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Just “like” us on our new page, DiscoveryAcademyUtah, and tell us why here on our blog and you could end up winning an e-reader.

Here are the official rules:

1.  Like us on Facebook – Discovery AcademyUtah – and post a comment here about why you like us.

2.  Post your comment here between April 1 and May 1, 2012.

3.  No purchase necessary.

4.  Winners may not be Ascent employees or family members of any Ascent employees.

5.  Winners chosen at random and will be notified by email.

Thanks for being part of the Discovery Academy family and good luck! We can’t wait to hear from you.

The post “Like” Discovery Academy? Tell Us Why and You May Win appeared first on Discovery Academy.

For example, some students come to Discovery after having completed a wilderness therapy experience. Discovery Academy therapists and staff respect the accomplishments of those students. For these students, therapy begins where they left off in wilderness. Academy therapists work closely with wilderness or other prior placement professionals to help the student build on their wellness momemtum.

Private therapy practitioners also become part of the Discovery Academy therapy team. Some have been under the care of a therapy professional in their home environment. If the parents wish, Discovery therapists can routinely include a student’s therapist at home in clinical consultations that keep private providers aware of the student’s progress and struggles. This kind of collaboration helps create a smooth transitiion for follow-up care once the student returns home.

Discovery’s aftercare program sets the stage for this transition. If the family chooses, their student’s therapist can provide two in-home sessions once the student returns home. An experiential activity that involves both parents and child is part of this aftercare visit. In addition, parents and student process with their therapist about the activity, the transition home, and other issues of concern.

Discovery Academy understands a student’s therapy journey doesn’t just begin when he or she walks through the doors. Their journey to wellness, like life itself, is an on-going effort at understanding and executing. A student is best served by committed parents and a network of caring professionals that can serve as a reminder and a resource for positive life skills.

The post A Network of Help from Therapeutic Boarding School appeared first on Discovery Academy.

Here’s a link to a story that ran in the Sydney Morning Herald. The article begins by talking about troubled teens in legal trouble but ends with the story of a DA family.

 http://www.smh.com.au/queensland/youth-crime-authorities-can-learn-from-abroad-20111022-1mdk9.html

The post Help for a Troubled Teen: Australian Parents Learn New Options appeared first on Discovery Academy.

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To the Directors, Therapists, Managers, Residential Mentors & many more staff we may have forgotten, with a special appreciation going to Keith, Nate & Janeen:

Now that parent’s weekend is over & we have had time to reflect on what we saw, we would like to share our thoughts from a parent’s perception of Discovery Academy. As parents, our biggest fears start from the time our children our small. We fear for their safety & how we can assure that in the future. We search out daycares when they are infants. We pace the floor when they are ill. We worry when they venture out to drive a car. So dropping our son ___, off at DA was no small feat. Actually, our son was all set to arrive at another Utah facility. For some reason, I would like to think of as divine intervention, we were led to reconsider our decision. (1st small miracle) I am not saying the other facility was not reputable, but I felt this strong feeling that ___ needed something different. Within 24 hours of ____’s expected arrival, we changed our minds & placed him at DA. For the next few months, we had conflicting thoughts concerning our decision & if indeed we made the right one.

As my career involves managing associates, I coach on making adjustments in behaviors to increase a person’s professional ability in the workplace. Some comply rather robotically & others fly with it. Why? Because they love what they do & it shows from the inside out. This behavior is what we saw at DA. The love was overflowing to the children who in recent times past have displayed behavior that was unlovable even for a parent.

When we arrived at DA, we saw many confused, hurting & suffering parents. However, to our amazement we saw young people on their way to being happy, well adjusted & healthy. (2^nd small miracle).These young people shook your hand & looked you in the eye as they spoke with you. These young people were excited to see you, glad to introduce you to new friends & welcomed you to their temporary new home.

