Testimonials
" I wept as I recognized the girl that seemed to have been so lost, for so long…
When we arrived at Second Nature, we felt a deep sense of security, presence, compassion and care. It felt sacred. Our Second Nature experience was a journey for all of us. We all had to be willing to change our patterns and to learn where we need to grow. It was not just about having our daughter get fixed. It was an opportunity for her to rediscover her inner strength. It was also a chance for us to witness from afar how capable and strong she is. Forever we have treated her as fragile and she acted fragile because of that. When she was held accountable, challenged, she absolutely rose to that standard.
The details of what happened at wilderness therapy with our daughter doesn’t matter as much as what emerged in her week after week. The first time we spoke to her, after weeks of her own processing, I heard the sweetness in her voice again, the innocence that I believe was stolen from her by trying to survive and fit into this culture. I wept as I recognized the girl that seemed to have been so lost, for so long. She was happy, alive, present, sounded healthy, strong and proud of herself.
The staff at Second Nature, as cliche as it sounds, were like angels on Earth. It was so obvious how deeply they cared for and knew our daughter in such a short time. It was the first time in years that I remember being able to exhale and hand off a burden that crushed us for too long. Our daughter was not a burden, but her emotional and mental instability along with all the unhealthy coping strategies, was an enormous burden that affected everything and our entire family.
She was safe, being cared for, and bit by bit pieced back together. There was so much to learn for us as well in our parenting and how to best love and connect with her that was so overshadowed before by the anger and sadness we felt at her choices. Her bad choices were never meant to hurt, they were all symptoms of how she felt inside. Yet, it was really hard to separate that and not take it personally when we were lied to and betrayed time and time again.
A parenting coach helped us reorient, therapists helped by guiding us to take a look at ourselves at how we contributed in a healthy and not so healthy way. It is humbling when the focus is taken off of our child and instead looked at from a prism so we could see and own our own contribution.
Without us willing to do the work on ourselves, as much as our daughter would have grown and flourished at Second Nature, she would not have been able to hold onto any of if we didn’t all come back together changed and wanting to work toward a better dynamic together.
Kids are suffering. In my opinion it is a worse pandemic than what we endured with Covid. They shut down the whole world for Covid, yet the world keeps spinning while our kids are crying out for help. There have been no less than five families that have reached out to me, this year alone, asking what to do with their child who needs help. One family choose Second Nature for their son and to this day they reach out to thank us for leading him to a place they believe saved his life.
April 2024