Skip to main content

Oxbow Academy - Credible Voices

By Stephen C. Schultz


Oxbow Academy has now been serving families since 2006—wow!

I am writing this specifically for mental health practitioners and allied health professionals. Those in the legal profession may find this interesting as well. Please allow me to share some observations I have made over the years that may be useful as you assist the families you work with.


The majority of students currently enrolled at Oxbow have come to us with some previous treatment experience. We are often contacted when these previous treatment settings fail to meet the clinical needs of the student. I’d like to share a couple of scenarios that may be helpful in understanding these students and how to assist them in working through their sexual issues:

  1. The Student in a General Treatment Program
    The student enters a general treatment program—wilderness or residential treatment center (RTC). They are admitted for more traditional reasons such as anxiety, depression, anger, or substance abuse. It may also be due to trauma of some kind. Any sexual issues are either denied, minimized, or not known about. Often, if sexual issues are known, they are not perceived by families and clinicians as the primary issues.

The student develops a healthy therapeutic alliance with the therapist and program. He feels comfortable and trusts enough to share. He mentions in a group session that he has had some “inappropriate touching” with a sibling, cousin, neighbor, etc. The student trusts enough to risk sharing this very sensitive information; however, it is usually met with negative responses from peers and staff. Peers often feel uncomfortable around the student. The clinical team will struggle with the process surrounding mandatory reporting laws. Questions arise, such as: “We know it needs to be reported, but who do we report to? How do we tell the family? Will the family be drawn into some kind of investigation?”


The therapist generally shares with the student, “We’ll just talk about this in individual therapy from now on.” While the therapist has good intentions, this kind of response, along with the increased attention from staff, reinforces the shame the student feels surrounding these issues. Now, the student realizes it’s not safe to share this information anymore. The student then starts to become emotionally and behaviorally dysregulated, and the program begins looking for another placement.

  1. The Student Who Acts Out
    Here is another common scenario. The student enters a general treatment program under the same circumstances as the example above. However, this student begins very subtle grooming behaviors and eventually acts out sexually with another student. Based on our experience, most treatment programs have some kind of unofficial “three strikes” policy toward this behavior.

We often receive a call from the educational consultant, therapist, and/or program in crisis mode because the student has not responded to increased prompts and supervision. Staff members find themselves in a “cops and robbers” situation, and the student now poses too big a risk to the rest of the population. The program then looks for another placement.

These are not pleasant situations for any of the parties involved—the therapist, the educational consultant, the family, or the treatment program.

Below are some links to articles I have written that can be shared with colleagues or families you are working with. I hope this is helpful.

Oxbow Academy specializes in providing a 60-90 day Pychosexual Evaluation and Functional Assessment. You can learn more at www.oxbowacademy.net

New Help! New Hope! No Secrets!

Labels:
Location: United States

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Rocky Landscape of Teen Sexuality

 By Stephen C. Schultz (Editor's note: This is a very sensitive subject and may be uncomfortable to read. The information in this post is essentially focused on schools and therapeutic programs that have a residential component.) The chairs were all in a half-circle. There must have been over fifty, all filled with students. Banners from various colleges and universities hung from the rafters. The dull roar of multiple conversations, all happening simultaneously, cut through the air and echoed off the walls. I stood in front of the crowd and waited. The conversations and dull roar slowly faded, like a train disappearing into the distance. All eyes were now on me. I asked one question: “Who can tell me what grooming is?” I have spent my career working with families and teens through some very difficult times. I am a partner in a specialty care facility called Oxbow Academy. Oxbow specializes in treating teenage boys from across the globe who are burdened with the socially sensi...
5 comments
Read more

Lessons I learned from a childhood experience with bullying

By Stephen C. Schultz The dew around the window was starting to bead up. In a classic case of chaos theory, the little beads of water gave way to gravity and randomly bounced and bumped their way to the window sill like a steal marble in a pinball game. There was a small pool of water in the cracked and peeling beige paint. I sat facing the window, staring at the small engraved stone nestled in the flower beds. There weren’t many flowers at this time of year. Mostly rhododendrons and Oregon grapes reaching skyward from the damp bark mulch that covered the planter area.   The month of January in Eugene Oregon was filled with days and days of mist and fog.   In fact, pretty much from October through June was filled with fog, rain, mist, showers, freezing rain and occasionally snow. The local weathermen didn’t bother with predictions about the chance of precipitation; they took pride in developing new adjectives to describe the type of precipitation and how much you can...
10 comments
Read more

The Young Boy and the Rattlesnake

By Stephen C. Schultz (Editors note: This is a story used in a Wilderness Treatment Program. Many come to this program having struggled with depression, anxiety and substance use.)   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 by turning down the offer, stating, ...
5 comments
Read more