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A Reflection on the Holidays, the New Year, and Values from MVTC’s Clinical Director

Posted on by Carl Lovejoy

A Reflection on the Holidays, the New Year, and Values

As we enter the holiday season, I have had some time to reflect and relax a bit with my family, went to church, and then was able to spend time with the current residents on campus playing games and checking in.  I also spent time thinking about my values, the values of this holiday season, and the values of Mountain Valley.  Values are commonly discussed in ACT and other forms of therapy and it’s easy for me to be reminded of this during this time of the year.

Some Core Values of Mountain Valley:

1.) We want to help

This may seem a bit cliché, but it’s the reason that we go to work at MV each day.  It’s part of the reason that Mountain Valley was created; to provide the highest-quality anxiety and OCD treatment using CBT, ERP, and ACT.  And, it’s part of what drives us in teaching our residents and guiding our families through challenging times.

2.) Freedom

At Mountain Valley, we are working to help our residents and their families become free from the constraints of anxiety and OCD.  As related to the holiday, one value that comes across in Chanukah is that of freedom from oppression.  In the Mountain Valley context, I tend to view this as freedom from the anxieties that keep us from engaging in our lives and doing that which is important to us…the anxieties that oppress us and keep us trapped and stuck.

3.) Perseverance and Courage

The values of perseverance and courage are what continues to motivate us to overcome obstacles and to take on challenges especially when it is tough.  We work to harness these values in our residents and families to help them through their anxiety and OCD.  I think about this often in the context of exposure therapy and how it is inherently a challenging endeavor.  I’ve also been thinking about this in the context of Christmas – the story of a child, Jesus, being born homeless into a life of challenge, but who also lived a life full of meaning and whose message of peace is still present today.

On a more light-hearted note, I was also reminded of perseverance and courage recently by the famous cowboy John McClane, who overcame his fear of flying, heights, tight spaces, and worries about letting others down.  Against all odds, his perseverance and courage helped him to truly save his family and the Nakatomi Plaza Christmas Party of 1988.

4.) Acceptance 

Acceptance has two meanings at Mountain Valley.  In one way, it is about accepting your circumstances and still finding a way forward and living your life.  It’s about not letting your anxiety or OCD keep you down.  Much like the story of Ralphie and the Red Ryder BB gun (“You’ll shoot your eye out!”), sometimes the dogs get your Christmas dinner before you do, but, you still have to make the best of it and find a way forward.  Sometimes it even turns out better than you anticipated.

In another way, acceptance is more about fitting in and feeling connected to others.  Rudy the Red-Nose Reindeer had a hard time starting out and did not fit in with the other reindeer.  I heard that they used to laugh, call him names, and not even let him play reindeer games, like Monopoly!  Eventually, he found his groove though and found acceptance.  At Mountain Valley, our residents are some of the best you could ever ask for.  They are truly what makes this a wonderful program.  I’m consistently impressed with their genuine and heartfelt care and support for each other.

5.) Family

Renowned food additive designer Clark Griswold, also well-known for his value of family and tradition, would stop at nothing to ensure a wonderful holiday for his family.  He would also do so with enough cheer and positivity for all.  Much like Clark, though less accident-prone and with fewer lights on our campus, Mountain Valley values the families with whom we work.  We work to guide families through the challenges of anxiety and OCD and to develop new ways of supporting each other and helping each other grow.  We understand that for many parents, leaving their teen in treatment is one of the most difficult things that they’ll ever do.  We appreciate this and will continue to work to the best of our abilities to do right by you and your family.

Wishing you all peace on Earth and psychological flexibility this holiday season!

Dr. Timothy DiGiacomo, Clinical Director

 

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A Complete Guide To School Refusal & Anxiety

Posted on by Carl Lovejoy

As we transition back to a post-COVID world, where you are expected to get “back to normal”, are you finding that returning to a daily routine is easier said than done? Is it hard to return to sports, work, social events and school? Where does the difficulty stem from? Is it: fear, sadness, stagnation, or anxiety? Often, this difficulty to return to normal is a sign that there are big emotional challenges ahead. School refusal can be the “canary in the coal mine”; a sign that you are facing some mental health challenges that are becoming insurmountable.