Mine & my husband’s fears were put to rest when we arrived at DA for parent’s weekend. It was not due to the seminar (although informative). It was not due to the extensive college degrees & wealth of experience of the DA staff. Nor was it due to the cleanliness of the building or its sheer beauty. What put our fears as parents to rest was a simple action of affection. Sounds crazy, I agree. This is what actually happened. The play was over & the parents entered the cafeteria waiting to be reunited with their children. Our son was excited to introduce us to the Residential Mentors, Therapists & Directors. When I asked to take a picture, this next action followed & not with just one staff member but as I looked about the room it was happening with every single one of them towards the DA students. The staff smiled, put their arm around our son & leaned their head in for the photo. This action was done as simply as if they were taking their next breath. It was not forced or taught. That in simple words is “The Good Stuff”. You can’t teach it. You can’t learn it. I believe the word I am looking for here is compassion along with a true love for what they do & the lives they change. (3rd small miracle)

We no longer wonder about our son’s well being & agree that the decision to place our son at DA was absolute. We speak only with the highest regard to our family & friends concerning all of the DA staff. May the many miracles you all work daily come back to each & every one of you tenfold. Saying the words “Thank You” doesn’t seem to convey the actual meaning, but it is stated with much admiration.

With deep regard,

L.R.

The post “The Good Stuff” : Teen Help With Heart appeared first on Discovery Academy.

As a clinician, for me cutting has never been about anything other than control. It is similar to eating disorders, only the expression is much more immediate in manner. Society seems to insist on a more caring and sensitive child. But there is a failure when it comes to teaching troubled teens how to deal with the emotions that well up from such sensitivity.

What do you do when you don’t know how to cope with an emotion? You try and control it. Drugs, sex, cutting, unhealthy eating, unhealthy exercise, the list goes on.

Just this week one of my students, who is a cutter, turned in an amazing assignment. I asked her if I could share it if I protected her identity. She’s allowing me to share her experience with you:

Cutting

I’m not your average fifteen year old girl. The average  teenager these days have recreation by going to the mall, going to amusement parks, hanging out with friends. The average teenager looks forward to summer so they can go on vacation; they look forward to playing their favorite sports and their birthdays.

 I for one have fun being high on multiple drugs at a time; I have fun hanging out with the bottle then go joyriding drunk to my ex-boyfriend’s house so we can have sex. I look forward to going home and being able to cut myself. My life – my world revolves around this.

It’s like I live on my own routine where at any given time I can cut myself. Wake up, get high, drink, cut, go to school, go home, cut, drink, play with my  dog, cut, go outside, cut, smoke cigarette, cut, get high, think, cut, go to bed, repeat. To some this is a very strange topic, to me it’s my life story. “What the hell happened to your arm?” “Why the hell do you do shit like that?” Oh, the questions people have; they just will never understand. But it’s worth a shot to help them.

 I am numb. I constantly feel nothing, not debonair, no excitement, no bliss, nothing. It’s like I’m a black hole, just absorbing everything that comes my way, and then it’s just gone. Everyone wants to feel something. I’m no different. I want to feel something -No ~ I need to feel something. Whether it hurts me or not, I am just so prostrated of my constant need to feel. The only feeling I can inflict on myself is pain. I pick up my glistening brand new razor and glide it across my skin. I watch my body’s river flow down my arm and onto the floor.

Are you getting it at all? You know… do you get the reason why I… cut? I get so tired of not being able to feel that I cause as much pain on my body as possible, just for the sensation. Trust me, it’s thrilling. After not being able to feel anything at all, feeling pain is like a constant orgasm which you just want over, and over, and over again. Damn… cutting sounds like music to my ears right now.

I’m worthless. I will always be worthless. Everything that I do is worthless; everything that I ever will do will be equally worthless. I cause shame to everyone around me. I’m useless to everyone, therefore, I deserve pain. No one likes me, everyone hates me, and they’re all out without me having fun. They want me to hurt myself; they want to see me bleed. Their accusing eyes glare dlown at me and with every glance I know what they’re thinking. They think I’m the biggest mess known to man.

Deeper and deeper, the knife goes into my skin. Oh shit, I’ve cut down to my bone… perfect. I let myself bleed as much as possible just because I don’t deserve anything better than this. just sit there, arm covered in blood, sawing into my skin, making the gashes wide, and deeper than ever before. As I lurk in the corner of my room, half unconscious from the amount of blood loss, I idolize my marks; start to pick out the think, yellow fat that layers the inside of my wound. Once I’m done with doing that, the process is clone all over again. Words are getting carved into my arm, thighs and stomach.

I cut deep through my arms tendon nearly screaming from the bittersweet pain. A flood of blood rushes out of me, who knew that my petite body could produce so much gore? I love every single drop of blood that gushes out. Looking down now the floor where I’m sitting is now a damp, puddle of blood. I am in love with my pain. Why? Because it’s all I’ve ever known. How can you not be enamored with something that you’ve spent your whole life with? It’s oddly uncomfortable for me to actually be content. It’s just too much for my body and mind to handle. Once I get just a little away from being miserable its like my heart stops beating, I can’t breathe, I’m in the middle of the ocean on a little raft all by myself. I get so confused; I don’t know what to do. All I’m focused on doing is finding my way back to my land of misery, so I cut.

