The Interpreted Rock

By Stephen C. Schultz  With three daughters of my own, it’s always a moving experience to see and listen to teen girls in therapy. I am often saddened by the emotional struggles that these girls have endured in their short life times. Some are forced to deal with grown up problems way too early through experiences with abuse , trauma , substance use and even self harm . Many times these issues are complicated with symptoms of depression or anxiety . There is something troubling when a teenage girl has a hard time seeing a reason to live. I recall in the early 1990’s, working at a psychiatric hospital as the admissions and marketing director. I was in my office one evening and got a call from a local therapist.  This therapist said;  “Hi Steve, I have a female teen, 18 years of age. We were working through some of her trauma when she asked to use the bathroom. She left my office and did not come back in to finish her session. I sent my recepti...

Guest Blog  By Ryan C. Schultz Age 19     There have been many books that I have read that have helped to influence the person I have become and the way I live my life.  I have noticed that teens and young children spend so much time with their games and handhelds that they rarely read books anymore. If you are a parent of young children or teens, these are some books that you may find helpful in getting your kids to read more. You can even have them read this post…maybe they will pay more attention if it’s not their parent suggesting they read more. These are a few of the books that have had an impact on my life: Curious George , The Dumb Bunnies , Spot , The Thief Lord , Treasure Island , Sherlock Holmes , Lessons for Life , The Traveler’s Gift, One Shot , and Dead or Alive . Curious George fed my desire for adventure.  I would read those books about a curious monkey who had all these cool adventures everyday.  When I was li...

By Stephen C. Schultz My 16-year-old daughter has a natural talent and skill for volleyball. She is a great athlete, period. But she has a passion and drive for the sport that go beyond her years. She aspires to play in college and has demonstrated the maturity, motivation, and focus needed to get there. I recently attended a parent meeting sponsored by the school district about the college recruiting process—how to navigate not only the rules but also the politics. It was eye-opening, to say the least. The presenter explained that college coaches rely heavily on “reliable third-party endorsements” to determine whether they should even consider an athlete. When athletic scholarships are awarded, the coach is essentially "purchasing" that athlete. The estimated cost of a single full-ride athletic scholarship is somewhere in the neighborhood of $100,000. Many parents and athletes mistakenly believe that a scholarship is simply an incentive to attend a particular school. In r...

By Stephen C. Schultz Over the last month I have been privy to some conversations by parents who are in the unfortunate position of having their sons in a therapeutic residential setting . No parent should have to go through this experience. However, in today’s society it is more needed and more frequent than most people are aware. These conversations were heartfelt and emotional. In fact, some of the emotions felt by the parents were reaching a heightened and heated level. It started me thinking…which isn't always a good thing! If I can share an example I had with my family, it may serve to provide some structure for how I express my thoughts around this situation. It also provides some principles that may apply throughout our lives. My family and I were at Disneyland and we waited in that eternal line for the roller coaster; “Screamin”. My youngest daughter Emma and I happened to be placed in the front seat. She had a sparkle in her eye and a grin on her fa...

Guest Blogger: Steven DeMille, LCMHC, PhD Executive Director – RedCliff Ascent Wilderness therapy provides many opportunities for teens and young adults to have life-altering experiences. With an increase in international students attending school in the U.S., RedCliff Ascent has seen a rise in international enrollments over the years. These students come to RedCliff because they are struggling in their current academic settings or suffering from emotional concerns that are becoming unmanageable.   Below are some helpful points associated with international students and RedCliff Ascent : Wilderness therapy has a strong history as a character-building intervention, which supports academic success. Emotional distress is a major contributor to academic failure. Outdoor Behavioral Healthcare (OBH) originally emerged as an intervention for struggling university students. It assists in the development of students' emotional growth, resilience, and self-discipline. Wilderness ther...

By Stephen C. Schultz “Making the decision to send him to the other side of the world to an American desert was not an easy decision; we now know that it was the best decision we have ever made in our lives.” Sandra - UK Parent Discovery Academy, as well as our sister programs, have seen an increase in foreign students needing the very specialized educational opportunities we offer. Over the last few years, we have assisted students from the UK, Australia, Singapore, Israel, Brazil, Russia, France, Netherlands, Dubai, Guatemala, China and Spain to name a few.   The students we work with struggle with an emotional concern of some kind and find themselves in the culturally embarrassing position of failing or dropping out of school. Often these students struggle with depression, anxiety, eating disorders or substance use. Concerns with technology use and abuse of “Gaming” and "Pornography" have increased over the last few years. ...

