Why Paradigm?

Our team is not only highly trained and experienced but also deeply knowledgeable about working with adolescents and young adults. We specifically recruit counselors, psychologists, and other mental health professionals who are passionate about supporting young people and possess specialized training, certifications, and/or licenses.

We take an aggressive stance towards staffing to ensure we always have adequete staff to provide the intesive care we thrive for.

You can learn more about the staff who will be working with your child here.

While the most important factor to consider when choosing a program is who will be providing treatment, the second most important consideration must be with whom you, or your loved one, will be in treatment.

A parent’s worst fear is sending their child to treatment only to have them bullied, abused, or introduced to more destructive behaviors by others with serious conduct disorders, or emotional health issues.

For this reason, we have rigorous admissions screenings. We do not accept referrals from the Juvenile Justice system, young people who have gang affiliations, histories of violence, fire starters, sexual perpetrators, or any youth who might create issues around the physical or emotional safety of our program. While all young people deserve quality treatment, it is imperative that we protect the milieu for those that we serve.

At Paradigm Treatment, we believe that the only way to responsibly and effectively treat adolescents and young adults is by addressing the emotional underpinnings of problematic behaviors. If a client is struggling with drug abuse, an eating disorder, self-harm or any other behavioral challenges, these issues are most often negative coping styles in disguise. Teens frequently use drugs or alcohol to self-medicate or engaging in other destructive behaviors to avoid anxiety, depression, or other emotional health issues. Programs that simply focus on behaviors miss an opportunity to treat the real root cause of a young person’s difficulties.

Research has demonstrated definitively that, if you do not treat the root cause of a behavioral issue, the issue will re-emerge after treatment or it will be replaced by a new negative coping style.

The goal of effective treatment should be to get what you need and then return to life as quickly as possible. At Paradigm Treatment, we believe that every moment spent in treatment is precious and should be leveraged for maximum therapeutic value. As such, our schedule is packed with individual and group therapy sessions designed specifically to meet each individual’s treatment goals. With four sessions of individual therapy per week, Paradigm is one of hte most intensive resdietnial programs in the country. While it would be reasonable to anticipate that this would be the norm in treatment, it unfortunately is not.

To be meaningful and sustainable, changes that occur during the course of treatment must be transferable to life at home. It is expressly for this reason that we do not use point systems, phase systems, or other outdated forms of behavior modification.

Unfortunately, a stunning number of treatment programs continue to use these archaic tools as the core of their residential programs. This is sometimes because the providers are unaware that these systems were deemed to have little, if any value as early as the 1970’s. More often, it is because they are unable, or unwilling, to do the deeper more difficult work required to assist individuals in achieving real, internalized change.

While many teen programs limit the amount a parent and child can communicate, we prioritize maintaining strong connections between parents and their children. Our mission is to unite families, not create barriers. We do not believe in ‘black out’ periods, where a parent cannot speak to their child.

Although clients do not have access to their cell phones, we provide landlines at the house for calling approved family members. To ensure clients focus on their treatment without distractions, we limit calls to friends and non-family members. Parents will receive the landline number and can call anytime to speak with their child or get updates from our staff.

At Paradigm Treatment we believe that treatment based on empowering our clients is the cornerstone of achieving effective long-lasting results. Too often treatment programs for adolescents are based on rigid directives and the belief that treatment is about breaking young people down. We believe that it is our job to lift our clients up, build on their strengths and help them find real value in approaching their lives differently.

Treatment programs that consist of having young people simply behave as they are told, are missing key opportunities to identify and understand the fundamental issues behind clients’ outward behaviors. Each treatment modality that our client is engaged with is designed to improve a young person’s ability to learn to identify, choose, and direct the course of his or her own lives in a healthy way.

Numerous studies support what we have always known: that real, sustainable, internalized change is best achieved through the empowerment of youth and their families.

Upon admission, every client at Paradigm Treatment receives a comprehensive Psychiatric Evaluation, Psychological Assessment, Medical Evaluation, Educational and Nutritional Assessment. While it would again seem likely that this would be the norm in treatment, it is not. In fact, there are some teen treatment programs that only consult a psychiatrist, psychologist, or medical professional after weeks have passed and no progress has been made. This wastes valuable treatment time and requires that a young person have an unnecessary experience of failure.

It is our belief that it is impossible to create a meaningful, individualized treatment plan without first conducting such assessments. You have to know what you are treating to do so effectively. Basing treatment exclusively on behaviors, or the most obvious surface issues, is a disservice to everyone involved. It is for this reason that we provide all clients with comprehensive diagnostic testing during their first 48 hours of treatment.

