Holidays At RedCliff

Special Ceremonies For Special Days As a wilderness program for at-risk youth, celebration and ceremony are a big part of life at RedCliff Ascent. Staff members have flexibility in how they make sure that special days are kept special. However, over the more than two decades RedCliff Ascent has been helping troubled youth, RedCliff Ascent…

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Separating To Come Together?

Separating to Come to Together It seems counterintuitive. The thing you want most in the world is to bring your family together. Then why on Earth would you send away your troubled teen to the Utah desert? How could being away from your teen for weeks at a time help anything get better? However, sometimes…

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Technology Addiction

Learning to Live in the Real World Walk into any restaurant, coffee shop, or anywhere that people gather and you will likely see someone bent over a screen. For most people technology can be a distraction. For other people, technology can be an addiction. In particular, for many troubled teens, screen addiction interferes with their…

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How Does RedCliff Ascent Reveal Potential?

By Kaitlyn Jones Because you cannot become acquainted with what you cannot discover, revealing potential is important. Revealing potential opens the door to the possibility of change. At RedCliff Ascent, revealing potential allows troubled teens to find the person inside who they were always meant to be. Sometimes students have never opened that door and…

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How RedCliff Ascent Inspires Families to Put Hope into Action

How RedCliff Ascent Inspires Families to Put Hope into Action “We have to put hope into action,” said Clinical Director Jennifer Hedrick. “Hope is just a thought. So unless we put it into action, we aren’t really going to inspire much of anything.” Many parents of troubled teens who come wilderness attitude come with the…

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Social Media Addiction and Lacrosse

The Lacrosse Field is a Sacred Space You are about to be impressed. It’s been over an hour since I last checked my phone. It’s ringing, buzzing, alerting, filling with LinkedIn requests, Facebook posts, and disappearing Snapchats. Do you feel anxious, yet? What’s even more impressive is that 22 teenage boys are all in the…

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Autism Spectrum Disorder

Autism Spectrum Disorder and Wilderness Therapy [youtube]https://youtu.be/OrcXgWTkoUo[/youtube] The video above includes a testimonial from one of our former students with ASD who expressed how Redcliff Ascent’s wilderness program helped him. RedCliff Ascent, an Outdoor Behavioral Healthcare (OBH) program for teens and young adults, serves many different populations and diagnosis. The following article will highlight Autism…

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Celebrating 20 Years of Wilderness Therapy

by Phillis Cooper In October 1993 Redcliff Ascent was born as a therapeutic wilderness program. From those early beginnings its’ mission has been to help troubled teenagers and their families in a wilderness environment away from all the disruptions of daily life. Hundreds of young adolescents and their families have marked the RedCliff wilderness experience…

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Troubled Teen Sees Kindness In a Candy Bar

Our Shindig celebration happens about once every three months. It’s a chance for students to gather at Outpost with their peers and celebrate their wilderness experience. Here’s a letter we received from one of our current students. We think it shows the respect and concern we have for all of the troubled teens enrolled in our program.…

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Best Wilderness Experience

Mark wrote this response to our request for grads to share their RedCliff wilderness experiences. We thought you might relate: hi, my name is mark and i was in redcliff 8 years ago now, i still dream of my memories of that place, i find it amazing how we take so many simple things for…

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The Story of My Life: Troubled Teens Write Autobiographies

Autobiographies and Parent Narratives:  A vital Part of the Treatment Process An important aspect of the therapeutic process for students at RedCliff Ascent is the compilation of an autobiography.  Students write a 40 page autobiography while in the program as part of completing the phase work.  This exercise affords students the opportunity to reflect on…

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Constantly Improving Wilderness Camp

The leaves are barely beginning to turn colors in Southern Utah but Milton Hatt, warehouse manager for RedCliff Ascent, is already prepared for winter. Part of the preparation means making sure the warehouse is filled with everything students may need to keep warm and dry – especially when it comes to their feet. This year…

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