 I don’t know why I feel this way; I guess I still need to figure that out. I just for some reason can’t be happy why pain is all I’ve ever known. I guess I’m so used to f*** everything up that once my life starts going good I get scared, because I know just screw it up, so to stop disappointment I intentionally hurt myself. I need to feel pain. I can’t be happy, because I am not worthy enough, and I can’t stand to face despondency when I’m already in the worst state of mind already.

 “Just do it ____ we both know you deserve this. Do as I say you little whore! This is for mommy and daddy and everyone else out there in this broad world. Bleed… Bleed as rnuch as possible.” The voices… why won’t they just go away? I’m afraid I’m losing my mind. I hear audible voices in my head. Sometime it’s every second of the whole damn day. All the voices do is tell me to hurt myself, hurt others, and just do detrimental things. If I don’t they get louder and louder until I can’t take it; start punching my head, screaming at them to shut up but it’s no use because they just scream even louder.

I try surrounding myself with people who are nice to me and care about me; I do believe that I am cared for when they’re around. But it’s hard not to believe the voices in my head, too. Think about it. These voices have been with me since I was around ten years old. They’re constantly telling me knavish things about myself. If you have been with me since I was around 10 years old; these voices are constantly telling me bad things about myself. If you’ve been hearing bad things about yourself for 5 years nonstop, you’re bound to believe it. There’s just no escaping the thoughts.

 I’m sorry if this wasn’t the clearest on telling you why I cut, it’s not the easiest to explain. I’ll try to sum it up. I constantly feel numb, so I make myself feel. I constantly feel like a worthless pile of shit stuck 10 miles down in a hole, so I cut myself for being worthless, useless to everyone because I think I deserve I am constantly hearing, being told to hurt myself; don’t then the words won’t stop, they won’t leave me alone. So I feel like I need to hurt myself.

Hopefully now you understand a little bit more of what goes on in my mind. I am not your average teenager. But I sure am not some crazy “emo” girl either. S0 don’t look at my arm like I’m psychotiç, please.  You don’t know me.

The post Cutting: One Troubled Teen Explains Why appeared first on Discovery Academy.

 I was a student at Discovery Adacdemy for quite some time. I left shortly after trning 18 to do my senior year at home so I could have at least one year of normalcy out of my entire four in high school. DA was a wonderfull place for me and severly changed my life for the better, to the point Ii have often thought if it’s still around when I get out of the Army I might enjoy coming to work there provided I could be hired.  (not sure of the former student now employee policly you may have). I was one of Tammy Liefson’s kids and on occasion was asked to speak to consultants on how DA worked, my feelings about it, and so on so that they may then refer their cilents to DA or one of its allifate programs. I would like the Owner and the perspective people it may concern to know I harbor a great love for DA and the help I recieved there to make me a hard working productive member of society. In turn I feel I owe DA something in return for all those I encountered there and the wonderfull experinces I had.

So I would like to offer myself as some you can refer prespective students’ parents to for a good referal from some one who has been through the program and became something postive, knowing you would recieve the highest of my regards. I had been to a few other programs such as military school and a rehab center before DA and I can honestly say DA was the changing thing in my life Sincerely, K…

Thanks, K for your kind words. And congratulations on your success!

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Jonathan Jones, Headmaster, says 21 Discovery Academy students were tested at the beginning of their enrollment at the Academy beginning in May of 2009 and then again upon leaving the Academy.

On average, student SAT-9 scores rose by 21.83%.

Other study findings revealed:

• The average length of stay for these students was 9.76 months.
• Students advanced by slightly more than one full grade level.
• Students improved their over-all grade point average by .71-percent

The SAT-9 is used by school districts throughout the United States to measure student learning. It assesses math skills, reading comprehension and science. Discovery Academy uses the test as part of its accreditation process for the state of Utah and to develop individualized student education plans.

Jonathan says the remarkable improvement is not surprising. “Students therapeutic needs are being met and that helps their academic skills,” he says. “These results tell us our individualized academic program, our faculty, and our therapy team are doing a great job delivering real results.”

“There is clearly academic improvement from the time a student enters Discovery Academy to the time he or she leaves.”

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