The Interpreted Rock

Guest Blog                                                                                                       Call 801-921-8488 By Steven DeMille, PhD, LCMHC  Executive Director RedCliff Ascent If you find yourself reading this article, there is a good chance that you are struggling with your son or daughter in some way. Please know you are not alone. Teens and young adults are facing more and more pressure to excel with the knowledge that mistakes are instantly known about through social media. Relationships with parents also suffer as adolescents and young adults struggle with attachment, trauma, anxiety and depression issues. Sometimes a structured and deliberate time away can be helpful.  RedCliff Ascent is a Wilderness Therapy Treatment Program or more accurately an Outdoor Behavioral Healthcare Program. Outdoor Behavioral Healthcare programming can be defined as the “prescriptive use of wilderness experiences by licensed mental health professionals to meet the

By Steven DeMille PhD, LCMHC Executive Director RedCliff Ascent The mental health field is entering a new phase of transparency and accountability. This includes therapeutic schools and programs. There has been a forceful push across the healing professions for increased accountability for the services we provide. In some cases government agencies and insurance companies are requiring mental health professionals to justify their effectiveness in order to receive financial reimbursements. Furthermore, there has been a movement for a “consumer driven intervention” in the mental health field. Many professional and nonprofit organizations are educating consumers on how to question mental health professionals to hold them accountable for their services. Resources are also being given away for consumers to “rate” their therapist or treatment program. A program “report card” has been developed and is available online for consumers to grade treatment facilities on the quality of thei

By Stephen C. Schultz I am always amazed at the emotional energy some people demonstrate through social media. If you spend any time at all on some of the social media platforms, you realize very quickly that everyone is living a much happier life than your own...right? Not really! It may look that way, but you can be assured that every family, individual and member of society has their own demons to slay and burdens to bare.  Every day is not a “Day at the Beach” ...unless you’re a lifeguard or a fisherman, or a sailor, surfer, longshoreman, or work on a Caribbean Island ...OK, lots of people probably spend all of their time at a beach. My point is, that life is full of mundane activities. It’s not all parties and excitement. The majority of people around the world spend most of their time involved in the activities of daily living, family and work. The situation that started me thinking about this topic happened when I made a post to my Google Plus account. I saw a painting while in