Turning Winds Reflects on Two Decades of Changing Lives Through Therapeutic Education

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Turning Winds Reflects on Two Decades of Changing Lives Through Therapeutic Education

In Montana’s still-wilderness, where tall pines reach for endless skies and nature provides much-needed space to heal, one organization made it a purpose to change lives. Turning Winds, a family-run therapeutic boarding school and residential treatment center, has been helping adolescents and their families through some of life’s greatest difficulties for over twenty years. John Baisden Sr. and Jr. founded Turning Winds in 2002 after their family suffered an agonizing personal loss. What began as significant suffering became a platform and process to offer hope to youth in crisis and their families.

The Beginnings of Turning Winds

The story of Turning Winds is deeply personal and meaningful. In 1993, founder John Baisden Jr lost his sister to violence. She had issues of belonging and became involved with a mentally unhealthy young man; ultimately, their relationship ended in tragedy when she was murdered two weeks before her 18th birthday.

Baisden lost himself in grief. He struggled with addiction and suicidal ideation following his sister’s murder. Through it all, he found a purpose in life: to create a safe environment for teenagers to heal from trauma, addiction, and mental illness before the problem spiraled out of control. This vision became Turning Winds, a program designed to help adolescents avoid the suffering his family went through.

Mission and Philosophy

Since its inception, the mission of Turning Winds has been straightforward: divert teens in crisis, reinstate their belief systems of who they want to be, and reunite the family. The organization leads by stating that real change cannot happen just through academics or therapy separately, but rather the healing process must occur through human connection, acceptance, and caring.

As leadership regularly states, “Everything that we do at Turning Winds is based on relational connections.” That philosophy is exemplified not only by the daily operational decisions made within this school but through the program’s broader identity as a community of students, families, and staff who are part of an extended family.

Holistic and Integrated Care Model

What sets Turning Winds apart is its Integrated Therapeutic Curriculum (ITC). The ITC model combines clinical therapy, academics, outdoor education, intramural sports, and group processing.

Key aspects include:

Accredited academics: The program is fully accredited by Cognia, so students remain fully engaged in the academic process with licensed/certified teachers who provide individualized one-on-one instruction.

Therapeutic quality: Licensed clinicians provide individual, group, and family therapy with evidence-based methods, including cognitive behavioral and experiential methods.

Accreditation in treatment: The Center is accredited by The Joint Commission, viewed as the gold standard in healthcare quality and safety.

Outdoor experiential learning: Hiking, biking, sailing, and service to others are done in therapeutic pursuits that optimize the healing power of nature while teaching resilience and real-world skills.

This holistic framework recognizes that change in any given area, emotional, physical, or academic, can catalyze development in other areas of growth. The alternative school extends the same kind of care management beyond the classroom and therapy room to educate, nurture, and promote balanced development.

Family Integration and Levels of Care

Turning Winds provides several levels of care, including residential treatment, partial hospitalization, and intensive outpatient programming. This range allows staff to be adaptive as the needs of the students change. Students may require different levels of care during their treatment process, and that continuum ensures that the appropriate care is provided at various levels, depending on the student’s needs.

The program also incorporates an equally important component for the family. Parents and guardians have a role, and they are a part of therapy sessions, workshops, and assignments to increase connection to their child. The program has an alumni-and-parent-support network, including weekly virtual meetings and independent peer groups, including a parent-run Facebook group. These groups continue to cheer students on well after discharge!

Unique Benefits

Through the years, Turning Winds has separated itself with many unique advantages:

Long-Term Placement

Turning Winds works with students over a longer time frame of six to nine months. This allows for deeper change in terms of behavioral and emotional patterns.

High Graduation Rates

Approximately 98% of graduates go on to continue their education in college or trade school due to renewed self-esteem and academic preparedness.

Insurance Accessibility

The program works with both in-network and out-of-network insurance, including TriCare, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Optum, Cigna, and Aetna. Insurance coverage provides a way for families all over the country to access the program with lowered financial obstacles.

Disconnected Technology

Without the need to manage digital distractions, we help teens regain authentic social skills, self-awareness, and healthier interactions with peers.

Fun Experience

The program we purposely made fun of by engaging students in various activities and experiences that are both alternative and appealing to engage them in the healing process.

Continuity with Alumni and Families

Through classes, teleconferences, service projects, and weekly programs, our alumni and families remain connected to Turning Winds long after their students have completed the program.

Achievements and Milestones

Celebrating the 20th anniversary was a monumental milestone for the organization. Few treatment centers can create impact and sustain themselves for that period, which illustrates the relevance of the program.

Among many accomplishments:

• Legislative Advocacy: Supporting policy change in Montana on SB191 to improve access to mental health treatment.
• International Service: Service trips internationally have supported students’ ability to benefit from the experience of service and support the mission for students of the Program.
• Alumni: Many graduates return to visit, share their experiences, or even become staff, highlighting the importance of continuity.
• Innovative Outreach: In 2023, Turning Winds launched its podcast to share the experience of treatment and transformation.

Overall, these milestones highlight the Program’s focus on the transformation of the individual and the organizations surrounding them.

Addressing Challenges in the Industry

Coping with Difficulties in the Industry Working in the broader field of adolescent treatment has had its challenges. The “troubled teen industry” has drawn scrutiny and skepticism from the public due to ethical violations.  This is evident in the documentary The Program on Netflix, which changed many mental perceptions of residential treatment.

Turning Winds has simply doubled down on its values of caring. Instead of arguing whether something is true, the organization focuses on authentic outcomes regardless of the negativity and persistent kindness. Leadership acknowledges criticism and makes a continued effort to improve treatment practice, train staff, and network with other providers to ensure follow-through with best practice.

Supporting Staff and Building Culture

The success of the program goes back to the staff and supporting their well-being and development. Continuing education, professional development, and collaborating with others provide workers with the necessary tools with which to serve students.

Turning Winds is often described as relational or a family. The daily rhythm of both staff and students is created in a community founded on compassion, trust, and connectedness. The community, diversity, and inclusion are not built on policy statements or posters on the wall, but on intentional hiring practices and creating a welcoming environment.

Service and Community Engagement

There is no “community service” for students. Service is woven into the therapeutic model, and students embrace a gradual shift from being a recipient of help to a giver. At the local level, this could be community events, supporting local school districts, or dropping off firewood to neighbors in need. In recent years, there have also been international service trips that provide students with valuable opportunities to enlarge their worldview and to serve communities internationally.

All these experiences build on empathy, responsibility, and connectedness, which are fundamental to long-term recovery and growth.

Measuring Impact

For Turning Winds, it’s not quotas or financial sustainability that determines success, it is the students! and the families that trust them to be a resourceful, pioneering youth support services organization. Quantitative counts, such as academic performance, graduation, and long-term commitment from alumni, are all metrics that can be easily counted. However, the stories of overcoming, reuniting families, and being celebrated as a community narrative through our alumni participation in community events or podcasts are equally important.

Success can be measured by the fact that a majority of the students decide to stay connected to the Turning Winds community long after their journey with them.

Conclusion

In a time when adolescents are under greater pressures, isolation, and uncertainty than ever before, Turning Winds is needed for each youth to have a safe haven to land. By intertwining accredited academics, evidence-based therapy, outdoor education, and family emphasis, they provide more than treatment; they provide transformation.

For more than two decades, Turning Winds has allowed its success to speak for itself. Through compassion, resilience, and supportive connection, it is more than a therapeutic program, and more than a residential treatment center, way more than a movement to disrupt the way we can help young people write the next chapter or chapters in their lives with purpose, confidence, and hopeful futures!