After many years of making poor choices, accumulated debt, and failure to move forward toward a productive future,our son became homeless, and was sleeping on a park bench. We felt that our only offer of support at that point was in-patient treatment.
He chose treatment, as he no longer wanted to live his current lifestyle and made a commitment to change. Our son spoke with the folks at Red Mountain and felt it was a good fit, choosing them from a list of treatment facilities. We didn’t think Red Mountain would take him but Stacey, the admissions director, confirmed that they would. Stacey was a huge help in walking us through the program and treatment process and ismost responsible for our family choosing Red Mountain Sedona.
The unique arrangement of students living in independent apartments and requiring them to do all their own shopping, cooking, and cleaning as well as managing their own schedule immediately puts the focus on self-sufficiency and awareness. Their next steps of requiring a job or schooling add skills and experience.
Red Mountain offers a number of special opportunities for students and their families. The Sedona location is beautiful and healing. The meditation, martial arts, yoga, enrichment activities—all resulting in mindfulness—worked well for our son, who hasn’t followed the standard path in life. Martial arts got him moving and aware of his potential in mind and body. Josh’s expertise in martial arts was really important in the initial months of his treatment. The therapy and psychiatric components, intertwined with the mindfulness, created a foundation for change.
The experience we had as parents at Red Mountain was also very positive and healing. This was not our first go round with treatment for our son; however, we found it to be the most beneficial. We found the staff to be very embracing, joyful about their work, and committed to their students. Our most profound connection at Red Mountain was with our son’s therapist, Allen Stewart. He is by far the best therapist we have ever worked with. He is a great listener, kind, and reflective and then tells you honestly what he thinks. We loved his use of the term “Thinking Error” instead of “a bad choice.”
Our son is very fond of the folks at Red Mountain and felt loved while being held accountable there. He has graduated from the program after eight months and is moving in a good direction. Red Mountain helped us to understand that it usually takes longer than expected to make progress in uncovering and changing past behaviors. Over time, Red Mountain discovered what was holding our son back and helped create an awareness of what he needed to do to stay on track. We are incredibly grateful to Red Mountain and recommend them without exception.
-Parents