By Stephen C. Schultz   The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing ~ Edmund Burke I don’t frequent bars very often…mainly because I don’t drink. However, last week was an exception. Not the drinking part, but the being in a bar part. Corned beef sliders, a coke and the World Series baseball game. It doesn’t get much better than that! The guy sitting next to me on my left started a conversation with me about his car and how upset he was that someone backed into him and scraped the bumper. He then started a dialogue about the quality of cars now as opposed to thirty years ago. The conversation was simply a one way conversation with rants about insurance, auto body repair shops and his disappointment that he wasn’t headed to Hawaii this year…since every year at this time he is in Hawaii. I kept trying to turn back to the gentleman on my right, since he was the reason I was there in the first place. I was hosting a producer, Dan Frankenber...

By Stephen C. Schultz   For an organization that specializes in primitive living, the new age of technology is somewhat elusive. The idea of a digital newsletter and a blog are daunting tasks, but necessary. There are a few of us that got together to discuss what we wanted to accomplish through this new medium RedCliff was embarking on. There was a lot of discussion about the “Marketing” benefits of newsletters and sending them out to everyone. There were discussions around collecting email addresses and managing email lists from the general public. We talked about different strategies to use the newsletter and blog as a way to generate new contacts and also as a way to increase the number of students we enroll in the program. However, true to form for RedCliff, the discussion soon turned back to the students and families we have served over the years. We came to the conclusion that we did not want this newsletter and blog to serve the purpose of “Marketing”...

By Amanda Schultz Written at Age 12                 My house is my sanctuary. Safe. Quiet. Home. A place where nature is overwhelming. Where every screech, scream, buzz, peep, squawk, whine and whistle means something different to everyone.           My house is a log cabin, built by hand-and love-in the heat of summer. You can tell that it has been there for a long time, and will still be there for even after I grow old. The wood is scarred and worn, but it is strong.           As the sun rises, so do I, the pitter-patter of my feet echoing through the house as I rush outside to greet the sunshine. So bright I have to look away, it warms my cold fingers and fills me with happiness.             A gentle breeze rustles my hair and tickles my face, waiting for me...

Guest Blogger Ryan C. Schultz Age 19   It is important to know that you don’t need to be perfect to be successful in whatever you do.   So often in today’s world, perfection seems to be the goal. You need to realize that even the slightest progress is still progress and you are getting better.   Setting goals is a good way to keep track of your progress.   Every time you achieve a goal, you get more confident and motivated. You feel accomplished and develop a desire to achieve other goals you have set for yourself. When I was playing baseball , I wanted to work on my swing. I felt I needed to get better to be competitive. So, I set a goal and established a system for improvement. I would do the same routine every day.   I would start out hitting wiffle balls off the tee. Then I would move on to baseballs. I would do a few buckets of each, swinging the bat with my left hand, then switching to my right, and then I would swing with both hands. ...

By Stephen C. Schultz I was sitting in my office the other day when I received a call from a therapist at RedCliff Ascent. He mentioned that he had recently met with an international educational consultant at one of RedCliff Ascent’s wilderness treatment program graduations. This consultant had traveled from Russia to act as a translator for the family of a graduating student. He was assisting the family in placing the student in a traditional boarding school following his graduation from RedCliff. The consultant also mentioned that he might have another student to enroll in RedCliff soon. After doing a bit of research, I discovered that RedCliff has had three students from Russia in the past few months. RedCliff Ascent regularly welcomes international students. I have personally visited the backcountry at different times and spoken with students from the United Kingdom, France, Bermuda, Israel, Australia, Singapore, Italy, Russia, the Netherlands, and Brazil, to name a few. Then, j...

By Stephen C. Schultz Editors Note: This is another excerpt from some of the material that teens and young adults learn while at RedCliff Ascent . Students gain physical competency, develop emotional insight and demonstrate improved maturity. This particular segment provides a thoughtful perspective for teens and young adults who have been raised in relative comfort.     Earth Many “primitive” peoples considered the earth to be their true mother and the sky their father, and that there was a grandfather, (Creator) somewhere beyond it all.   In this you can see a basic difference between the worldview of the old ones and of our own.   They thought they belonged to the earth; we believe that the earth belongs to us.   You wouldn’t cut off your mother’s hair, or drain out her life’s blood.   You wouldn’t blow smoke in your fathers face, or poison his breath.   Yet we have no hesitation in destroying anything that is merely a possession. ...