How School Refusal Manifests

Anxiety and depression coupled with a long period of isolation in the home can lead to school avoidance and refusal. Whether the anxiety is based on academics, safety, or social interactions, school is often a hot bed of uncomfortable situations. Around every corner a young person faces the real threat of discomfort, stress, and challenges. It is far easier to stay at home where life is safe and secure, than to learn to sit with discomfort and push through anxious feelings. This can lead to school phobia or a general pattern of school avoidant behavior.

Feelings of stress or anxiety is a normal part of life. It is a natural reaction to a dangerous situation, whether it be real or just perceived. When feelings of anxiety increases in severity or frequency, this normal discomfort could become an anxiety disorder. An anxiety disorder is characterized by intense, excessive and persistent worry and fear about everyday situations. People with excessive anxiety may anticipate disaster and be overly concerned about school, health, family, friends, or other issues. And while anxiety can occur at any age, it can be especially detrimental to the development of teens and adolescents.

Like other mental health diagnoses, anxiety has symptoms that can affect people of all ages and walks of life. Anxiety typically presents itself with both mental and physical signs.

Common Anxiety Signs and Symptoms Include:

  • Nervousness, restlessness or tenseness
  • A sense of impending danger, panic or doom
  • Increased heart rate and rapid breathing
  • Moodiness
  • Exhaustion or unexplainable tiredness
  • Trouble concentrating during daily tasks
  • Difficulties with sleep
  • Somatic symptoms such as headaches, muscle aches or stomach distress
  • The urge to avoid things that trigger anxiety

When symptoms of anxiety in a young person becomes overwhelming, or begins to affect quality of life, they might be diagnosed with an anxiety disorder. The most common anxiety diagnosis is Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) which is marked by persistent anxiety that is out of proportion with actual circumstances. Other anxiety diagnoses include: Agoraphobia, Panic Attacks, Selective Mutism, Separation Anxiety, Social Anxiety, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, and Specific Phobias.

The Larger Concerns That School Avoidance Signifies

School avoidance and refusal is often the “emergent situation’ that highlights that normal stress has transformed to a true anxiety disorder. Refusing to attend school is a symptom of the larger problem; it’s important to treat the anxiety in order to return to normal daily activities. The goal is to determine the roots of the anxiety and then help develop new skills and strategies to overcome these feelings.

Treating School Anxiety Disorders

Treatment programs, such as Mountain Valley, help young people learn more about their school anxiety and develop tools to overcome it. Each resident at Mountain Valley receives an individualized treatment plan that includes: therapy, academics, and fun. Every activity at Mountain Valley focuses on the tenets of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) . CBT and ERP helps young people face the foundation of their anxious feelings and learn how to overcome those feelings. This helps them shatter the cycle of anxiety with a deliberate, careful, and kind approach.

Through approaching school refusal and anxiety by treating the underlying problem, we are able to develop new skills to tackle any discomfort a young person might face. By utilizing evidence based practice to overcome barriers to daily living, young people are able to learn how to “sit with it” and become more comfortable with the inherent challenges that come with being a young person.

 

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How Exposure And Response Prevention Therapy Can Help Families And Teens With OCD And Anxiety

Posted on by Carl Lovejoy

Unwanted or alarming thoughts creep into everyone’s head from time to time. Many people are aware of these thoughts and recognize that they are meaningless and temporary. People with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) often experience these thoughts as intensely frightening and extremely real. As a result, they often develop ritualized responses or avoidance in order to lessen the discomfort and as a perceived way to decrease the chances of a feared outcome occurring.