We recognize that all members of a family bring skills, abilities, and liabilities to any given situation. Paradigm Treatment looks openly at all these areas to help each family grow, change, cope and make choices. Quality family work is never about placing blame; rather it is about resolving conflicts and finding effective ways for the family unit to help young people achieve their full potential.

To accomplish this, we offer individual family therapy, parent effectiveness training, and on-going parent support services. . Of course, some family members are unable to participate in aspects of treatment as the result of work commitments, geographic location or other factors. For this reason, we provide services by phone, by tele-health, or other means as needed.

Our team is available to answer questions and provide support to families, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Our family support services are available to those who currently have a loved one in treatment and as an on-going complimentary aftercare service for all program graduates.

At Paradigm Treatment, we are uniquely positioned to help young people meet their academic goals. Upon admission, all youth are provided with an educational assessment designed to identify their academic needs, wants and abilities. When appropriate, with the permission of parents, our academic coordinator will communicate with the client’s home school to collect assignments and return the completed work for grading. When required, we can also provide proctored testing. The goal is always to get youth current, or even ahead, in their studies so that when they reintegrate, they have one less stressor with which to contend.

The academic needs of students at Paradigm vary greatly. We provide services to youth who excel in school and are enrolled in AP courses and youth who struggle with learning differences. Upon occasion, young people are not even enrolled in a school. In such cases, we can provide opportunities for students to earn transferable high school credits, assist in finding a new school or provide instruction for college entrance exams. Our small size, high staff to client ratio and wealth of resources allow us to meet each client’s unique academic needs.

While many young people seek out treatment for themselves, others are pressed into participating by concerned parents or as the result of other external forces. Either circumstance is common. Regardless, some families delay getting treatment because of a popular myth that an individual needs to “hit bottom” before seeking help. This myth is unfortunately reinforced by treatment providers who do not see motivating youth as their responsibility. The real danger in this is that, for some, the bottom can be serious harm or even death. There is no advantage in letting a young person engage in destructive behaviors one day longer than is necessary. When working with young people, there is also ample evidence to suggest that the earlier a treatment intervention takes place regarding substance abuse, emotional health or behavioral health issues, the greater the likelihood of success. When young people come to us for treatment, it is okay if they are resistant. It is our job to motivate them and to help them find value in both treatment and in approaching their lives differently.

For most teens, gender exclusive treatment is not the best option. Programs that treat only one gender, or who segregate genders, can easily avoid important issues rather than address them. Numerous studies support our belief that it is best to treat young people in a co-gendered setting, as this best reflects real life.

If an issue is going to arise related to how an individual relates to the opposite gender, we want that issue to come up during the course of treatment so that we may address it accordingly. What we want to avoid is creating an artificial, single gender environment in which the teen may thrive – only to return them to a co-gendered world.

With that in mind, there is demonstrated value in providing gender specific treatment, as long as it is provided, in a co-gender setting. As a result, we provide specialized treatment designed to meet the unique needs of young women and young men. The end result should be a young person empowered with the skill and knowledge base required to have appropriate, healthy relationships with persons of both genders.

Mental health and addiction treatment programs have a long history of focusing on young people’s deficits, problem behaviors and pathologies. The most current research by psychologists, psychiatrists, educators and others clearly demonstrates that a strength-based approach can yield dramatically better long-term results than those of a deficit-based approach. At the foundation of Paradigm Treatment’s strength-based approach is the belief that young people and their families are resilient, competent people who possess unique talents, skills and interests. Building on strengths allows youth to have more frequent opportunities for success. Likewise, we are committed to helping young people find value in approaching their lives differently by pursuing well-being through health, pre-existing interests and through the development of new interests. Such an approach affords the treatment team with opportunities to utilize each adolescent’s natural abilities and attractions as an efficient and effective path for engagement and positive change.

At Paradigm Treatment, we believe that meaningful treatment requires collaboration. While we provide valuable expertise, we also recognize that young people and their families are most often the best experts on themselves. You know your strengths, interests and challenges. As such, we ask that you be full partners in the creation and implementation of your own individualized treatment plan.

We also welcome the opportunity to collaborate with any therapist or treatment professional with whom a youth may already be engaged. Physicians, teachers, mentors, coaches or any other persons who have a vested interest in the well-being of an adolescent may be involved with the consent of both the teen and their parents. Such collaborations frequently allow us to achieve treatment goals more expeditiously and help to create smoother transitions to post treatment life.

“Holistic” is a term that has come to mean many different things to different people. This has not diminished the importance of treating the whole person with specialized concentration in key areas. Our treatment couples the best of traditional modalities and alternative therapies to meet the age specific needs of every client.

Holistic treatment based on empowering teens, young adults and their families is our cornerstone for helping our clients achieve effective, sustainable recovery and to lead healthy lives.