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Mountain Valley Grad Promotes Photography Exhibit on Irish Radio

Posted on by Justin Alvin

Congratulations to MV graduate Marie Greene on her recent (7/20/15) radio interview, as well as her photography exhibit, Dialectics and Dreams, (http://2015.photoireland.org/program/marie-greene/) currently on display at the CHQ Building in Dublin, Ireland. Marie, a native of County Cork, Ireland, will be enrolling at University of California San Diego to study Visual Arts Media in the fall.

Marie’s interview can be found on Dublin City FM 103.2 – https://soundcloud.com/…/photographer-marie-greene-gmd-20-j…

Congrats, again, Marie. We are so proud of you!!!

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MVTC Past Parent, Kevin Dowd, Named to Board

Posted on by Justin Alvin

While Mountain Valley enjoys great autonomy, like all not for profit entities, we are guided by a board of directors. Board members are the fiduciaries who steer an organization towards a sustainable future by adopting sound governance and financial management policies, and ensuring adequate resources. MVTC’s Board is comprised of educators, lawyers, social workers, business and community leaders. We are also pleased to announce that the Board now includes Mr. Kevin Dowd, the father of a Mountain Valley graduate – and the first MVTC parent to serve in this role.

A graduate of Fairfield University, Kevin lives with his family in West Hartford, CT.  He serves as Legal Counsel for UBS Realty Investors LLC in Hartford, CT.

Given Kevin’s unique perspective as a past parent, the Board will have an even better understanding and appreciation for the work being done here in Pike. We thank you, Kevin, for sharing your time and talents with MVTC!

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Dr. Fran Moriarty’s Radio Interview with Lon Woodbury – Shattering the Cycle of Anxiety

Posted on by Justin Alvin

Lon Woodbury, an independent educational consultant in northern Idaho, recently conducted a radio interview with MVTC’s Clinical Director, Dr. Fran Moriarty. Their topic is Shattering the Cycle of Anxiety. Listen to Dr. Moriarty’s interview by clicking on the link below.

http://www.strugglingteens.com/artman/publish/WRI-INT_150403.shtml

 

 

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Dr. JoAnn Marchant Appointed Dean of Enhanced Academic Phase

Posted on by Justin Alvin

Mountain Valley is pleased to announce that Knower Academics’ Dr. JoAnn Marchant has been appointed Dean of Enhanced Academic Phase (EAP).  Dr. Marchant comes to MVTC with a wealth of experience in teaching, administration, and curriculum design. She holds an M.Ed. in English Education and a C.A.G.S in Educational Leadership from Plymouth State University, as well as a Doctorate of Education in Educational Leadership from Argosy University. Dr. Marchant will have a large role in the administrative aspects of EAP. She will collaborate with Kayte Knower to define and create curriculum standards that will be used in EAP instruction and work with EAP classroom instructors to streamline day-to-day operations and communication. 

The Enhanced Academic Phase was instituted at Mountain Valley in January 2015 and designed to support successful graduates of MVTC’s treatment phase wanting continued clinical support and structure yet able to manage more academic work within their daily schedule.  The daily schedule for a treatment phase graduate who enters into the EAP includes more time dedicated to continued individualized academic credit recovery and progress and allows for reduced clinical services within the familiar context of the MVTC campus and environment.  The Enhanced Academic Phase is tailored to an individual student’s academic needs and can support a more successful transition and integration into a normalized academic environment afterwards.

We welcome Dr. Marchant to the MVTC family!

To learn more about EAP and other academic offerings at Mountain Valley, visit the MVTC website at  https://mountainvalleytreatment.org/academics/.  To learn more about Knower Academics, visit https://www.knoweracademics.com/.

