Therapeutic Milieu

Cedar Ridge Therapeutic School is a therapeutic boarding school, and our students participate in individual…

To create this milieu, clinical, academic, and home management staff meet formally once a week to discuss student and program needs as a comprehensive treatment team, we also interact on a daily basis, discussing students as a needed and supporting each other in what we do best – changing the lives of our students and their families.

Individual & Family Therapy
As a main part of the therapeutic milieu of our boarding school, each student participates in individual and family therapy with a state licensed Master or PhD level therapist.

After an initial assessment by our clinical director, Shane Whiting PhD, each student and family is assigned to an appropriate Therapist on our clinical staff.  Therapy sessions for a students are one hour each week, with weeks alternating between individual work and a family session via phone.

Family Workshops
Cedar Ridge Therapeutic School hosts Family Workshops four times each year, when parents join their students for two days of presentations, forums, experiential, and teacher conferences.  Families participate in at least one session in person with their therapist during the workshops.

Group Therapy
In addition to the individual and family therapy sessions, students also participate in seven hours of group therapy each week.  Group therapy includes specialized small groups to target specific issues (ie. chemical dependency, relationships, adoption, grief and loss, dialectical behavioral therapy), a mini-workshop “Big Group” that involves the entire coed campus family meetings that involve the students who shape a family-style dorm and their home’s assigned staff.

Drug and Alcohol Use Treatment
Cedar Ridge’s Approach to drug and alcohol issues is also individualized for each student.  However, students are mentored in undertaking specific tasks to address drug and alcohol related problems.  The primary task involves using the Fears Chart to assist our struggling teens in identifying and working through unresolved issues such as traumas, grief, repression, etc.  This approach is consistent with recent research that show this style to be more successful with teens in a therapeutic stetting that traditional AA or NA models.