Spring Ridge Academy Blog

In a pre-COVID world, one of the major highlights of Phase IV for our students was the integration of friends into the family system. In a COVID world, this feels like an unrealistic expectation with the reality of lockdowns, masks, social distancing, and everyone working together to keep our campus safe by minimizing contact with those outside of the family. Although integrating friends is an exciting part of Phase IV, it is only one small part of what students accomplish in a successful Phase IV and in the program.

Growing up I had a good life. I loved my family, had good friends, and I was a good child overall. As I approached my teens that all began to change. For some reason, I felt I had to rebel in order to live up to the reputation of “Generation X”. Over the next few years I became unruly and uncontrollable.

At the age of fifteen, after multiple failed short-term placements, my parents decided it was time to take serious action. On February 13, 1997, I was sent to Spring Ridge Academy in Spring Valley, Arizona. From then on, my life would never be the same.

Each one of our parents has shared the fear and uncertainty of sending their daughter away to a Therapeutic Boarding School in Arizona. Learn how Jennifer and her husband found hope for their daughter at Spring Ridge Academy.

“I traveled far and wide across the country to examine schools after Wilderness and spent two days at my top choices. I spent a lot of time with the students and the staff. Ultimately, it was the spring in the step of the girls I met that made me choose SRA. I kept hearing from the girls how they “loved” their school.”

Your daughter is heading down a path that you fear she will not come back from. Knowing that changes need to happen you are researching Therapeutic Boarding Schools. Hear from a recent graduate how our program has changed her life.

“I never saw myself as flawed. I never saw myself to be like the “other teenagers” that hit rock bottom. I saw myself as perfect. But, I also found myself suffocating through the life I led. I had extremely unattainable expectations set for myself and an even lower sense of self. I was engulfed by a constant state of anxiety and loomed over by the crippling effects of depression.

Like those “other teenagers” I compared myself to, I was lost. I was completely and utterly lost from myself.”

Once upon a time, there was a curious little girl. This magical child saw herself as special and loved herself. As she grew older, that confidence and spontaneity disappeared. This magical child no longer felt good enough or worthy. The next few years became The Dark Years.

I arrived at Spring Ridge Academy at 17, very much stuck inside the mind of a younger version of myself. I was lost, disconnected from the world, filled with self-hatred, and ready to give up.

Dear Stranger: You don’t know much about me. Hey, I don’t know much about you. But please understand that I don’t care what you’ve done.

When I was around the age of 17 I was in a state of crisis. I isolated myself from the world, secluded from my parents, my friends and even myself. I was in my second semester of my junior year of high school when, out of severe concern, my parents decided to send me to Spring Ridge Academy.

I’d like to start off today’s celebration by posing a question … What is education? Is it having a 4.0 GPA in high school? Is it getting a college degree from an Ivy League school? Or is it becoming a brain surgeon?

Every day of the past 16 months, I’ve been striving to live a meaningful life. At times I’ve doubted myself, but I’ve never lost sight of that light shining bright somewhere in the distance.