Elk River Teen Treatment Program

AIR: The foundation for our residential treatment program

Teens cannot thrive without AIR: Accountability, Integrity and Responsibility

Addressing Core Issues in a Teen's Life using the Courage Circle

Posted on September 24, 2021

In this episode we interview Amy Moor, former Clinical Coordinator at Elk River Treatment Program. Amy answers frequently asked questions about residential treatment for teens, and introduces the Courage Circle - a clinical tool that helps our clients and their families identify core issues that drive destructive and maladaptive behaviors in teenagers.

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Advocating for Your Child's Educational Needs - Part Two

Posted on September 23, 2021

This podcast was recorded at an IECA conference and features Penny Baker from Elk River Treatment Program and Aletha Howie from Restorative Advocacy. In this episode, Penny and Aletha discuss various ways that parents of a child with special education needs can advocate for help and accommodations in order for their child to succeed in school.

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Coming Home from Treatment: A Game Plan for Your Teen

Posted on September 20, 2021

In this episode, we interview Amy Moor, Clinical Coordinator at Elk River Treatment program. Amy discusses several of the pitfalls associated with discharge from a long-term residential treatment, as well as strategies that can help families move forward after residential treatment is over. Among these strategies are structure, boundaries, natural and logical consequences, and positive peer connections.

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Advocating for Your Child's Educational Needs - Part One

Posted on July 13, 2021

Parents should be their child's strongest advocate, but unfortunately, many are unfamiliar with regulations and laws that provide their child the necessary tools to succeed in school. In this episode, Aletha Howie, owner and sole proprietor of Restorative Advocacy and Special Education Coordinator for Elk River Treatment Program, explains the ins and outs of the IEP and 504 plan processes and provides crucial tips about navigating the meetings associated with these plans. Listen to the episode on your favorite platform or see the transcript below.

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Navigating the "Parental Guilt Trip"

Posted on July 13, 2021

This podcast, which was pre-recorded at a conference, features Kathy Marino, Penny Baker, and Holly Hunter, who discuss the ways that parental guilt can interfere with the treatment process for children, and what can be done to change parental guilt into confidence and clarity. Other topics of the podcast include the role of transport companies in residential treatment and manipulation tactics employed by teens to leverage parental guilt.

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Setting Boundaries with Your Teen

Posted on June 16, 2021

Parental relationships play a key role in helping children to address and work through painful events. In this episode, Penny Baker discusses three parenting styles that have long-term impacts on children's behavior. She reveals important ways that establishing appropriate boundaries with children can be foundational to helping them overcome trauma and adverse events in their lives as well as the everyday challenges that families face.

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AIR at Home: Implementing the Concepts

Posted on April 07, 2021

The first episodes of the podcast On AIR with Elk River, Penny Baker, LPC-S, shared the concept of AIR as a treatment philosophy at Elk River Treatment Program for adolescents. The value system of Accountability, Integrity and Responsibility is essential for the character development of our young clients and their families. After listening to the first few episodes, we received feedback from parents of teens who asked, "How do we implement the concepts of AIR at home?"

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Parenting Today's Teens Requires a Course in Responsibility

Posted on October 30, 2020

In this episode, Penny Baker, Director of Clinical Services for Elk River Treatment Program, discusses the importance of building a foundation of accountability, integrity, and responsibility. It's hard to go wrong if you incorporate these critical elements for the healthy development of adolescents and their transition to adulthood.

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Parenting Teens by Modeling Integrity Leads to the Discovery of Authentic Self

Posted on October 14, 2020

After 28 years of counseling families and their teenagers through their most difficult times, Penny Baker, LPC-S, has seen her share of maladaptive behaviors exhibited by the clients of Elk River Treatment Program and the parents who enrolled them into the program. In this podcast, Penny shares a critical piece of the teen parenting puzzle: teaching integrity by what you do rather than what you say. Integrity is second component of the AIR concept which is an acronym for Accountability, Integrity and Responsibility. The AIR concept has been a mantra of Elk River Treatment Program for adolescents since opening in 2006. Today it remains a focal point of the treatment process.

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Instilling Accountability in Adolescents

Posted on October 12, 2020

Our focus in this podcast is AIR. Not just the air that you breathe, but the benefits of Accountability, Integrity and Responsibility. When unhealthy behaviors at home become unsafe, thousands of parents have turned to the therapeutic intervention of Elk River Treatment Program for adolescents. During the initial assessment, many parents describe their teen as "out of control." The results of assessments and evaluations often reveal a frustrated and confused teenager who missed critical areas of adolescent development: Accountability, Integrity and Responsibility. Today's episode focuses on Accountability and how families can model and reinforce it at home in order to develop a healthy value system.

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