While your child is the primary client we work with at Summit Achievement, we believe that a strong family program is an integral part of the overall treatment process and plays a significant role in the success of our students after graduating. The innovative Summit Achievement Parallel Process Curriculum was designed by the renowned author […]
It was 5 AM when the LOD (Leader of The Day), watch went off. My teammates were all sleeping, as were the guides. I woke up my guide, Whitney, who maybe was hoping I would sleep in. We packed day bags and headed up South Bald Face, almost running, so we could get to the […]
by Will White, DA, LCSW, MLADC CSW, MLADC Over 25 years ago, I was part of the team that started Summit Achievement, the country’s first hybrid model wilderness therapy program. Before joining Summit, I practiced as a licensed mental health professional in various organizations, including an outpatient mental health clinic, boarding school, hospital, public […]
By Caitlyn Cook, LCPC, ATR-BC, Clinical Director of Summit Achievement Read the below blog post or watch this new video with Caitlyn talking about the benefits of wilderness therapy for teen girls. When you find your adolescent daughter struggling with anxiety and depression, your first thought might not […]
In this video Nichol Ernst, LCSW, Executive Director, Co-Owner of Summit Achievement reviews the value of our model. Watch the video or scroll below for a summary. We are an owner-operated residential treatment program with a wilderness component that has been continuously operating since 1996. Here is a link for more about our history. Our community of […]
By Mike DeLuca, LCSW Since the days of vision quests in the wild by First Nation youth, or much later in the 1960s when the Colorado Outward Bound School first started using wilderness to foster resiliency, character, and compassion in American youth, humans have sought out wild places for catalysts for change and transformation. Why does […]
Anxiety is challenging for young people and their families and Summit Achievement is here to help. We know that many productive, engaged, and happy children can become withdrawn and sullen to the point of not being able to leave their house or their rooms by the time they reach their teens due to anxiety and […]
Here is a resource outlining how we are handling program operations during the COVID-19 pandemic and the ever-evolving situation here at Summit Achievement. While our campus is quite isolated up here in Maine, we are very aware of the risk of COVID-19 finding its way onto our campus. While we cannot eliminate all risks of […]
Summit Achievement has been continuously operating in the White Mountains of Maine and New Hampshire since 1996. The program has a long history of helping troubled teens and their families find success in every season. It can be seen as a challenge to have a young person attend a wilderness treatment program in winter, but […]
Summit Achievement finds the Stages of Change Model as a beneficial way to look at the change process for troubled teens and young adults. The Stages of Change Model, technically referred to as the Transtheoretical Model of Change, was first developed in 1977 by Dr. James Prochoska at the University of Rhode Island. The premise is […]