Families
Supporting & working with the family through the treatment process
“The best part about the seminar was seeing the progress in our son and seeing the level of interest, involvement, and care taken by his guides, therapist, and Aspiro staff.”
– Parent
Parent Coaching
At Aspiro, we understand the importance of supporting and working with the family through the treatment process in order to help facilitate systemic changes. Students and parents communicate through letter writing during the program, which allows them each to be open, honest, emotionally vulnerable and to slow down communication without fear of emotional reactions. Therapeutic journaling and letter writing are powerful and effective tools that establish healthy communication and closer relationships.
Parents/guardians will have a weekly therapy and coaching call with their child’s clinician, which will include progress updates, recommendations, and suggestions on effective parenting styles. The clinician will provide reading and writing assignments to parents that will parallel the work that the student is doing in the wilderness, and process concepts such as boundary setting, empathy, communication, and more.
Parent Seminar
Midway through the program, you will attend parent seminar. The seminar is intended to provide a structured, positive reunion between you and your child. We know both you and your child have experienced change over the first several weeks and hope to offer a comfortable environment for your family to have a respectful understanding and effective reconnection. You are likely to see many areas of growth within yourself and your child. It is also possible that you may see some regression of past behaviors or see areas where growth is still needed.
The seminar is a two-day experience designed to provide learning opportunities through instruction and activities. Seminar topics include reducing collusion, healthy communication, and reconnecting family relationships.
A primary goal at the parent seminar is for each family member to learn self- reflection strategies and how behavioral patterns affect family relationships. Most parents attend a workshop midway through their son or daughter’s stay at Aspiro. Following the seminar students remain at Aspiro for a number of weeks, that will be collaboratively determined by the parents and primary therapist, based on student progress and plans for transition. Seminars are typically scheduled monthyly. Parents are encouraged to work with their therapist to determine the most appropriate seminar to attend.
The parent seminar can be hard, but hopefully it is the “good kind of hard” that moves you and your family forward along life’s journey. We do our best to help make sure things go smoothly but we also understand and embrace the fact that therapy can sometimes be messy. Parents often describe the seminar as fun, relaxed, exciting and emotionally challenging.