An Integrated Model of Care and Education: Wellspring and the Arch Bridge School

Residential Treatment” has been under assault for some time, as you may know. Critics have made claims about its shortcomings, many of which are absolutely true. But residential treatment is not just one model. There have been several models available to families that have been successful, time...

Not-So-Grand Parenting

As a mid-70’s, semi-retired person, the problems I suffer with aging go hand in hand with the joys of being a grandparent – the latter compensating for the former, at least for a time. Recently, my wife and I as part of the Wellspring Institute conducted a series of counseling groups at a local...

Outdated Perspective, Says Who? Therapeutic Work Programs with Land and Animals

In 1870 the Quakers’ Friends Hospital used greenhouses and acres of its natural landscape as integral parts of treatment for the mentally ill. At the turn of the century, Frederick Peterson, a neurologist and head of the New York State Board of Lunacy, did the same with a state asylum. Both the...

Recovering the Person in Treatment

Person-centered recovery could well be reframed as recovering the person; for isn’t that what treatment is ultimately about? At Wellspring, a multi-service mental health agency in Bethlehem, Connecticut, we base our relational approach to treatment and education on a multi-dimensional concept of...

Healing PTSD Through Relationship and Touch

When six-year-old Mandi* came to us, she had suffered significant trauma in her early years from a drug-addicted mother, a father in prison, and several disrupted foster placements. She reacted to any limit setting with uncontrollable tantrums, terrorizing and discouraging her latest well-meaning...

PTSD, Anxiety, and Disordered Attachment

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is listed in the DSM IV as an Anxiety Disorder, and rightfully so. But trauma as a source of anxiety is also a frequent component of disordered attachment, except that trauma here is from the cumulative effects of early neglect and abuse, rather than the shock of...