Eagle Summit is a therapeutic residential treatment center for troubled adolescent males. It is a place where teens are challenged to grow and thrive intellectually, emotionally, spiritually, and behaviorally… “A Place Where Young Men's Futures Take Flight!”

Our experiential, outdoor component engages our students in events that place them in unfamiliar settings, where things happen unexpectedly. These situations challenge residents to not only work together as a collective team, but to also embrace and accept one another's strengths and weaknesses as they look to solve problems and overcome obstacles as a group.

Through the use of Natural and Logical consequences and a Positive Peer Culture/ Group Model, we foster and encourage each resident to learn to consistently accept responsibility for their actions and become conscious of how their actions affect others.

The clinical model practiced at Eagle Summit is based on Dialectical Behavior Therapy, an evidence-based practice proven successful with alleviating anxiety, emotional distress, and struggles in relationships. Students learn to accept and manage distressing emotions and situations without making destructive, self-defeating choices.

At Eagle Summit, students confront concrete, immediate challenges through reality-based counseling. Using the outdoors and the Native American culture as motif, we teach young men to adapt to novel situations with confidence and self-assurance, employing the principles of cognitive behavioral therapy, achievement motivation training, applied social learning theory, group process, and experiential learning. Through the development of student relationships with our strong, competent, and caring staff, young men learn new ways to think, feel, and behave.

The program includes a strong emphasis on parent support and training, both instructive and experiential. We involve parents as our “partners” in the students' treatment process through monthly visits on campus, weekly phone calls, and weekly family therapy.

Our typical length of stay is 7-9 months.

Program Description

Our students typically exhibit Oppositional Defiant Disorder or other behavioral problems such as Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, Anxiety Disorder and its variants, Depression, Learning Disabilities, Substance Abuse, Significant Family Dysfunction, and Adoption/Divorce issues.

Eagle Summit does not accept students who possess severe intellectual deficits or those with active eating disorders, predatory behavior, or psychotic episodes. The students are best depicted as “struggling” or “reluctant” teens. The adolescents must be physically capable of vigorous exercise without significant physical ailments or conditions.

While at Eagle Summit, all teens attend school daily and earn educational credits with the assistance of our certified teaching staff through our accredited program.

Each student will receive:

• Low staff to student ratio (1:7)
• Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (2 hours, twice weekly)
• Weekly individual and family therapy
• Intensive initial workshop for new students
• Experiential learning, including adventure-based trips
• Monthly parent trainings and support groups
• Aftercare support
• Gear
• Psychiatric and nursing services on campus
• Earned therapeutic home passes and other privileges

Treatment Team

Eagle Summit uses a “Team” approach when working with our students. Staff members are carefully selected for their educational and professional experiences, as well as for their ability to be mature, responsible, ethical, and compassionate role models.

Professional staff includes a physician, clinicians, a nurse, and trained counselors. Our team approach facilitates continuity of care, objective interaction and mentoring, and constant supervision and management of physical needs/health and medications. Each student's treatment team meets on a weekly basis to discuss the child's needs and progress through the program.

When your teen is admitted to Eagle Summit, he will be assigned to a group of six to eight young men with similar behavioral and mental health issues. Each group is led by experienced, bachelor's degreed, trained counselors, including senior supervisory staff, and a therapist. Our Clinicians are qualified mental health professionals (i.e. Psychologists, Clinical Social Workers, Licensed Professional Counselors, and Marriage and Family Therapists). Your son's therapist is your line of communication for keeping you informed of his progress, problems, and status in the program. Updates are made on a weekly basis via email and phone calls.

Although not part of the usual services at Eagle Summit, we are capable of performing Psychological Evaluations including personality, intelligence, vocational interest, alcohol and drug assessment, and academic (achievement level and/or learning disabilities determination) testing. These evaluations are useful in establishing diagnoses and making treatment decisions. If your child does not have current (within one year) testing, we will need to procure evaluations soon after admission.