eventually they can do this for themselves.
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While my son was in the Second Nature Wilderness Program I toured residential treatment centers to learn more about them. See my post Choosing an Adolescent Residential Treatment Center for your Teen. One of my favorite programs I visited was Willow Creek School, also operated by Second Nature. I was really impressed with the staff [...]
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We are rounding the last days of “summer vacation” Back-to-School is only days away. Next week my youngest son will begin his freshman year, how exciting for him. This was the year from hell for my older son that is now at a residential boarding school in Provo, Utah. All the memories just flood in, campus [...]
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When your teen is in a residential treatment program or a therapeutic boarding school families receive limited phone time a week. At the treatment program my son is with we receive one 20 minute phone call a week. In the past they have been very friendly, fun and we always look forward to them but tonight was [...]
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I just read the story of child abuse at Rancho Valmora in New Mexico. As a parent with a child in a therapeutic boarding school, I always cringe when I read these stories. Why do I continue to place my son at a school that may be similar? It is my belief that if my [...]
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When I was first told that my son needed “residential treatment” they could have been speaking a foreign language. I had no idea what a residential treatment facility was like or where they were. I had heard of kids going away or leaving home, for different intervention reasons but never paid much attention because I [...]
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