Because of Capstone’s commitment to intensive therapy we have the highest therapist to resident ratio of any program in the country; 1 therapist for every 2 residents. All of Capstone’s psychotherapists have earned degrees in Marriage and Family Therapy, eleven with Master’s and two with PhD degrees. Our psychotherapists are licensed as Marriage and Family Therapists and/or Licensed Professional Counselors or LACs and/or LAMFTs. Family Therapy is the therapeutic approach that is most successful with adolescents and young adults. Additionally, all are Part II trained in EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing).

The Personal Therapist walks the resident and the family through the program and is Capstone’s primary liaison with the parents, as well as the referral source. The Personal Therapist conducts the resident’s

• • Individual therapy
• • All of the individual family therapy including weekly phone sessions during treatment
• • Family Week
• • Family Retreat
• • Weekly phone sessions for 3 month post graduation
• • One Day Family Intensive during the 4th month post graduation
• • Family Reunions twice per year
• • Monthly aftercare contact through email for 2 years post graduation

Capstone has a 1 to 2 therapist to resident ratio, which allows the therapists to give the time, energy, and personal relationship to every resident and family. Each resident has four individual therapy hours per week. These sessions are critical in helping each resident get to the “core” of what has been happening in their life and how they ended up where they are. The two aspects of Capstone therapy focus, addiction and the psychological-emotional-relational-spiritual problems, are primarily handled in the resident’s individual therapy sessions.

Group therapy is used throughout the week to create a synergy within the resident community where each young man can learn experientially how to look at himself in the mirror and take responsibility for his choices, relationships, and future. Each resident participates in fifteen hours or more of group therapy weekly. These groups are not educational videos but, instead, interactive groups where we actually teach experientially all of the Capstone Core Concepts, addiction facts, recovery strategies, 12 Step principles, Celebrate Recovery Workbook, relational skills, conflict resolution, relapse prevention, and other important topics.

Each resident’s treatment plan is designed by the treatment team including the Personal Therapist, the other therapists, the Clinical Director, Bonnie Phillips PhD, and the Executive Director, Adrian Hickmon PhD, and is reviewed and updated weekly in team staffing and in the therapists’ individual weekly meeting with the Clinical Director.

The resident’s Personal Therapist provides family therapy for more than 70 hours during the course of treatment and the first three months of aftercare. This includes weekly phone sessions during treatment, the individual family therapy during Family Week and Family Retreat, and weekly phone therapy for three months post graduation. In addition the Personal Therapist provides family therapy for the One-Day Family Intensive (in the 4th month post-graduation), the family’s therapy at Family Reunions (2 free reunion weekends in the first year post-graduation), and monthly follow up emails for two years. Family involvement in treatment is the #1 resource for solutions as well as the #1 indicator of a successful outcome.

Visit the Integration with 12-Steps page >

CBT is utilized to help residents and families understand the origin of their thinking, feeling, behavior, communication, and relationship patterns. Capstone calls these patterns the individual’s "Learned Instinct" and the family's "Language of Relationship”. After identifying the behavioral patterns that need to be changed, strategies to become healthy can be developed and implemented. CBT is based on the perspective that most emotional and behavioral reactions are learned. If they were learned then they can be unlearned, so healthy reactions can develop.

The modules’ focus is on core issues in treatment and recovery, getting healthy, and future relationships and fulfillment. Knowledge of these core issues is a vital component of living healthy and fruitfully. Examples include addiction, relapse prevention, pornography, abuse, relationships, and self-competency.

Developed in 1987 by Dr. Francine Shapiro, EMDR now has countless clinicians worldwide successfully treating patients with phobias, depression, anxiety, and especially Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Painful experiences that occurred when the resident was in a “fight or flight” response get frozen in the brain and the emotions. Consequently the person is harmed in ways that contribute to addictions, relapse, relationship problems and other difficulties. These painful experiences can include sexual abuse (1 in 5 boys in America by age 15 / 1 in 3-4 girls by age 18), parents’ divorce (1 in 2 children by age 18), death of a loved one, fearful experiences, rejections, and betrayals. The American Psychological Association and the American Psychiatric Association recommend EMDR for the treatment of trauma issues. Current research is looking into EMDR as a resource in relapse prevention. Capstone uses EMDR when appropriate for a resident’s therapeutic needs. For extensive research information on EMDR visit their website at www.emdr.com.

One day per week is spent on the ropes course participating in experiential metaphors. The residents participate in group initiatives and individual challenges to create stress, discomfort, fear, and frustration. These real life triggers for relapse, attitude problems, and misbehavior are then worked through in the supportive environment of the challenge course. As the residents are learning how to overcome the ropes course element like the Wall, they are internally learning how to climb “real life” walls such as personal fears and relationship barriers. A second day of each week is spent off campus in Outdoor Adventure Therapy as a part of Capstone’s Displacement Therapy. This is where new things are learned which can displace activities from the old life the residents are trying to change. Outdoor Adventures includes fishing, rock climbing and rappelling, caving, canoeing/kayaking, and hiking. Outdoor Adventure Week is an intensive week where every day is focused on one of these activities.

Canine Therapy is a magical and unique part of Capstone’s program. Each resident receives a registered Labrador retriever puppy when he first gets to Capstone. He feeds the puppy, cleans the kennel twice per day, and spends one hour per day in Canine Therapy. The primary benefit is the relationship between resident and puppy with additional benefits of learning responsibility, self-efficacy from the success with the puppy, and a self-competency from the results of obedience training. Upon graduation the resident takes his new canine friend home with him to enjoy for ten years or more. See Dr. Bonnie Phillips’ dissertation for a deeper look at Capstone’s Canine Therapy program.

Workouts in the weight room, which are augmented by outdoor adventure activities, the ropes course, and work day on Saturday, are vital to recovery and a healthy life. Physical strength and stamina are important, but not nearly as much as the natural high from the exercise or the internal strength from the self discipline and effort it takes to do the workouts well. This is one of the best self-confidence builders for young men. Capstone’s 1600 square foot weight room is full of state of the art exercise equipment. Adolescent males are full of testosterone and invincibility and need plenty of strength exercises. Nothing builds a boy’s confidence like physical strength. Our weight room contains equipment for circuit training on weights as well as cardio exercises. Three days a week, the residents and staff members exercise together in a highly enthusiastic, closely supervised circuit workout. Low weight and high repetitions are used to increase muscle mass and prevent injury. This workout helps prepare both the residents and the staff for outdoor adventures, but the goal is in the character building, the mental health, and the connections made with staff members.