Dr. Wendy Turnbow,
Therapist
“I’ve actually worked with kids since I was a kid!” says Wendy Turnbow with a laugh. She started her career at age 14 when she was hired as a summer camp counselor at the Jewish Community Center.
Wendy was born and raised in Salt Lake City. She got her Bachelor’s degree in psychology and a Master’s degree in school psychology from the University of Utah. She earned her Doctorate in counseling psychology from Brigham Young University.
With more than 20 years experience in the counseling profession, Wendy says working with teens is extremely rewarding.
She especially likes the ranch’s experiential emphasis. “I did my dissertation for my Ph.D. in experiential therapy,” Wendy says. “The best way to describe experiential is having learning experiences. With the calves and the horses, they’re all teaching moments.”
Wendy says an experiential approach is much more effective than just sitting in an office. “These kids are master B.S.’ers,” she says. “They can sit there. They can say it. They’ve heard it all. They know if all. But if you put them in an experience that they’ve never tried before, or that is challenging, the walls come down and you get to the heart of the matter. Up there on the ropes course, 30 feet in the air, it’s hard to B.S.”
That leads to one of her favorite ranch philosophies. “The strength is in the struggle,” she says it with conviction.
While she’s worked in several different environments over the course of her career, Wendy believes Discovery Ranch has the strongest experiential offerings. “Any where out there you have maybe a little of this and a little of that. Here you get the whole package.”
“I love to be active,” she says. When she’s not working, Wendy enjoys gardening, camping and scrapbooking. She also plays Wii, sings karaoke, and loves to dance.
But nothing beats the thrill of seeing her students be successful.
“They come in and they’re so lacking in confidence and they put on this tough act but really aren’t,” she says. “But when they leave here, they’ve got some confidence and they stand with their head up and their shoulders back. And I especially like it when I get phone calls after they’ve left that say how good they’re doing. Or I get a letter that says they’ve graduated from high school or something. That’s why I do it.”
Bob Trevenen,
Recreational Therapist
“I have the best job on the ranch!” Bob Trevenen exclaims. “They pay me to go out and play” he jokes.
A graduate of the University of Utah in recreational therapy, Bob says he has enjoyed the outdoors his whole life. He was born and raised in Craig, Colorado and says fishing, hiking, camping, and climbing are his other loves – next to his wife and six children. Now a grandfather of six, he’s expanded his educational talents along with his outdoor skills.
While completing his degree in recreational therapy, a counselor suggested he explore a Master’s degree in social work. He earned the Master’s diploma, added a drug and alcohol certification, and is currently studying for his LCSW.
All the while he’s taking Discovery students canoeing, cross country skiing, or tandem bicycling – just to name a few of his outings.
“We can use some of these activities for therapy,” Bob explains. “Some of our students have severe addiction problems. Some struggle with relationship problems or self harm. We show them that they can get high with recreation. I am passionate about it!”
He says each activity is an opportunity for teaching more than just outdoor skills. Students also learn about the importance of safety, structure, self esteem and communication. They learn how to build appropriate relationships with staff, therapists and their peers.
“Our activities are such that we can process before, during and after the activity,” Bob explains. He says the recreation activities provide real life analogies on how to use DBT and other therapeutic skills when they complete treatment.
Although he’s spent his professional career in other therapeutic environments, he’s never seen anything like the Ranch.
“Discovery Ranch has put together a cutting edge program that’s light years ahead of some other programs.” He adds gleefully, “And I’m part of it!”
Welcome to the quarterly newsletter for Discovery Ranch. We’re pleased to offer news and information to enhance your family’s DR experience. In the coming months you’ll see updates on programs, information about our staff, relationship helps and parenting tips from respected authors and speakers. We also welcome your contributions. Please give us your feedback at editor@discoveryranch.net
by Clinton Dorny, Executive Director
At Discovey Ranch we’re always saying we have an experiential and relationship based program. Saying it is easy. Quite frankly, lots of programs say that. But being a true experiential and relationship based program requires more than lip service. It’s a mentality. Everyone from our administrative team to our front line staff must have that mind set. Without it, we’d just be filling time.
We created our program based on therapeutic principles developed in wilderness therapy, specifically, 16 years of wilderness experience from our sister company, RedCliff Ascent. We combined that foundation of therapeutic excellence with more than 30 years of clinical, residential, and equine experience to create a truly unique program.
We began with the premise that if were utilizing the same fundamentals as effective wilderness therapy, we should get similar results. What we learned is that our students change faster, with a much longer lasting effect than other residential programs.
Our average length of stay is about 10 months, with many students moving on to boarding schools, home type settings and some therapeutic boarding schools. With the economy being in such turmoil, we offer a much more time effective and cost effective experience.
