What Is the Goal of Treatment at ThreePeaks?
We provide a safe, structured environment to understand what's driving your teen's struggles, address unhealthy patterns, and help them move toward healthier development.
At ThreePeaks Ascent, we understand the challenges your family is facing when your teen is in crisis. With a dedicated team, rigorous accreditation, and ongoing research, we deliver the highest quality of care.
Our program provides a safe and supportive environment to break the cycle of dysfunction and promote a fresh start. We dive deep into understanding the underlying issues, equipping your teen with valuable insight. Guiding them toward healthy development, we help them rediscover their true potential.
When your teen is struggling, living in a specialized treatment environment where they can receive consistent support from skilled professionals who work to understand their individual needs is paramount to your teen making meaningful, lasting progress. At ThreePeaks Ascent, your teen will be supported by a comprehensive professional team that works together throughout their treatment to ensure that they get the most effective treatment at our residential treatment program.
Who Will Be Part of My Teen’s Clinical Care?
At ThreePeaks Ascent, your teen will be assigned a therapist from our clinical team to oversee their treatment and create a tailored treatment plan that addresses your teen’s specific therapeutic, academic, and residential needs. Their therapist will also facilitate weekly family therapy sessions between you and your teen.
The clinical team at ThreePeaks Ascent consists of highly educated and experienced licensed mental health professionals. Our clinical team includes Licensed Clinical Social Workers (LCSW), Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselors (LCMHC), and Certified Social Workers (CSW), supported by a PhD-level Licensed Clinical Psychologist who provides clinical consultation and psychological assessment integration. This depth of clinical experience gives your teen access to qualified professionals who understand the complexities of adolescent mental health and can provide care tailored to their individual needs
How Is My Teen’s Mental and Physical Health Monitored?
Your teen will have access to psychiatric, medical, nursing, and 24/7 residential support throughout their time at ThreePeaks Ascent. Qualified health professionals on our medical team will monitor their mental and physical health, manage their psychiatric medications, and communicate changes to your teen’s plan across their comprehensive treatment team.
Psychiatric Care & Medication Management
Your teen will be seen by a psychiatrist who is experienced in adolescent mental health and will oversee your son or daughter’s psychiatric care and medication management. This allows for your teen’s medications and psychiatric needs to be evaluated and adjusted according to their progress and needs throughout their treatment.
Medical & Nursing Support
Your teen’s physical health and safety are of the utmost importance to us. They will be supported by a primary care doctor, along with our nursing team, who will monitor their health and respond to medical needs during their time here at ThreePeaks Ascent.
24/7 Residential Support
Your teen will receive 24/7 residential support from Behavioral Health Technicians (BHTs) Because your teen is living in an immersive therapeutic environment, the staff that looks after them every day can reinforce clinical strategies in real time, provide support during challenging moments, and communicate important observations to the clinical team.
How Often Will My Teen Receive Therapy?
Your teen will receive individual, family, and group therapy throughout the week, as well as daily opportunities to put the skills that they are learning into practice.
Individual Therapy
Your teen will have at least one session of individual therapy per week. Your son or daughter will work with their assigned therapist to work through underlying struggles, address individual needs, and make progress toward personal treatment goals.
You and your teen participate in at least one session of virtual family therapy a week, including both parent-only and parent-teen sessions. These sessions help your family understand the treatment process and build skills that can improve your communication with your teen and support their progress at home.
Clinician-Led Group Therapy
Your teen will participates in three to four group therapy sessions weekly, facilitated by therapists, where they can develop emotional regulation, self-awareness, communication, and interpersonal skills while learning alongside peers.
Daily Skills Development
Your teen will have opportunities every day during treatment to participate in daily skills groups led by trained Behavioral Health Technicians, giving them opportunities to practice coping strategies and other skills in real-time situations, not just talk about them in therapy.
Nature Supports the Work. Clinical Care Leads It.
Nature provides the therapeutic setting, while our experienced clinical team delivers the care, setting your teen up for success. Our short-term residential treatment center is located in the beautiful Southern Utah desert.
