Skip to main content

RedCliff Ascent: The Leader in Outdoor Behavioral Healthcare


By Stephen C. Schultz


RedCliff Ascent is an Outdoor Behavioral Healthcare (OBH) program for adolescents who are essentially stuck in the adolescent stages of development. They lack the coping mechanisms, competencies and discipline necessary to manage their lives at an age appropriate level.



In other treatment settings, these students may be labeled by their diagnoses, which often includes ADHD, ODD, Depression, Anxiety, ASD, etc.  The RedCliff treatment protocol recognizes that the student and the illness are two distinctly separate components. A student’s life should not be defined by a diagnosis. Each is specifically addressed independently in the therapeutic process.

We help the student and family understand how a specific cluster of symptoms associated with their diagnosis has impacted the student’s developmental progression.  RedCliff’s therapeutic model disrupts these unhealthy patterns of behavior and reintegrates the student into a more healthy developmental process.

Our treatment model has been evolving for well over two decades. With over 15 years of field research and clinical leadership, Redcliff is considered one of the premier wilderness programs in the United States. 

Why Do I Care?
Unlike any other program, we recognize that regardless of the student’s diagnosis there is an underlying developmental stall. RedCliff’s treatment modality addresses both issues. The model was developed and refined through research informed treatment practices.



RedCliff has two therapeutic goals. They are to disrupt current behavioral patterns, or the developmental stall of the student, and reintegrate the student into the appropriate level of adolescent development for their age. In order for therapy to be most effective, the first goal must be accomplished before the second can be initiated.  



A teen who has stalled out does not struggle with a lack of entertainment in his life. What he lacks is the ability to master the mundane responsibilities that come with school, work, and family relationships. 

At RedCliff, the goal is to help students find meaning in those daily activities, rather than search for an outside “thrill.”  A typical day will include hiking, practicing wilderness survival skills such bow/drill fire making, orienteering, botanical identification, journaling, and low-impact camping. Each of these activities also has an expectation of competence and mastery. This provides the therapists a rich diagnostic environment for therapeutic sessions.

Enrollment at RedCliff ascent is open-ended.  The therapeutic goal is not to force students to comply. Rather, it is to give students an opportunity to gain insight, develop internal motivation and to achieve position of excellence, mastery and competence.

Because the program is achievement based, length of stay will vary from student to student. Our goal is to help students advance to their next developmental level as soon as it is therapeutically wise to do so.

Why Do I Care?
Our unconventional approach is based on the quest for therapeutic excellence, not what is convenient. What is best for the student, not what is happening in the marketplace, is at the heart of every intervention and therapeutic protocol. 



As psychoanalyst Fritz Perls explained, “What is essential is not that the therapist learn something about the patient and then teach it to him, but that the therapist teach the patient how to learn about himself.”

RedCliff offers a consistent, unvarying expectation of each student with a consistent structure to facilitate their development. The program structure does not vary from staff to staff or from therapist to therapist. This provides a seamless transition from assessment to treatment as students confront the challenges of the program.

A consistent behavioral standard provides a way to measure the student’s developmental progress. Although the structure does not change, therapy itself is individualized to meet each student’s needs. Interventions can be custom designed to address a particular student’s specific patterns of resistance.

We have found students in the early stages of RedCliff therapy are still very focused on maintaining a disruptive family dynamic, even though they are geographically separated from the rest of the family. Their maladaptive behaviors will often be amplified as they struggle to maintain a perceived control over what is happening at home. It’s especially critical that parents stand firm during this aspect of treatment.

To help them identify and understand this process, parents have access to information and updates on the parent portal. This online private portal is designed to give parents specific tools for successful parent/child relationships both during the RedCliff experience and at its completion. Through interactions with the therapists, parents learn how to assess their child’s level of commitment to the family relationship, as well as how to judge the effectiveness of the wilderness experience.



In addition, parents are required to complete our exclusive Parent Narratives.  For many students, the Narratives are their first real look at their own histories. It is their opportunity to learn of their parents’ triumphs and failures. The Narratives are also designed to coincide with student autobiographies. Each is shared at a specific point in the student’s individual therapy. These exercises often become the focal point around which parent and child begin to build a sense of unity.

These exclusive Narratives are also a useful tool in measuring the parent’s commitment to their child’s therapy and the program in general. When parents are unwilling to complete their assignments therapists are alerted to potential problems in the family dynamic. That dynamic may be a factor in determining what the next step should be in the student’s transition plan.

Why do I Care?

Parent centered learning as discussed in the parent portal and the Parent Narratives, done jointly with student learning, help parents understand their child’s level of progress and commitment in the therapeutic process. Parents learn how to assess the student’s commitment to the family relationship and how to measure their son or daughters willingness to re-enter the adolescent stages of “healthy” development.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Young Boy and the Rattlesnake

By Stephen C. Schultz (Editors note: This is a story used in a Wilderness Treatment Program for Young Adults . Many come to this program having struggled with substance abuse and interacting with unsavory friends.)   Many years ago there was a young Native American who lived in the very land you are residing in. He decided to seek wisdom by journeying to the top of Indian Peak. As he approached the base of the mountain he came across a rattlesnake that slithered beside him. The snake coiled as if to strike and the young boy moved back quickly in fear of being struck by the snake’s deadly venom. At that instant the snake spoke to the boy saying, “Don’t be afraid of me, I mean you no harm. I come to you to ask a favor. I see that you are about to traverse to the top of Indian Peak and was hoping that you may be willing to place me in your satchel so that I don’t have to make the long journey alone.” The young boy surprised by the snake’s request quickly responded b

Navigating the Highway of Healthy Communication

By Stephen C. Schultz “I was on the road in my car last week. It was a long stretch of highway where it is easy for your speed to creep up. I looked in the review mirror and saw blue and red flashing lights. I watched as the right hand of the officer extended to lift a microphone to his mouth. He was obviously running my plates. I glanced at my driver’s side mirror and observed as his door opened and he stepped around the edge of the door and closed it with a single, fluid motion. In a cautious and calculated manner, with his right hand resting about hip high on his revolver and his left hand carrying some paper, he was at my door in ten easy strides.” Ok…now that you have read that first paragraph, what are you feeling? Did reading that stir any emotions? Could you relate to my experience? How many of you are smiling? You’ve been there…right? You know the feeling. Often there is dread. Sometimes there is fear. Most times there is frustration because you were just goin

Video Games, Anxiety and ADHD - Free Family Resources

 By Stephen C. Schultz Video Games, Anxiety and ADHD - Is there a common theme? Aloft Transitions Home for Young Adults This is simply a complimentary resource guide for parents of teens and young adults who struggle with ADHD, Anxiety and Gaming. ADHD:   • Russell Barkley,  Taking Charge of ADHD • Hallowell & Ratey,  Delivered from Distraction • Harvey Parker,  The ADD Hyperactivity Workbook for Parents, Teachers, & Kids • Bradley & Giedd,  Yes, Your Teen Is Crazy!: Loving Your Kid Without Losing Your  Mind  • Gurian, Michael,  The Minds of Boys Saving Our Sons from Falling Behind in School and  Life, 2005. • Hanna, Mohab,  Making the Connection: A Parents’ Guide to Medication in AD/HD • www.CHADD.org  (Children and Adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder) • www.help4adhd.org • www.aap.org (American Academy of Pediatrics) • www.aacap.org (American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry) Young Adult caring for new baby calf Anxiety: The following websites