Learning through the five senses, creating experiences with a purpose, and learning by doing, not just reading about it, are the most effective forms of learning. Some of our students’ most powerful experiential learning comes through working with their calves. Our top notch equine program takes students from ground therapy to western riding.
Ranch students also participate in a variety of community service projects. One of their favorites is the “VIP League.” Our students are paired with children with physical or mental disabilities. Ranch students coach these children one-on-one in soccer or T-ball. We hope you’ll visit the video section of our website for highlights of their season.
Helping students gain an understanding of their experiences and how they apply to their lives in the moment is the key to retention. This is where having a trained, committed front-line staff is so critical. In their day to day interactions, we help our students understand the patterns that show up in all areas of their lives.
We receive emails and letters from alumni who share with us their experiences once they leave us. They often say they’ve had struggles at home but they remembered what they learned at the ranch. Once they began to re-apply those principles, they became successful again.
That is the difference between saying we are an experiential, relationship based program and being one. Seeing our students succeed at home is what makes the extra work worth it.
The batter steps confidently to the plate, takes his stance and waits for the pitch. The camera moves in for a tight shot and the crowd waits expectantly. This isn’t the big league. It’s the best league. This is Buddy Baseball.
Every year Discovery Ranch students team up with children with disabilities to play ball. Most of the players have physical or mental disabilities that would otherwise make them unable to participate.
Each child is paired with a student from the ranch who helps the child hit, run and field. It’s the beginning of a friendship that often extends far beyond baseball season.
“Discovery Ranch is really a blessing to these kids because we don’t have enough volunteers in the community to help with the kids,” one grandmother remarked.
Her grandson is mentally challenged but that doesn’t keep him on the bench. His ranch buddy cheers him on as he swings and then runs for first base.
She says her grandson still exchanges Christmas cards and small gifts with his first buddy, a Discovery student who graduated but hasn’t forgot her special friend.
Partnering with Mapleton City Recreation, the students mentor these children in baseball and soccer.
“These kids aren’t the easiest to communicate with,” admits one Discovery student. He says mentoring special needs children helps him practice the communication skills he’s learning at the ranch.
Other students say they working with children who struggle just to stand helps them forget about their own problems and focus on others.
Watch highlights from this season’s Buddy Baseball league on the Discovery Ranch website under Videos.
When parents tearfully leave a child at Discovery Ranch, Terri Miller knows exactly how they feel. Four years ago she had to make the difficult decision to place her son in a Therapeutic Program. He was 15.
“I just want to tell new parents that I have been in their shoes. I know what they are going through,” she says. “I know their fears. It was one of the most difficult things I’ve ever had to do.”
Reflecting on her own experience, Terri explains, “We were at a crossroads. We had tried everything including threatening, grounding, and out patient therapy but to no avail. I knew he needed a more structured setting and longer term.”
“You feel like you are the only one going through this turmoil,” she continues, “that no one else has experienced what your family has been through. But that’s not the case. I learned that there are many parents out there in similar circumstances.”
Terri’s situation was complicated because she was working at a RTC. “With 12 years of experience, I felt I should have the answers,” she says. “Here I was putting in 8 hours a day trying to make a difference in someone else’s child when I could not control my own.”
That was more than four years ago. Today her son is drug free and hoping to become a police officer.
“In the end Trevor’s placement was a blessing. We recognize not only did Trevor need to make changes, but every member of the family needed to as well.”
Terri says she understands the pain and worry in parents’ faces. “It takes a lot of trust on your part. But, you have to trust that you are leaving your child in good hands. It will be difficult, but we love these kids and only want the best for each and every one of them.”
“The strength is in the struggle.” Discovery Ranch staff, therapists, and students often remind themselves, and each other, that success lies in learning to overcome.
Terri Miller, our Girls’ Program Director, recently received the following email. It is touching reminder that the struggles students experience at the ranch give them new strength for challenges at home.
Dear Terri,
It's been over a year since I was at DR. I am two and a half years sober, and ten months safe from cutting. I'm going to college and I should be getting my drivers license within the next month.
Not long ago I went through a horrible breakup that left me always crying, never sleeping, never eating - I was more of a zombie than anything else. But I survived it. And in doing so, surprised myself.
Not once did I pick up a razor, or a bottle or a drug. I let myself feel, but not dwell and work through it at my own speed as long I did work on it. I'm a stronger person today than I have ever been in my entire life. I'm finally free.
Everything you and the staff told me and helped me to find sunk in completely. It took me a year of searching for myself to realize I already knew who I was, and who I wanted to be and how to get there.
Looking back on everything, I know I could not have become who I am or see realistically who I want to be, without the help and support from everyone at Discovery Ranch. Everyone there saved my life.
Thank you, for everything.
Amy
Discovery Ranch | 1308 S 1600 W | Mapleton, UT 84664
801-489-3311 (Phone) | 801-489-3355 (Fax)
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