Two years ago Scott was a student at RedCliff. Today he’s an apprentice in a construction trades program, honing his carpentry skills, saving up for a car, and planning his future.
        “I hated life and my parents,” Scott says. He wasn’t very fond of RedCliff either during his first weeks in the program.
        He was 16 at the time and had been expelled from a private school. RedCliff was the second therapeutic program his family tried. His parents hired an escort to get him to Utah.
        “My parents told me but I didn’t believe them. I’d been staying up two weeks straight waiting for the escort. The one night I go to sleep they’re there,” he recalls with a laugh.
        Scott says his real progress came when one student in his group refused to hike. While the group waited, Scott used the week to do his phase work.
        That, he says, started the ball rolling. From RedCliff he went to a transitional living program where he lives with other young men who are also recovering substance abusers.
        He’s finishing high school and learning a trade. With pride in his voice he says it’s been 14 months and he’s still sober.
        He trained for and completed a half marathon and says he’s trying to decide between going to college and entering the military.
        “In the long run, it was a great experience,” he says speaking of RedCliff. “I have a great life.”
 

“He saw potential in me, and that gave me a different perspective.” That’s what Nathan says about the field staff the guided him almost a dozen years ago when he was a student at RedCliff.

            Today, at 24, he says he still uses the skills he learned in the Southern Utah wilderness in his career as a successful freelance graphic designer in the northwest.

            “I was 14 years old when I went to RedCliff,” he recalls.  “I was a delinquent. I wasn’t going to school. I was getting in fights and running away.”

            Nate says his first weeks at RedCliff were “tortuous.” “I hated it at first. The whole time I was acting out. I didn’t know why I felt so miserable. I had no respect for authority. I didn’t want to hike. I didn’t want to go anywhere. I was the annoying kid everybody hates.”

            Field staff and his therapist didn’t give up. After more than three weeks Nate busted his first fire. “That gave me the drive to work together with the team,” he says.

            His group did a 3 Peak Week and as his physical condition improved so did his outlook. Anger and defiance gave way to a new spirit of cooperation and his group responded

            “When the kids started not hating me that was also good,” he recalls with a laugh. “You had to work for the team.”

            “To me, it was really about learning self discipline and perseverance, as well as having a respect for the things that you can actually do, that you have control over.”

            He can still bow a fire and for a while he says he ate beans and rice – even at home. Now he uses his RedCliff skills in his business.

            “The technical side of printing and design can be monotonous. But you have a deadline and you have to meet it. You can’t give up.”

            He continues, “The lessons that I learned at RedCliff are if you work hard enough, even though it’s going to be tough, you get through it and it’s totally worth it.” 

Recently the mother of a RedCliff graduate commented, “This is the first thing he’s ever finished in his life!” Amazement was obvious in her words and her face.
          She continued, “I know it’s because he had such a great therapist. And the field staff…!” Her voiced trailed as she shook her head in wonder.
          This family recognized their son’s RedCliff experience was the result of a team of professionals who worked together closely throughout months of therapy.
          Doc Dan describes the communication process as continuous.
“There are designated touch points throughout the week, “ he says, “but depending on the student, the therapist and field staff can be in communication multiple times throughout the day.”
          “Field staff also have the option that if there are unexpected events or information, they can get in touch with the therapist whenever they need to.”
          Communication begins the moment the student is enrolled. The administrative team meets and determines the most effective placement for the student.  Does he or she need a group where all of the members are adopted? Does the student need a group with a 12 Step emphasis? 
          Because RedCliff’s therapeutic core is the same from group to group, the administrative team is able to move a student as clinically recommended taking advantage of group dynamics or even the physical features of wilderness, such as Outpost.
          “That flexibility definitely gives us an advantage of therapeutic interventions other programs don’t have,” he says.
          Before field staff begin their shifts they meet with the therapist and go over each case. The therapist provides written instructions that outline the specific needs for each student and any assignments for the coming week.
          “Those instructions become a therapeutic template for the week’s experience,” Doc Dan explains.
          In the field, the therapist meets with field staff prior to meeting with the student. Field staff provide an update on the week’s events and share critical observations.
          After the student therapy session, the field staff and therapist meet again to make any modifications to the treatment plan.
          Each week clinicians meet as a team to review their caseloads with their peers. They exchange ideas and provide feedback for enhancing therapy.  
          Doc Dan says on-going communication throughout the program requires close coordination. But it definitely works.  Just ask the mother of that student who finished, and finished strong.
 

One of the unique facets of the RedCliff therapeutic experience is the Parent Narratives. Parents use the narratives to tell the story of their child from the child’s very earliest beginnings. While their student is working on his autobiography through phase work in the field, parents are re-constructing the child’s life in writing. It’s an exercise that is unique to RedCliff with specific therapeutic benefits to both parent and child.

            “The narratives are not a lecture, they’re not a letter, they’re not a newsy. They’re a fairly structured story that is told in an elemental fashion so that the child is hearing the story of their life when they are in a place to actually hear it,” Doc Dan explains.

            “It surprises me to find kids that really don’t have that sense of what was happening at the time that their parents decided for them to be born,” he continues. “What was happening during their mother’s pregnancy with them? What was going on in the family? What were the kinds of things that the parents were doing? Usually a child doesn’t know that. They don’t know even the story about for instance how did they come to be named the name that they have, those kinds of things”

            According to Doc Dan, students on Developmental Vacation ™, who insist on maintaining their fantasy world, can’t allow themselves to hear the truth. For the fantasy to continue, they must see their parents only as obstacles in their path to freedom.

            “We find that once we have disrupted that dynamic and the child is actually in a place where they’re not just worrying about what they are going to say to argue, that it’s easier for them to hear the story and it becomes therapeutically very valuable,” Doc Dan explains. 

            Parents complete the narratives on line in RedCliff’s exclusive Parent Portal. Each narrative lists the correlating questions the student is responding to in the field. Then parents are asked to respond to their set of questions.

            Therapists print the narratives and take them to the field where they are read to the students.

            “We want them read in the adult voice because this is actually coming from the child’s parents,” Doc Dan says. “In a way, the parents now have a voice in that therapy session.”

            Just observing the child’s reaction as he hears the narrative often provides the therapist with valuable insight. So, too, does the parent’s willingness or unwillingness to complete the narratives.

            “In those relationships where the parents are separated or in those relationships where there’s been some alienation within the family, what happens with the Parent Narratives is that they recreate that relationship for us in real time while the child is in the field, even though the parent is not there,” Doc Dan explains. “Then we can move it in that direction and allow them to understand, here’s the reality of your life. Where do we go from here?”

            He admits the narratives are a lot of work and most parents are relieved when their assignments are completed. But he also hears parents tell him time and again how much the Parent Narratives have helped them understand their relationship with their child.