As we enter graduation season, the team at Paradigm wanted to take the time to congratulate adolescents that, over the past year, put in a vast amount of time, strength courage and, often, adversity, to address mental health concerns that often are underserved and unrecognized in schools and communities.  Our Paradigm team has the honor of working with adolescents and families who have faced challenges around anxiety, depression, trauma and suffering and are deeply proud of the work that they achieve during and after their time with us.  Through our alumni services, we are often humbled by the work that graduates bring to their schools and communities and their grace and ability to share their story, history, successes and bumps in the road to others who often are struggling with similar issues.

We are profoundly touched by a recent graduate who brought his experience to his high school graduation during a touching speech. His willingness to reach out and use his struggles and successes to help others is inspiring and we wanted to highlight his work in the community. He came to residential treatment at Paradigm from The Shawnigan Lake School in Canada to work on depression, anxiety and severe muscle dysmorphia. He was invited to be a keynote speaker at his graduation and is now speaking out and as an advocate for mental health treatment. During his speech, he candidly discusses how the encouragement of his family, friends and school to attend treatment at Paradigm “was the most beneficial gift that anyone could give me at this point in my life”. Please listen to Paradigm Alumni Evan’s speech and wisdom. We are extremely proud of his willingness to share his work and vulnerability and hope that it can validate and help other adolescents and families that are suffering because of mental health concerns and have not been able to reach out for support and treatment.