 

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MVTC Partners with Knower Academics for IECA Conference Presentation

Posted on by Justin Alvin

Mountain Valley and our academic partners (www.mountainvalleytreatment.org/academics/academic-programming-offerings/), Knower Academics, were in Baltimore last week for the Independent Educational Consultants Association’s Annual Spring Conference. In the addition to the many networking opportunities such conferences afford, Mountain Valley staff members are frequently asked to present to attendees on topics related to adolescent anxiety.

At the most recent IECA Conference, MVTC’s Associate Executive Director, Clinical Outreach and Program Development, Dr. Dan Villiers, and Kayte Knower, Director of Curriculum and Co-Founder of Knower Academics, LLC (www.knoweracademics.com) presented on The Perfectionist Paradox: Strategies for the Highly Anxious, High Achieving Child.  With over 50 in attendance, Mountain Valley was able, once again, to help professionals better understand the challenges of working with teens with anxiety and related disorders.

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MVTC Announces New Enhanced Academic Phase at Teen Treatment Center

Posted on by Justin Alvin

With many families and referral sources having requested a longer term treatment option that would include a more robust academic experience, Mountain Valley is pleased to announce the establishment of a coeducational extended phase program for graduates of the treatment phase – one that focuses on and expands the amount of time dedicated to academic credit and exposure. Working with our longtime colleagues at Knower Academics (www.knoweracademics.com) to craft the program’s classroom model, MVTC is now able to offer this extension of our academic exposure module and individualized academic services – a longer and more structured academic component that is individualized to a student’s needs. Candidates for this phase are Mountain Valley graduates who have successfully completed their length of stay and achieved their treatment goals, as well as select teenagers for whom such a supportive academic and exposure experience has not been found elsewhere.

Please visit the MVTC website at https://mountainvalleytreatment.org/academics/enhanced-academic-phase/ for details.
For further information, contact Carl Lovejoy, Associate Executive Director for External Relations, at clovejoy@mountainvalleytreatment.org.

 

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Mountain Valley Expands Partnerships for Enhanced Care for Teenagers

Posted on by Justin Alvin

Mountain Valley Treatment Center, a unique non-profit teen treatment center specializing in adolescent anxiety, continues to build external relationships to benefit our students and families. Partnerships with Hanover Psychiatry and a developing relationship with Yale Child Study Center offer a distinct level of care and continue to strengthen our clinical program.

Last year, Mountain Valley entered into a relationship with Hanover Psychiatry, a division of the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth in nearby Hanover, NH to provide certification training for our therapists in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, a key modality in treating adolescent anxiety. The training program is divided into two key components that include multi week classroom education at the medical school, followed by clinical supervision and observation on site at Mountain Valley. This second component is underway this year. The relationship also included partnering with Hanover Psychiatry for consultation, medication management and psychiatric and psychological diagnostic evaluations. Their team of psychiatrists, psychologists and neuropsychologists expand the scope of evaluations and treatment services offered by Mountain Valley. This relationship maximizes the potential for enhanced functioning for our students in all aspects of their lives including home, school, leisure and relationships.

Additionally, Mountain Valley is discussing opportunities to partner with Drs. Wendy Silverman and Eli Lebowitz at the Anxiety Disorders Program of the Child Study Center at the Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, CT. At the heart of the discussion is to focus on diagnostic clarity, treatment planning, family education. Educating families is a key component of the clinical program at Mountain Valley.

Staying in tune with current research in the areas of adolescent anxiety and related disorders is a key component of the mission and focus for Mountain Valley. The evidenced based approach of Exposure Response Prevention therapy and the unique experiential wellness module program combined provide the most effective environment for effective treatment and positive change. These partnerships underscore our commitment to evidence based treatment and the highest quality of care available to the children and families we service.

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Outcomes Data – Proof That We Do What We Say Do for Teenagers!

Posted on by Justin Alvin

Mountain Valley uses established assessments tools to measure the symptoms of each resident upon his or her admission and again at the completion of treatment . Of the 27 residents ages 13 to 20 who successfully completed treatment from September 2013 to April 2014 our results show clinically and statistically significant reductions in symptom severity during an average stay of 90 days.

