Therapeutic Philosophy

In order to reach the Summit, you must climb the hills and mountains of your own limitations and overcome the fears that keep you from knowing your true self.

The Program at Eagle Summit is based on a Cognitive and Behavioral restructuring, “Group Process” model that is philosophically modeled upon the “Circle of Courage”, a model of positive youth development first developed by Larry Brendtro, Martin Brokenleg, and Steven Van Bockern. It is based upon a Native American philosophy of life.

Native Americans have long raised courageous, respectful, and responsible children without having to use harsh or persuasive techniques for control. Instead, Native Americans implemented techniques aimed at educating and empowering children, all the while treating their children with deep respect, appreciation, and love.

The Circle of Courage, or Courage Path as it is referred to at Eagle Summit, is used to help identify the source of students' behavioral problems, as well as guide our treatment process.

The model represents life as a “wheel” or “circle” with four spokes or supports that run through or intersect the wheel/circle. These supports are intended to keep the “wheel” or person’s life "right" and sound.

The significance in the representation of life as a wheel/circle with the four spokes or supports running through it comes from the Native American belief that all four parts of an individual's wheel/circle must be unbroken, intact, and whole in order for them to have a balanced, secure, self-confident, and pro-social approach toward life. If the wheel/circle is weak, unbalanced, or broken in any area, a person's development, and ultimately their life, are imbalanced and distorted. Therefore, a lack of strength and stability in any of the four areas of development can result in mental, emotional, behavioral, and social difficulties.

We use the Courage Path to identify students' behavioral problems as well as symbolically and tangibly track their progress in the program. Each section of the wheel represents a phase of the program in which students must conquer behavioral and clinical challenges and expectations before moving on to the next phase. Each phase that is gained by a student represents behaviors that have been improved, relearned, or replaced and it also represents core clinical issues that have been or are being faced.

Our clinical program is based upon Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT). DBT maintains that some people, due to unstable and invalidating environments and due to biological factors that are yet unknown, react abnormally to emotional stimulation. Their level of arousal goes up much more quickly, peaks at a higher level, and takes more time to return to a baseline. Many teens do not have any methods for coping with these sudden, intense surges of emotion and act out inappropriately and destructively in response to them. DBT is a method for teaching skills that will help with this task.