Help for Families Struggling With a Mental Health Crisis

Setting Healthy Boundaries With Your Teen

Setting Healthy Boundaries With Your Teen Boundaries are healthy limits put in place to help your teen stay safe. They establish who your teen is, what they value, and how they want to be treated. This also rings true for parents – what do you value in your relationship with your teen, and how do…

Using the Integrated Care Model in Wilderness Therapy A common question in mental health treatment is, “Where does treatment start?” Should therapists focus first on healing trauma and mental health issues to stop drug use? Should they resolve physical health concerns to alleviate emotional problems or vice versa? In a seamless cycle of coexisting issues,…

Narrative Family Therapy: Change Your Family’s Story

Narrative Family Therapy: Change Your Family’s Story For generations, people have seen the wilderness has been a place of change and transformation. Many of the popular myths from the past involve someone entering the wilderness, overcoming a challenge, and returning a transformed individual. Today the wilderness continues to be a place of healing, with wilderness…

Teen Identity Development

Your identity is how you see yourself. That includes how you see yourself as an individual and within social groups, such as friends or family. Identity continues to evolve throughout your life. Having a positive sense of your own identity helps you to develop healthy relationships and feel a sense of direction and purpose in…

Validation Techniques

When Your Teen Is Upset, Try This Therapeutic Technique: Validation Most parents of teens have had an experience like this: your teen is angry or upset, and you do not know what to do. Simply validating your teen may be the key. When you validate someone, you show that person that they are being seen…

Boot Camps Don’t Work. Here’s Why.

Punishment-based programs such as boot camps and Scared Straight programs are not effective in improving troubled teens behavior. Amy Morin, LCSW, succinctly describes the problem with boot camps. “Kids in military-style boot camps learn to do what they’re told when someone is yelling in their face and threatening to make them do push-ups but when…

Reflective Listening

Reflective Listening If you are a parent having difficulty communicating with your teen, many therapeutic techniques can be useful. One of the simplest and most effective is Reflective Listening. The key points of Reflective Listening are in the name itself. The goal is to sincerely listen and then reflect on what you have heard. At…

Anger Management For Teens

Anger Management For Teens Emotions are a natural part of life, and people of all ages experience them. Many teens experience anger for varying reasons, and a lot of them don’t know how to handle it or properly express it. It’s important to understand how to identify, address, and treat their anger. Teen Anger: What’s…

Managing Emotionally Intense Interactions

Managing Emotionally Intense Interactions Written by: Steven DeMille, Ph.D. LCMHC For many teens, handling the emotions of growing up and dealing with everyday life can be difficult. Emotions are confusing and often conflicts arise from a lack of understanding and awareness of these emotions. RedCliff Ascent seeks to educate students on the proper recognition and…

Military Schools And Boot Camps For Troubled Teens

Military Schools And Boot Camps For Teens When teens don’t know how to address their emotions, it can (and usually does) manifest as aggression and/or anger. This can be a complicated, confusing issue for parents to handle and it might leave you feeling helpless. When you’ve tried everything and can’t seem to get through to…

Ceremonies At RedCliff

RedCliff Ascent believes in ceremony and celebration. From welcomes and goodbyes to celebrations of growth, we work to honor your teens through their process of wilderness therapy. Welcome/Spoon Ceremony When new students arrive at RedCliff Ascent, they are in a vulnerable place. Many students are scared, uncertain, or angry. Within the first two days that…

Wilderness Therapy in the Winter

Does winter impact the effectiveness of treatment in the wilderness? In the wintertime, the ability to maintain a group on expedition becomes more challenging, but it is possible. Specific research conducted by RedCliff Ascent has shown that clients make just as much clinical progress in the winter as compared to other times of the year.…