For example, when a loved one leaves your home, you might think, “I hope they return home safely.” In a typical circumstance, you probably would not think much more about it. A person with a fear of harm OCD would likely experience that same situation very differently. They might experience an exceptionally intense fear that harm will befall their loved ones, a feeling that will be persistent and convincing that danger is imminent. They might even experience intrusive images in their mind of something terrible happening to their loved one. As a result, they may engage in checking compulsions, such as checking the weather forecast repeatedly or checking the news for stories of a tragedy involving their loved one. They might experience brief relief each time they refresh the weather forecast but the urge to check will quickly return. They might even call or text their loved ones to check on them, often repeatedly and urgently. This loved one might kindly reassure them that all is well, unaware that reassurance actually perpetuates and worsens OCD. This is where Exposure and Response Prevention Therapy has proven results.

Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) Therapy provides deliberate and graduated exposure to situations that provoke obsessive thoughts, and the resulting distress while helping to prevent their compulsive responses. It also provides supported opportunities to learn new patterns of behavior without avoiding feared situations. This functions to increase an individual’s distress tolerance and opportunities to learn how to cope effectively. It also simultaneously allows someone with OCD to realistically test out the likelihood of a feared outcome and potentially develop a sense of self-efficacy about coping with a feared outcome. 

ERP leads to a change in one’s relationship with anxiety-provoking situations, thoughts, and intrusive images. Such change often leads to an eventual decrease in symptoms of anxiety and OCD, an increase in functionality, and an ability to engage in the world rather than isolate and avoid.

About the Author:

Brittany Little, LICSW, is a Clinician at Mountain Valley Treatment Center. Brittany has a BA in Music Therapy and her MSW from the University of North Carolina. She is intensively trained in Dialectical Behavior Therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Exposure and Response Prevention and other evidence-based anxiety treatments.

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Utilizing Nonviolent Communication Skills in Teen Anxiety Treatment

Posted on by Carl Lovejoy

Nonviolent Communication (NVC) is a formula for communication that is meant to encourage compassion both with others and with oneself. The formula was devised by a renowned conflict mediator named Marshall B Rosenberg, who spent many years helping nations and individuals find peace between each other. NVC provides a framework to focus attention on what we are observing, feeling, and needing, rather than insulting, judging, and blaming. NVC is a “language of compassion,” as Rosenburg puts it in his book Nonviolent Communication: a Language of Life. Using NVC, we can unlock a deeper understanding of what is going on inside ourselves. It provides a way for us to develop empathy not just for other people, but for ourselves. This self-empathy can have a profound influence on teen anxiety treatment as it teaches young people skills that diverts their attention away from judging themselves and turns it towards their emotions and the needs that fuel them.  

 

Nonviolent Communication includes four components that can be applied to both sides of communicating: listening and expressing: 1) make observations without evaluations, 2) identify one’s emotions, 3) identify one’s needs and how they affect the emotions, and 4) make a request that would enrich life and get needs met. While the formula is simple, it is admittedly difficult to remember to go through these steps while conversing normally, let alone while talking to someone with emotions running high. It can be equally difficult to apply these steps when talking to oneself, which is something most of us do when we are angry and sad. It can be difficult, but with practice, these tools can become readily available even in the most emotional situations.

 

Imagine you’ve recently done something you regret. Maybe you were arguing with your mother; she told you that you need a new career path because you’re not making enough money at your job. But you love your job, so you got angry and yelled at her. Now, a few days have passed and you are berating yourself for being so mean to your mother. In this example, emotion has been identified: anger. Observation has also been made: you yelled at your mother. Making an observation and identifying an emotion are the first two components of NVC. The third component is identifying the needs that are affecting the emotions.  

 

To satisfy the third component, NVC asks “what needs were you trying to meet by yelling at your mother?” You’re pursuing a career that you find meaningful, even if it doesn’t earn a lot of money. Your mother, though, doesn’t seem to understand that. The unmet need in question here is “understanding from your mother.”

