Philosophy
In working with adolescents it is our belief that the most effective treatment has to involve the family. With this in mind we take a systemic approach to diagnosis and treatment. It is easy to pin all the problems on the adolescent but treatment will not be affective if the family is not treated. At KW Legacy Ranch we take a strengths based approach to treating the adolescents and hope to empower them to function better within their family system. Families are the backbone of our society and come in all different shapes and sizes. There are no families that are exactly alike, and similar to our individual personalities, we feel that each family holds their own individual collective personality. It is our goal to work with the individual collective family personality and to individualize a treatment pattern for each family that comes to us as well as the adolescent plan. It is our belief that adolescents sometimes need a change of context in a neutral setting to break faulty patterns of interaction and to help boost them into better ways of interacting in their relationships. We feel that problems appear in families in a variety of ways and sometimes in one individual. Instead of just treating the individual we feel it necessary to treat the whole family as a family system. We provide a setting where change can start to occur and then follow the adolescent as they go back to their home environment and try to continue to reinforce the changes within their homes and to keep them from sliding back to the faulty habits of interacting at home.
Some adolescents benefit from doing outpatient therapy at home; others may need more of a boost to break their patterns. The adolescents that need this boost are the ones we want to work with. If these adolescents will resist therapy in the program we can use interventions on the ranch in order to get the resistant adolescents involved in the therapy through experiential approaches. When adolescents start to act out and put their lives in danger at home we can work with that family and individual in a way to bring them back together and to work through their acting out behavior.
All of the methods used in this program are ethical and humane and go along with state standards and regulations. This program’s methods also fulfill the code of ethics guidelines set forth for therapeutic counseling.
It will be the adolescent and their family’s responsibility to follow all guidelines set forth by the program. It is the adolescent’s responsibility to apply what is learned throughout therapy
Some adolescents benefit from doing outpatient therapy at home; others may need more of a boost to break their patterns. The adolescents that need this boost are the ones we want to work with. If these adolescents will resist therapy in the program we can use interventions on the ranch in order to get the resistant adolescents involved in the therapy through experiential approaches. When adolescents start to act out and put their lives in danger at home we can work with that family and individual in a way to bring them back together and to work through their acting out behavior.
All of the methods used in this program are ethical and humane and go along with state standards and regulations. This program’s methods also fulfill the code of ethics guidelines set forth for therapeutic counseling.
It will be the adolescent and their family’s responsibility to follow all guidelines set forth by the program. It is the adolescent’s responsibility to apply what is learned throughout therapy
Program Description
KW Legacy Ranch is a Family Focused Adolescent program. The program uses a working cattle ranch as a therapeutic family therapy approach. This approach to therapy involves a behavior activation process that gets the families and adolescents moving and accomplishing tasks together. There are several key parts to this approach that gives it therapeutic value. First it provides the adolescents an opportunity to work together for a common goal and helps them become cohesive for that common goal. Second it provides a challenging activity that will dispute their existing maladaptive patterns of interaction. This will provide the proper assessment for the helping professional to see genuine interaction patterns instead of social interaction which is usually seen within traditional adolescent programs. When the family comes out for therapy parenting styles will be exposed and relational boundaries will come out in the work environment interaction. Third this approach provides a successful physical experience for the adolescent to build on once they have completed a task successfully. There is great value in accomplishment and the work that it takes to gain that accomplishment. Fourth is the value that interaction with animals provides to therapy. When we place an adolescent on horseback there are so many variables that will provide more therapy. An added relationship is brought into the original dynamics. Horses and cattle can provide good insight into similar human behaviors such as nurturing behaviors, peer/group behavior, and how pressure is involved in our behavior.
The facilities are built to provide treatment for up to 16 adolescents at a time. The facilities include a main office, a main bunk house, a vocational shop, and a tack shed. The facility grounds are a basic rustic cattle ranch. Included on the grounds is a sports recreational area for sporting activities. The grounds also include areas for animals which are used for housing the ranch animals. The students will also have an opportunity to use horse trails throughout the region.
The facilities are built to provide treatment for up to 16 adolescents at a time. The facilities include a main office, a main bunk house, a vocational shop, and a tack shed. The facility grounds are a basic rustic cattle ranch. Included on the grounds is a sports recreational area for sporting activities. The grounds also include areas for animals which are used for housing the ranch animals. The students will also have an opportunity to use horse trails throughout the region.
Clinical/ Program Phase System
Level systems originated with Behaviorism. They provide an organizational framework to bring about change and shape behavior through reinforcement, punishment, and contingency contracts. Although level systems are used in most residential treatment centers, our approach is somewhat different. In our program, not all movement through levels pertains to behaviors. At KW Legacy Ranch we apply the Stages of Change model created by Procaska and Declimente. The therapy that has been internalized and the stage of change in treatment (pre-contemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, and maintenance) holds the highest weight for movement in the program. Completion of the therapeutic curriculum and doing all that is asked is secondary to where the client is in their stage of change and with their own personal change and internalization of the therapy. This provides a more accurate accounting of where the student is in their treatment and their readiness to move to the next step in their treatment process.
Concerning Rewards and Consequences
Each adolescent will be expected to participate in the daily activities with clear appropriate consequences set for rules that are broken. Rewards are often over emphasized and over utilized in a bribing fashion to children. When rewards are not natural and are not given with great discretion we will not be successful in helping behavior change. The best rewards we can give to affect change will be internal and intangible. These rewards come from feeling good about accomplishing something and not by giving someone a treat for doing a good job. It is KW Legacy Ranch’s philosophy that bribing is not to happen.
When we give rewards it should mostly be through a compliment in a sincere way for a job well done. We do not want to use a privilege level system to get them to do what we want. We want to provide our students with intrinsic personal rewards that will come through accomplishment and hard work. The therapist and the staff will work together and will have the freedom to initiate anything individually on desecration of what will help the client the most and what behaviors need to be reduced. The therapist will be asked to fill out a stage of change progress plan for each client after the treatment plan is completed. This will help the therapist and staff work together to get the adolescent to that next phase in the program. The therapist will also monitor the stage of change standards of each adolescent on a monthly basis. The staff will also be informed and up to date on each individual adolescent’s needs pertaining to the phase system.
When we give rewards it should mostly be through a compliment in a sincere way for a job well done. We do not want to use a privilege level system to get them to do what we want. We want to provide our students with intrinsic personal rewards that will come through accomplishment and hard work. The therapist and the staff will work together and will have the freedom to initiate anything individually on desecration of what will help the client the most and what behaviors need to be reduced. The therapist will be asked to fill out a stage of change progress plan for each client after the treatment plan is completed. This will help the therapist and staff work together to get the adolescent to that next phase in the program. The therapist will also monitor the stage of change standards of each adolescent on a monthly basis. The staff will also be informed and up to date on each individual adolescent’s needs pertaining to the phase system.
Phase Therapeutic Curriculum
Upon entering treatment each adolescent will be administered the SASSI to determine the need for specialized substance abuse treatment. If it is determined that the adolescent needs the intensive substance abuse treatment they will be given the substance abuse specific therapeutic curriculum. If they are not in need for specific substance abuse treatment they will be given the standard therapeutic curriculum. The therapeutic curriculum for each phase is an important therapy tool for the program. Each adolescent will be required to complete the assignments that are included in each phase. The assignments can be useful to complement the adolescent’s self-reflection and self-esteem, and for those that need it promote sobriety. In the substance abuse track the assignments also will add to the client’s knowledge of substance abuse and should go along with any treatment plan. The therapist will have the option to individualize each of the clients therapeutic curriculum throughout their program to best fit the client’s needs and limitations. Continue reading . . .