By Stephen C. Schultz   Editors Note: This is an excerpt from some of the material that teens and young adults learn while at RedCliff Ascent . Much of the work that is done by students is to gain physical competency, develop emotional insight and demonstrate improved maturity.   Fire “ In the time before this one, there was a great excitement in the sky country. It was the day of giving. All of the spirit people were going to receive a gift from the Creator, whatever they wanted.   There was a lot of pushing and shoving (even some fighting), in the long line that led up to the lodge of the sky father. As each spirit approached the Maker, they knelt and asked for a gift, one that they thought might help them in the world below.   Some wanted cunning, some strength, or keen eyes or ears. Some asked for the ability to run fast, to fly high, or to dig low. There were also those who wanted to live on the land, and those who wanted to live under the water...

  By Stephen C. Schultz Did You Know? RedCliff Ascent tracks the physical effects of each student upon entering our program. We maintain a database of each student’s body mass index (BMI) and can empirically demonstrate that males lose about 5 lbs of fat and gain approximately 7 lbs of muscle mass throughout their stay. Females lose about 10 lbs of fat and gain around 5 lbs of muscle mass. Students are required to maintain a 3,500-calorie-per-day diet. Each week, their BMI is updated, and dietary adjustments are made as needed. Oh… and we have been doing this for well over a decade! This means that educational consultants, allied health professionals, and families can be assured that no other program is more sophisticated in maintaining students’ nutritional health and well-being than RedCliff Ascent. Did You Know? RedCliff Ascent leads the industry in research-informed practices and outcomes. Of the eight original OBHIC programs featured in Dr. Keith Russell’s research over a...

By Stephen C. Schultz The sky was blue and the air was dry. There was a faint smell of pinion pines and cedar in the air. The girls, in their early teens, rushed down to the water’s edge. There were the usual joyful screeches and high pitched screams as they hopped and danced into the chilly water. With life jackets secured, they swam and splashed like every normal teenage girl swimming at the local lake.   With three daughters of my own, it’s easy to see these teens at Discovery Ranch for Girls as simply friends and neighbors that my own kids hang out with. It’s only when you have knowledge of some of their very personal issues and poignant concerns that you start to understand just how different their life experience has been. Having struggled with adoption, self harm, depression, anxiety, eating disorders and substance experimentation, these teens have found themselves in an emotional state of mind and exibiting behaviors that warrants being placed with a re...

By Stephen C. Schultz I was working in the yard yesterday fixing some sprinklers. My two youngest daughters were weeding the flower beds and raking them out. I had to dig some trenches along the sidewalk to get to the sprinkler pipe. The frustrating thing was that the water would gurgle up through a crack in the sidewalk, so I didn’t know which side I needed to start digging, or even where the leak was. So, I just started digging. Of course, I started on the wrong side. So, once I determined the leak was not from the sprinkler line on the South side of the sidewalk, I started on the North side. It didn’t take long to find the split in the pipe. The temperature had reached close to 100 degrees and I was ready for a break. I went inside and got a drink, then grabbed my keys and headed to the hardware store to get the various parts needed to make the repair. I was happy to be traveling the 15min or so in a nice air conditioned car with my cold 32oz beverage purchased from t...

By Stephen C. Schultz Throughout our lives, from the time we are infants to the transition to adulthood we are constantly moving about. As infants, we travel across the floor on our stomach. As kids we ride the bus to school. As adults we may ride the metro to work and drive our cars to the mall. As kids, we ride our bikes, long boards, skate boards, scooters and tricycles. In rural areas some kids still ride horses to school. Some of us live in the city, others the suburbs and still some out in the country. Our chores may include doing the dishes, mowing the lawn, feeding the cows or moving pipe. These activities of daily living are often simply a part of everyday life. So much so that we may not even pay attention to the patterns and structure of the life we are living. Habits are formed and our perception of our environment becomes numb as we navigate our everyday activities. I recall my mother giving me a ride to school one day. It was early in the morning and the...