 

The ability to identify your unmet needs can be a big relief; it tells you that there was some rationale behind your behaviors. Understanding that there was some rationale behind our behaviors is a step toward self-empathy. Self-empathy is a crucial step toward growth, as it allows us to love ourselves. Loving ourselves can give us the sense of security we need to sit with anxiety and discomfort. 

 

Understanding your needs can help you move on to the fourth component of NVC and make a specific request that would get your needs met. By teaching NVC in anxiety treatment, the client begins to develop a strategy for difficult emotions. The self-empathy that results from acknowledging the needs is more conducive to growth than focusing on the difficulty at hand. To a teen suffering anxiety, this self-empathy can be life-changing. 

 

About the author

 

With a B.A in Environmental Studies, Nathan graduated from Prescott College in Prescott, AZ in 2014. Shortly thereafter he moved to Vermont and ever since has worked as a land steward, a youth mentor, an environmental educator, and an animal trainer. Additionally, he has served his local community by volunteering his time for restorative justice, animal rescue, and community dinners in the Upper Valley. Through all this work, he has discovered in himself an inherent desire to listen, be it to the land, the birds, or to the people around him. At Mountain Valley, he intends to use that desire to help the residents find validation, peace, and power.

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Courage & Perseverance at MVTC – Omar Shah, MVTC Psychiatry Fellow

Posted on by Carl Lovejoy
Omar
Rotating at Mountain Valley Treatment Center (MVTC) has been a great experience for me. It has brought to life, the theory I have read, regarding therapy for OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder), anxiety and depression. No longer is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy just a theoretical tool to be used for me. It is practical and an effective method of treatment for severe mental health symptoms. On the surface, it appears patients are doing well and are merely having some dysregulation with their mood and/or anxiety. But under the surface, they feel they are drowning and they cannot function the way they want to any longer.

Like many psychiatric residents, I have read endlessly about the benefits of psychotherapy for mental illness. I have provided therapy myself to many patients. However, interning in a residential facility which hosts patients with few other options, has been a real eye opener for me. I have found that a tremendous amount of work goes into treatment here, both by providers and by patients. Interactions are intimate, subtle and profoundly meaningful. The power of active listening, emotional validation and eliciting information in a nonjudgmental manner is not lost on me. Therapy consists of sharing real life experiences, purposeful progression and encouragement every step of the way. After my experience here, I do not think it can be any other way. It seems a multi prong approach is necessary to fight the anxiety and depression the patients are dealing with. For example, OCD can be severely debilitating. It takes courage and faith on the patient’s part to tackle their compulsions. I’ve learned it is difficult to challenge OCD without a supportive environment and having good morale. It is not as simple as a quick fix with some medications and some exposure response prevention (ERP) treatment. There are lifestyle changes involved and perseverance is needed. The patient’s family support and academics are just part of the overall picture.

My respect for the patients and their providers has grown over the course of my rotation at MVTC. Treatment for the patients may at times feel slow or even futile because of the nature of the illness they are suffering from. But with vigorous therapy and positivity, it seems the illness eventually succumbs to the will of the patient. They learn to master their problems to the point of being able to live with them, if not completely getting rid of them. They regain the peace of mind and function they once enjoyed. It is truly humbling and joyful to see this transition taking place.

The experiential learning of various therapies for OCD, anxiety and depression has been very beneficial for me. When I read about these treatments or refer a patient for treatment, I am more appreciative of what that entails. I can visualize the frustration the patients might be having or the fear they may be experiencing, dealing with their mental illness head on. I am also more aware of the belief in themselves, they are leaning on, for the tasks in front of them. I feel I will be a stronger source of support for my patients now than I was before my rotation at MVTC.

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Inside One Teen Girl’s Struggle to Manage Anxiety during the Pandemic

Posted on by Carl Lovejoy

The pandemic has created challenges for all of us. People Magazine recently published a profile of our resident, Kaylie, who is one of the growing number of American teens who suffer from an anxiety disorder.

Her mom Lisa explains: ‘Mountain Valley was the first time Kaylie had to take care of Kaylie and do the hard work on her own.’

