Parents who send their kids to Turning Winds usually have been through a lot. Linda and Frank Dawson are no exception. Their son Charlie started misusing drugs and alcohol in middle school and he became aggressively defiant—especially with his dad.
“We felt it had gotten beyond our ability to deal with it,” remembers Frank. In March 2023, “it came to a head” when Charlie stole his aunt’s car for a joy ride and had to be stopped by the police. After a few phone calls with admissions director Eric Loesch, Charlie was escorted to Turning Winds. He stayed for thirteen months.
FAMILY PARTICIPATION IS CRUCIAL
The Turning Winds program is modeled after a healthy family environment with strong role models and structure paired with an academic focus and clinical individual and group sessions. Family engagement can play a vital role in the recovery of teens with substance use issues and their entire family system.
Once at Turning Winds, Charlie quickly improved. “We’re glad we didn’t wait any longer,” says Frank. “We found a program he didn’t just go to live but a program for him to get better.” The parent weekend at Turning Winds made the Dawsons realize they were “not alone in this.”
THE PARENT WEEKEND
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 Love and Logic Institute is dedicated to making parenting and teaching fun and rewarding, instead of stressful and chaotic. Dr. Cline introduces practical tools and techniques that help adults achieve respectful, healthy relationships with their children. All of their work is based on psychologically sound parenting and teaching, and a whole-child philosophy.
“In this incredibly complex, fast-changing age, responsible kids are the only ones who will be able to handle the real world that awaits them,” wrote Dr. Cline and co-author Jim Fay in Parenting with Love and Logic. “Life-and-death decisions confront teenagers—and even younger children—at every turn. Many of the temptations of adult life—drugs, internet pornography, premarital sex, alcohol—are thrown at kids every day… How will our children handle such intense pressures?” Cline understands that parents are trying their best and that parenting is not always an easy job.
The second day of the Turning Winds workshop is an “interactive, immersive experience where we go through clinical exercises with the parents and their child, improving communication and relationships within families,” explains chief operations officer Carl Baisden. The Dawsons were impressed with their son. “Charlie made eye contact and seemed confident,” Frank remembers. “He kept raising his hand and even took kind of a leadership role.” It was the change his parents had been waiting for.
CONNECTING ONLINE
Linda is also full of praise for the parent group on Facebook, organized by family members of Turning Winds alumni. “Parents took the initiative to form this group,” says program director Enoch Stump. “Now we have parents from ten years, eight years, and five years ago and they come together once a week to talk and I or sometimes a colleague show up once a month to check in and answer any questions they may have.”
Linda is a member of the group and values the opportunity to connect with other parents who share her experience. Linda and Frank are glad they got the help Charlie needed when their relationship with him could still be salvaged. “Don’t wait” is their advice for other parents in similar situations. “Turning Winds probably saved Charlie.”
Turning Winds is a family-run residential treatment center accredited by The Joint Commission, combined with a fully accredited academic program specializing in working with youth who are struggling with mental health or substance use issues. Over the past twenty years, Turning Winds has matured into a sophisticated program that blends the benefits of a wilderness program, a residential treatment center, and a therapeutic boarding school.
Our mission is to rescue teens from crises, renew their belief in their potential, reunite them with their families, and put them on a sustainable path to success. Contact us online for more information, or call us at 800-845-1380. If your call isn’t answered personally, one of us will get back to you as soon as possible.
Please note that to protect the privacy of our clients the names have been changed.
