Specialized Services

Early Family Intervention and Support

Young people today face a confusing array of influences and challenges. Parents want to help but often meet resistance. When negative communication patterns begin to form in the family, those patterns can easily become entrenched.

In the Collaborative Coaching Program we empower parents and teens to find paths to a more peaceful family environment. We integrate three distinct modes of service to help teens and parents regain healthy functioning and communication:

Individual meetings with a Master's level mentor
Our program mentors utilize a strengths-based approach to help struggling teens regain confidence and direction. Through regular work with their mentor, teens are empowered to rediscover personal strengths, explore personal goals and build family communication skills. The "New Summits Success Plan" serves as a concrete tool to help our clients identify areas for growth and remain accountable for their growth.



Parent Coaching
In the Collaborative Coaching Program, our parent coaches provide the tools for a more grounded approach to parenting teens. Parents work with the parent coach to identify key areas in their interactions with their teen. During each session, parents are able to explore specific strategies in these areas and also formulate a home agreement that clarifies house rules and boundaries.



Solutions-focused family meetings
Utilizing a parent-teen mediation model, we facilitate family meetings to address key areas in the family dynamic. In these meetings, families are encouraged to work together to find practical solutions to day-to-day challenges. The parent-teen mediation model creates a collaborative process and increases the teen's commitment to the home agreement and to improved family communication.

The Collaborative Coaching Program also provides other services as needed; such as 24/7 phone-based support, theme-specific groups, UA drug testing and referrals to community resources.

Our unique approach gives teens the confidence to succeed and families the confidence to grow. To learn more, click on the "Program Overview" tab or contact us directly.

If your son or daughter is displaying high-risk behavior such as frequent drug/alcohol use, aggressive behavior or high-risk sexual activity, a more intensive intervention may be appropriate. Independent educational consultants provide objective and professional residential placement advice. Educational consultants can be found through the national body, IECA, online at www.educationalconsulting.org.

Accredited with COA (Council on Accreditation)

Services for Young Adults

"What is significant about a life plan is that it can help us live our own lives-not someone else's" Harriet Goldhor Lerner

In a culture that emphasizes comfort and convenience, the growing pains that accompany adulthood can be challenging for many young people. With increased freedom and self-differentiation also come new responsibilities and these new responsibilities can sometimes feel overwhelming.

In the Collaborative Coaching Program, we have seen that with the support of a mentor, young people are better able to take on a new role as they enter adulthood. We have recently created a customized curriculum to help young adults gain the skills and confidence to become independent. Our approach allows clients to take the lead role in their personal growth, with the program mentor as an ally and adviser.

The Process

When a young adult is experiencing difficulty in becoming independent there are a series of steps that can be taken to identify long-term goals and make those goals easier to realize. With a mentor as a working partner, the process of becoming independent can be much easier and more effective. We provide customized support to help each client take concrete steps towards adulthood. With support from the mentor, each client completes the "New Summits Success Plan", a curriculum that provides a personalized roadmap for young adults. The "New Summits Success Plan" helps clients:

1. Identify long-term personal goals;
2. Identify past behaviors or barriers to goals;
3. Establish concrete strategies to move towards long-term goals;
4. Create and follow through on a daily plan that structures and balances activities such as work, school, recreation, healthy peer activities, etc.;
5. Monitor and update personal goals in the "New Summits Success Plan".

Parent Support

Parents want to help their son or daughter launch into adulthood but are not always sure about the best approach. Our parent coaches provide concrete advice to help parents be supportive and encourage independence. Our parent coaches and mentors also facilitate solutions-focused family meetings to create a forum for new communication between parents and their young adult children.

Resources

In the Collaborative Coaching Program, we provide a wide range of local and national resources to help young adults find career, educational and healthy recreational/social opportunities. For young adults it can sometimes be intimidating to pursue resources. With the help of a mentor, young adults in our program feel more confident in locating and pursuing jobs and other resources.

To find out more about our services for young adults, contact us directly.

Services for Students with Asperger's Syndrome and ADD/ADHD

We all know that being a teenager or young adult can be difficult. For young people with Asperger's Syndrome, ADD/ADHD and similar developmental traits, high school and early adulthood can present even greater challenges. Our Master's level mentors provide the strategies and self-confidence to make these challenges more manageable.

Clinically-informed mentoring

The Collaborative Coaching Program provides clients with the opportunity to form a unique working relationship with a Master's level mentor. Our home-based approach enables us to make a strong personal connection and foster improved self-esteem. In addition, our coaching approach helps clients learn specific skills that will lead to improved daily functioning, time management, family communication, frustration management, sleep hygiene and personal hygiene. Our Mentors also provide guidance to help clients establish and maintain work experiences. Through the mentor relationship, our clients are able to gain the confidence and skills to build an independent and healthy life.

Parent Coaching

Parents of adolescents with special needs face unique challenges and our parent coaches serve as an important resource. Whether helping parents navigate the school system or guiding parents as they help their son or daughter become more independent, our parent coaches are committed to providing parents with the support they deserve.

The Collaborative Coaching Program has designed a customized approach to help teenagers and young adults, aged 14-23, with atypical neurological development. Clients who enter our program have typically encountered one or more of the following challenges:

• Difficulty organizing tasks and daily living activities
• Difficulty building friendships/social-cognitive deficits
• Poor family communication skills
• Difficulty gaining independent living skills
• Poor personal hygiene/poor sleep hygiene
• Poor time management skills
• Unhealthy computer/video game use
• School-related anxiety

To find out if the Collaborative Coaching Program is right for your son or daughter, contact us to schedule a free initial assessment

For information on our social skills groups and specialized summer day program, please click on the "Ryther Outdoor Leadership Program" tab.

We strive to offer the highest-quality, customized services to adolescents and young adults with atypical neurological development such as Asperger's Syndrome and ADD/ADHD. We are nationally accredited with COA (Council on Accreditation) to assure the highest quality services. The Collaborative Coaching Program's commitment to delivering quality services was further recognized when we recently received a school district contract to provide services to students with Asperger's Syndrome.