[button href=”https://people.com/health/inside-one-teen-girls-struggle-to-manage-anxiety-during-the-pandemic/” target=”_blank” style=”primary” alignment=”center” color=”normal”]Learn More[/button]

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4 Tips for Choosing the Best Anxiety Treatment Center for Families

Posted on by Carl Lovejoy

Effective treatment for anxiety disorders is very specific and should be individualized for each client. There are many programs and treatment centers that add anxiety to the list of conditions they treat, but very few are utilizing evidence-based practices or have clinicians trained appropriately in the “gold standard”, Exposure and Response Prevention or ERP. 

Exposure and Response Prevention is a type of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy where the client gradually confronts the fear, worry or situation and eventually, the client learns that the fear, worry or situation does not produce the negative outcome they believe will occur, thus their relationship with that fear, worry or situation is such that their quality of life is improved. Getting to and through this process requires a skilled clinician, defined period of time, and a good rapport, trust and communication between the client and the clinician. 

A clinician supporting ERP is a key imperative for the process as is the ability of the clinician and other staff to provide education about anxiety, its impact on the body and senses, and terminology related to ERP. The staff must be able to provide this psychoeducation in such a way that the client understands based on their age and cognitive functioning. 

Over the past several years working with families and clients to determine if Mountain Valley Treatment Center is a good fit for their needs, I have found myself in a position of highlighting our program structure and educating families on what to look for when selecting an appropriate program. 

With all that in mind, here are 4 tips for choosing the best anxiety treatment center:

1. Look for an Anxiety Treatment Center Where the Clients Tend to Have Similar Presenting Issues

The center should have a population of clients with similar presenting issues, those being anxiety disorders, OCD and related disorders. Many anxiety treatment centers have clientele with a wide array of challenges such as substance use disorders, aggressive behaviors, and varying degrees of cognitive functioning. 

2. Make Sure the Anxiety Treatment Center Provides CBT & ERP Therapy

Do they provide CBT and ERP? A center that says they specialize in treating anxiety disorders must be providing sound exposure and response prevention therapy. ERP should also be conducted in a variety of environments and based on the client’s individual needs. 

3. Make Sure the Anxiety Treatment Center Provides Individualized Treatment Plans

Ensure that the center creates and updates specific, individualized treatment plans for each client. Additionally, there should be a system in place whereby the client, and family have access to the plan and sign them. Typically, an initial treatment plan will be developed upon admission and be based on information collected during the admissions process. Once admitted and after a period of time to gather information, the clinical team and the client/family will create a master treatment plan with goals and objectives. Treatment plans should also be updated as necessary and based on evolving progress in treatment.

4. Do They Have An Integrated Team Approach To Care?  

A clinically sound treatment center will follow best practices and have a multi-disciplinary team working with, monitoring, and documenting a client’s treatment and care. This team should be communicating with each other on a regular basis. A typical treatment team will consist of the individual clinician managing the client’s case, an individual representing the programming who can provide information about a client’s functioning outside of therapy such as during activities and after hours, and a medical representative who can contribute information in the area of medications or physical/medical conditions.

At the end of the day, everyone connected to the client wants them to have a successful treatment experience and get the help they need. Finding the right treatment center is one of the first steps.

If you found these tips helpful, and would like to learn more about treatment, and about Mountain Valley, contact us today.

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Anxiety, Instinct and The Senses

Posted on by Carl Lovejoy

As we all move (sweat) into July, I began thinking about our natural instinct in managing anxiety and its relationship with our five senses – taste, see, hear, smell and touch. We have all heard of the “fight, flight or freeze” instinct we are born with when responding to disturbing thoughts, feelings and events. Remember the Sabre-Toothed tiger story? My drive to work the other day got me thinking about how the senses can be impacted when we are fearful and worried.

