Laurel's Story

I will do anything for my son. If I ever doubted that before, I know it now. Two and a
half years ago, when he was 16, we had done everything we thought we could do to
help our son. He was isolated, kicked out of school, depressed, self-destructive,
unreachable. We had tried everything we could at home (years of therapy, family
therapy, medication, new schools, new rules, new programs). When he lost all interest
in life, we knew that we had reached the limit of what we could do at home.
Sending a child away for treatment is not something that any parent wants to do. It is a
gut-wrenching, agonizing decision. It is also the best decision we ever made.
Contrary to what you hear in the popular media, our experience with a wilderness
program and two specialized residential treatment centers was this: highly experienced,
compassionate, and gentle therapists and staff; a deep investment in understanding my
son, both his strengths and his needs; patience, acceptance, care, and hope.
I do not know the programs that seem to be described – truthfully or not – in the attacks
on residential treatment; most seem to be stories from 20 or 30 years ago, if they are, in
fact, coming from direct experience. What we have experienced over the last two years
is nothing like that. Our son was safe, working with highly trained therapists, and given
the help that we could not provide. This is also the experience of our wide network of
parents who have had to take a similar path.
Our son is now emotionally resilient, connected, and looking towards the future. I would
do this over again in a heartbeat.