The Turning Winds program is all about effecting positive change.
“The simple, singular focus of our treatment program is to help each student improve their self-image and their self-confidence and change the behaviors that have been hindering their growth by teaching them to create stable patterns of living through education, process groups, and individualized treatment planning,” says Turning Winds CEO Owen Baisden.
It’s a process that requires a fair amount of time, though. But allowing months of treatment to pass before you see an improvement in your teen can be challenging for parents.
“It takes a tremendous amount of trust from our parents’ standpoint,” acknowledges program director Enoch Stump. “From day one, when we meet the parents, we talk about a process and we talk about laying a foundation to be able to build this house on top of that foundation. And often, it does take three, four, five, or six months for our kids. They don’t always follow a perfect process.”
It’s a proven process that Turning Winds has been fine-tuning for more than 20 years. “Some 1,500 kids have gone through our program and we’ve been able to learn from that and adapt our approach,” says Stump. He remembers a recent client who reached the six-month mark without hitting the expected goals in his evaluations. “From a family standpoint, it can get discouraging and it’s easy to start to lose a little bit of hope. But from a treatment standpoint and certainly, from my own experience, I have 100 percent hope and belief in this kid at six months because last year I just had three kids that really didn’t get it until the seventh or eighth month but then they really started to connect and then they transformed their lives moving forward.”
Stump appreciates that it takes an amazing amount of trust. The Turning Winds team always works hard to help parents stay patient, trust the process, and give kids the time it takes to meet them where they are and not where others want them to be.
“Often, our own hopes and dreams for our kids get in the way,” says Stump. “We want them to be ready for this or that event. And if parents can just understand we have to do it on their timetable, then the kids will be given the opportunity for success.”
“Turning Winds has the experience to be able to speak confidently to families that tell them, ‘We know it doesn’t feel great for your kid right now, but continue to believe, continue to have the same hope that you had when you enrolled them when things weren’t going well.’ And it’s amazing how many times we’ve been inspired by kids in the past that after the second, third, or even fourth time when everybody felt that it didn’t look good, the kids decide to flip the switch and make some significant changes.”
At Turning Winds, it’s the people who make the difference. We’ve built a team of some of the world’s finest academic and therapeutic professionals, all of whom share the same goal: to help teens re-engage meaningfully with their lives, families, and their futures.
Contact us online for more information, or call us at 800-845-1380. If your call isn’t answered personally, one of us will get back to you as soon as possible.