As I wound my way down River Road on the way to campus, with windows down, passing the dairy farm (smell), with the sunlight reflecting off the Connecticut River (sight), sipping my coffee, purchased from the Starbucks ‘near’ campus – only 12 minutes away (taste), the wind blowing through my hair (hear), and feeling the heat of my seat heater on my rear-end (touch) – I had accidentally turned it on; I came up with the idea of asking some of our residents how their particular anxiety affects their senses. Later that day, I had the perfect opportunity during our new Elements Activity Therapy module. A group was preparing the hints and identifying locations around campus for the scavenger hunt later in the day. I asked the question. The three most common responses were (1) blurred or tunnel vision, (2) nausea, and (3) dry mouth.

At Mountain Valley we help residents develop skills to get in touch with how their body reacts to fear and worry. For example, practicing cognitive defusion so the thoughts don’t control the feelings resulting in the ineffective coping skills. As a result of this work, getting your senses back to where they can be appreciated in the moment to become aware of the positive things around you – like on my drive into work, will make for a more enjoyable life after Mountain Valley.

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A Much Needed Dose of Support from Lyme, NH Psychiatrist, Dr. Barbara Wilson

Posted on by Carl Lovejoy

Lyme, NH psychiatrist, Dr. Barbara Wilson, offers the Mountain Valley family a “daily dose of support” – My Version of Anxiety isn’t your Version of Anxiety!

In a previous life in outpatient psychiatry, I would frequently see patients who are struggling with social anxiety. A recurring comment from them was “every time I walk down the street it looks as though people are staring at me and are angry with me. I can see it on their faces.“ My reply to this would be, “have you ever considered the possibility that they are all constipated? “ In truth, it was likely far more probable that the majority of the people are walking down the street constipated versus thinking about how much they don’t like a person walking past them with whom they’ve never met.

And while I still stick to my “constipation hypothesis,”ᵀᴹ another possibility is that a lot of people are also walking around anxious. Their minds are racing, they’re not sleeping well, their necks and shoulders sore from the constant tension. Perhaps, they are also carrying the burden of their children’s anxieties or their grandparents’ anxieties or their coworkers’ anxieties or their patients’ anxieties. Perhaps their anxiety is constant; from the minute they wake up until the minute their head hits the pillow it is a whirlwind of “what if‘s” and “how do I plan” and “what might be.” Perhaps their anxiety sneaks up and bites them in the butt. One minute they’re doing well, staying focused, and dealing with the problem in front of them and the next they are scattered, emotionally labile and instantly exhausted. Perhaps they don’t think they have any anxiety at all and are confused by the new onset of jaw clenching, eye twitching, and headaches.

More often than not, anxiety is something that starts deep inside and rarely makes it to the surface for others to notice. However, in the new prolonged, uncertain reality that is COVID-19, my guess is that more anxiety is coming to the surface than ever before.

? How the hell do I know? I say that not because I don’t experience it but because it’s different for everybody. For me I eat less, I’m more irritable, and even more forgetful than my baseline walking advertisement for Vyvanseᵀᴹ. For you, your brows may furrow more, the corners of your mouth may turn down, and you may not be as good of a listener to your friends as you were before. You may even walk right past a friend, not because your eyesight is poor and 6 feet away makes them blurry, but because you are so lost in your own hamster wheel of thoughts and emotions you haven’t looked up to see the world around you.

I bring this up for you today because we are all guilty of jumping to conclusions as to why someone may be behaving the way they are. I’m giving you permission tonight to abandon my “constipation hypothesis”ᵀᴹ and assume that whatever behavior you’re seeing is likely their anxiety on the surface. And instead of starting your conversation with “is everything OK? “ or “what’s wrong?“ just assume you know what’s wrong and say “you know what, I’m feeling super anxious, too.“ It sounds like a funny way to start a conversation AND it instantly articulates the sentiment “       .”

You’re doing an amazing job. Has anyone told you that? Well I just did.