This natural environment is free of the distractions of everyday life, which will allow your teen to detox from everyday pressures and fully engage in evidence-based therapeutic modalities led by highly qualified mental health professionals.
This environment can help teens:
- Reduce stress and mental overload
- Restore attention and focus
- Practice sitting with difficult emotions
- Give clinicians authentic, real-time insight
How Does the Natural Setting Support Therapy?
For many teens today, technology has become integrated into their everyday routine, causing constant social pressures, digital stimulation, and other distractions and demands. Your teen has the opportunity to step away from the digital noise, slow down, focus on their personal growth, and have an overall more effective treatment journey.
Research has shown that spending time in natural environments can restore attention, emotional well-being, and reduce stress. At ThreePeaks Ascent, teens are able to draw on the benefits of the outdoors by living in an environment that is conducive to mental, emotional, and behavioral wellness.
Nature Supports the Clinical Work
The natural setting helps foster therapeutic success for your son or daughter, but it does not replace professional treatment. They are living in a structured clinical program that is led by qualified mental health professionals.
Nature supports the clinical work done at ThreePeaks Ascent by allowing each student to slow down and engage in their therapeutic process. By combining a distraction-free natural environment with consistent, evidence-based clinical care, ThreePeaks allows teens to step away from the noise of everyday life and focus on meaningful change.
How Do Clinicians Know What My Teen Needs?
We provide your teen with access to a highly skilled team of mental health professionals who are committed to their well-being. Our goal is to gain a deep understanding of the underlying issues causing their struggles, as this knowledge is essential for long-term healing. By immersing our therapists in the teens' experiences in nature, we create an authentic and immersive therapeutic environment.
Unlike traditional office settings, our therapists engage directly with your teen in their natural surroundings, allowing for a more accurate assessment of their dynamics and group interactions. This real-time observation enables our therapists to address and challenge behavioral patterns that may manifest both within and outside the program. Through this personalized approach, we can tailor a treatment plan that is specifically designed to meet your teen's unique needs.
In addition to our therapists, our dedicated Behavioral Health Technicians play a crucial role in your teen's success. Acting as mentors, caregivers, and role models, they provide constant support and guidance during their time away from home. These staff members exemplify the clinical interventions and skills that our therapists aim to cultivate, including effective communication and building healthy relationships. With their extensive training, our residential staff facilitates group discussions and processing, fostering a nurturing and growth-oriented environment for your teen.
Our Evidence-Based Therapeutic Approaches
At ThreePeaks Ascent, evidence-based therapeutic approaches are the foundation of your teen’s clinical care, while nature provides the setting for treatment. Our therapists use a variety of therapeutic modalities, based on each teen's individual needs, treatment goals, and progress made throughout the program.
CBT & DBT Skills
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) are both forms of talk therapy that will help your son or daughter at ThreePeaks Ascent develop practical skills for managing negative thoughts, behaviors, and emotions. CBT will help your teen identify their negative thinking patterns and behaviors, and help them develop a healthier way of responding to challenging situations. DBT will help your teen build emotional regulation, mindfulness, distress tolerance, and interpersonal effectiveness skills.
Narrative Therapy
Narrative therapy is one of the primary therapeutic approaches used to help your teen at ThreePeaks Ascent. By helping them explore their own challenging life experiences as a story, they are able to separate themselves from the problem and realize that they don’t need to be attached to their problems. They realize they have the power to rewrite their story, challenge their negative self-beliefs, and build confidence.
Trauma-Focused Care
If your teen has gone through trauma, care at ThreePeaks Ascent might include trauma-focused approaches like EMDR and Trauma-Focused CBT. These therapeutic modalities can help your child safely work through and process their traumatic and difficult experiences, and help them figure out healthier ways to manage their emotions and trauma-related symptoms that arise.
