Families come first at Turning Winds. Two of our treatment goals are increasing the healthy autonomy of our students while promoting better integration into their families and assisting their return to live successfully within their family system after completing the program.
Family connection is one of the 12 character virtues taught in our program: students develop a greater appreciation for the strengths and resources they can draw upon within their own family.
“We treat the family as a collection of systems,” explains clinical director Jared Sartell, LCSW. “There are all these systems bumping into each other. Systems can be the people: mom, dad, the children. Systems can also be traditions whether adhered to consciously or subconsciously. The roles that we may play in our families—all of those are systems.”
The Turning Winds team helps students and parents understand that they are part of a system and in order for that system to operate successfully after treatment, the system needs to be adjusted. Families that change the most about their system tend to have better long-term outcomes.
“We are not too fond of the ‘Hey, fix my kid thing’—just focusing on the ‘identified patient’ is not an approach we accept in our treatment program,” says Sartell. “If we discern that’s where the parents are coming from, we have some pretty long conversations with them before their child is enrolled at Turning Winds or we recommend other possible treatment options. Our model is family systems and that means for parents there’s a pretty good chance you’re gonna get homework from us before your kid even arrives here.”
“Everything about the Turning Winds program is designed to get each member of the system to look at what they can do differently—and not necessarily as a criticism or judgment but small tweaks to the system will affect every other part of the system and can make a huge difference.”
Sending them to Turning Winds is an important step and the parent workshop we offer once a month provides families with important tools to achieve the best possible outcomes for their teens.
On the first day of the two-day workshop, parents meet with renowned parenthood expert Foster Cline, the author of the Love and Logic books and co-founder of the Love and Logic Institute, a worldwide parenting organization.
The second day of the Turning Winds workshop is an interactive, immersive experience where we go through clinical exercises with the parents and their children, improving communication and relationships within families.
Parenting is hard. Parenting teens can be even harder, especially in our current fast-paced society. We want to help you understand your teenager so you can improve your relationship with them.
The best way to find out if our program is the right one for your child is to speak with us in person. Contact us online or call us at (800) 845-1380 and we can start the conversation.