Dr. Barbara Wilson is a physician at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, NH. To ready more of Dr. Wilson’s Daily Doses, follow her on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/barbara.wilson.7777

 

 

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Reunions, Lunches, Emails, Cards, and Messages – Carl Lovejoy Offers a “Unique” Perspective

Posted on by Carl Lovejoy

I often cringe when people use the word unique to describe something that is clearly not one of a kind – yet when I meet with prospective families on our Plainfield campus or a school counselor on their campus, I find myself occasionally employing this mis-used adjective to describe Mountain Valley. Surely there are other fine programs, treatment centers and hospitals using the same evidence-based treatment modalities we do, but there is much about Mountain Valley that is, well, unique.

I have told this story countless times, but one of my favorite moments with an early group of Mountain Valley residents took place in my office in The Creamery on our original campus in rural Pike, NH. As was the case back then, kids would frequently head to my space during lunch time to raid my snack basket and escape the rigors of exposure therapy. On one beautiful summer’s day, four or five young residents squeezed together onto my old, red leather couch and started to tell me that they wanted to return to MVTC.

“Return?” I questioned, feigning incredulousness. “You want to return?”

Knowing where they were going with this topic, but not wanting to let on, I continued my questioning while pointing my index finger at each of them – “You! You came through the door kicking and screaming – and now you tell me you want to return? And you! You sat in your car with the doors locked in the Creamery parking lot for five hours before I could convince you to give MVTC a chance. And what about you? You had to be transported here! And now you all tell me that you want to come back???”

“No, we don’t want to come back for therapy, silly.” they responded in unison. “We want to come back for a reunion!”

And come back they did. Eight families in October of 2012. 15 in 2013. Several of my colleagues with experience in residential treatment scoffed at the notion that kids would be interested in returning, but they did, for a four-hour event. And each subsequent year, more and more returned – from as far away as Alaska, Hawaii and Costa Rica.

We received numerous emails from disappointed residents who couldn’t attend due to school commitments, so we moved the Reunion from fall to summer – a Summer Celebration – and with the move from Pike to our gorgeous campus in Plainfield, our numbers grew exponentially – almost 250 former residents, their parents, siblings and grandparents, former staff and friends attended last summer for our 8th annual event – and there’s little doubt that we could have even more in attendance this summer.

Unique? Maybe, maybe not – but certainly special – and fun. We hope you will return on July 18th for our 9th Annual Summer Celebration, replete with the amazing Fire It Up pizza food truck, Mac’s frozen treats, the ginormous inflatable waterslide and the legendary bluegrass trio, The Sky Blue Boys w/Banjo Dan and Cookie!

In addition to organizing our reunions, my professional responsibilities at Mountain Valley include traveling around the country, stewarding relationships with former residents and their parents by meeting with them for dinners, lunches, coffee, ice cream cones, etc. I love doing this – especially when I get to see the amazing progress our graduates have made – and I cherish the feedback I receive about their MVTC experiences.

Similarly, I am always thrilled to receive emails, social media messages – and even notes left on whiteboards – sharing testimonials regarding the MVTC experience and the impact it had on them or their parents. The first time I heard “You saved my daughter’s life.” I knew we were on to something. Most recently, prior to a resident’s graduation ceremony – an experience that hasn’t changed much since our very first graduation in the fall of 2011 – the grateful grad wrote a heartfelt message on a Gallup House whiteboard for all to see, “I am Mountain Valley – Mountain Valley is my home.”

How fortunate I am – and we all are – to work at such a, I’ll say it – unique place – a place that gives residents back their lives and, yes, at times, saves those lives in a way that few, if any, other programs seem to do. And how fortunate I am to have had the opportunity to get to know these bright, talented, resilient young people – and their amazing parents who share them with us. We look forward to seeing many of you at this year’s reunion on July 18 – and hearing your laughter, enjoying your hugs, seeing your tears, and listening to your stories of strength and success.

Carl Lovejoy is Mountain Valley’s Associate Executive Director for Communications and Development and a member of MVTC’s founding team.   

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