Experiential Therapy
Your teen will have daily opportunities to work on their therapeutic goals outside of the therapy office, through real-world experiences and hands-on activities. Rather than simply talking about how to build resilience, communication, problem-solving, and emotional regulation skills, each teen at ThreePeaks Ascent gets to practice them in meaningful situations with guidance from their treatment team. Some of the activities that students participate in are hiking, camping, fire building, and other outdoor challenges that encourage independence, teamwork, self-confidence, and healthy risk-taking while giving teens opportunities to recognize their own progress. Experiential therapy is especially beneficial for students who struggle to engage in traditional talk therapy.
Family Systems
In order for your teen to undergo lasting positive change, your family needs to be involved in their treatment process as well. Weekly family therapy sessions through video call will be held for teens and their parents to work through family dynamics and learn healthy communication skills. As a parent, you will also be involved in your teen’s treatment through therapeutic letter writing, biweekly parent support groups, and psychoeducation. You will have access to the parent portal where you will receive updates on your teen’s treatment progress and will receive weekly photo updates of your child.
Knowing Whether Treatment Is Working
At ThreePeaks Ascent, we verify clinical progress throughout each student’s time admitted into the program. Your teen's progress will be evaluated by using standardized clinical assessments, regular reviews by the treatment team, and daily observations. This allows our clinical team and you as a parent to get a clearer understanding of how your child is progressing and whether their treatment needs to be adjusted.
Measuring Progress Over Time
Standardized assessments have been created for all of our students to complete throughout their time at ThreePeaks Ascent that measure areas like overall behavioral functioning, depression, anxiety, and trauma-related symptoms. These assessments provide objective data that can be compared over time, helping clinicians identify meaningful changes in a student’s symptoms and overall functioning.
The following tools are used to measure therapeutic progress:
- Youth Outcome Questionnaire (Y-OQ): A standardized 64-item report for teens to self-assess their treatment progress
- PHQ-9: A 9-question self-report tool used to screen, diagnose, and measure the severity of depression
- GAD-7: A 7-item questionnaire used to screen for and measure anxiety
- PCL-5: A 20-item self-report questionnaire used to monitor and evaluate symptoms of PTSD
What Does Progress Look Like in Daily Life?
Clinical progress is measured by assessment scores, as well as observations done by clinicians and residential staff, reviewing how each teen applies what they are learning in everyday situations. They are observed in how they manage difficult emotions, communicate, use coping skills, and how well they are following their treatment goals.
With the combination of the clinical assessment data and the observation notes done by our multidisciplinary team, the team can identify areas in need of improvement, what is working well for each teen, and adjust treatment as needed.
The goal is to collect progress information that is measurable, meaningful, and that will carry your teen beyond ThreePeaks and into everyday life.
How Does Treatment Help My Teen Get Back on Track?
Short-term residential therapy provides a unique and effective approach to re-engage teens in healthy adolescent development. When your teen is living in a therapeutic setting, they are intentionally removed from negative distractions that hinder their progress. This environment allows them to fully focus on their treatment journey in a way that would not be possible in any other setting.
During their time in therapy, your teen will have the opportunity to participate in individual, group, and family therapy sessions. These sessions play a crucial role in their healing process as they provide a space for your teen to reflect on their behavior, make positive changes in their personal life, and strengthen family relationships. Additionally, engaging with peers who share similar struggles can help your teen realize they are not alone, boosting their motivation for growth and transformation.
At ThreePeaks Ascent, we are dedicated to helping your teen identify and overcome unhealthy coping patterns. Our therapists will guide them towards embracing healthier ways of handling tough situations, equipping them with essential life skills that will not only foster responsible growth but also serve as a solid foundation for their journey into adulthood.
What Happens After The Student Leaves?
Residential therapy creates a transformative opportunity for participants to experience the impact of their actions in a real-life setting. Removed from familiar surroundings, teens gain a profound understanding of the consequences of their choices and the underlying reasons behind their decisions. This immersive environment fosters personal accountability, empowering them to take responsibility for their own well-being and the well-being of others. By engaging in daily therapeutic experiences, they are able to confront and address the root causes of their struggles, paving the way for healing and growth.
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