For additional information – visit the Outcomes Data page

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MVTC Partners with Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine for Staff Training

Posted on by Justin Alvin

Ryan Shirilla, L.I.C.S.W., Associate Clinical Director for the Mountain Valley Treatment Center, has announced MVTC’s upcoming participation in advanced training offered by staff associated with the Department of Psychiatry at Dartmouth College’s Geisel School of Medicine.  Shirilla notes that “this training at our teen treatment center represents a unique opportunity to receive advanced training in core standards associated with cognitive behavioral therapy.  I am excited that particular attention will be paid to adapting CBT implementation to the Mountain Valley setting, and our unique adolescent population, within the context of bio-psychosocial formulations and best practice treatment protocols.    It represents a rich and potent distillation of the Dartmouth’s psychiatry resident curriculum, an experience not possible or available in other commercial CBT offerings.”

Dr. Fran Moriarty, Ed.D., Clinical Director for MVTC, applauded the efforts of Shirilla and Jen Fullerton, M.Ed., L.I.C.S.W., MVTC’s Intake Coordinator & Director of Ancillary Services, in working with Dartmouth to organize this exciting program that will began on April 8, and will continue over a ten week period.  Dr. Moriarty comments that “this experience will afford our highly trained clinical staff the opportunity to finely hone their theoretical and application expertise in CBT in a framework that comports to standards and criteria outlined by the Academy of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.  It will also provide supplemental support to our staff through monitoring protocols that are all too often absent to confirm that the skills taught have been applied.”

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Mountain Valley Expands In-home Intervention and Assessment Program

Posted on by Justin Alvin

Mountain Valley Treatment Center (MVTC) has expanded its in-home intervention and assessment program to meet the increasing demand for this unique and specialized service for adolescents with anxiety disorders.

Richard Curtis, LCSW has joined the treatment center’s admissions team as Clinical Interventionist.  Richard is a recognized and talented clinician who served at the Academy at Swift River for over five years.  Along with Dr. Dan Villiers, Founder and Director of Admissions, Richard will support educational consultants and families who are in need of an out-of-home placement for their son or daughter struggling with anxiety.

MVTC serves clients living with anxiety and related conditions that have resulted in intermittent or complete school-refusal, social isolation, and/or resistance to going to therapy. Whether the child has become housebound or not, avoidance and escape has become an unhealthy way of coping with their anxiety disorder. Most Mountain Valley residents need intensive, specific, evidenced-based treatment to limit anxiety interfering with school (whether traditional or therapeutic) attendance, other activities of daily life, and a general sense of contentment in their lives.

Richard and Dr. Villiers’ clinical interventions are carefully designed, in collaboration with consultants and clinical professionals, to assess, support and motivate some of the most fearful and treatment resistant adolescents in the country.  This instrumental process involves helping the student and family realize: 1) the intrusive role and impact of their problem, 2) how the problem is getting worse over time, 3) why leaving home for treatment is so helpful in breaking the cycle of anxiety, fear and avoidance.

Adding Richard to the team comes following our recent announcement of Mountain Valley absorbing the facility once part of the former Baker Valley Treatment Center. Located nearby the main campus, this additional facility, now known as Baker House, will give Mountain Valley the ability to create small living situations based upon gender, age, and levels of anxiety while continuing to focus on our evidenced-based and client-centered treatment curriculum.  It will neither change the profile of our residents, nor significantly increase our residential population.  We continue to be driven by Mountain Valley’s founding mission – to serve adolescents with paralyzing anxiety, to help the family become a healthy partner in their child’s treatment and long term recovery, and always strive to be leaders in the treatment of child and adolescent anxiety disorders in the United States.

Educational consultants interested in discussing admission to Mountain Valley, or in scheduling an in-home intervention and assessment service, should call Jen Fullerton, LICSW, at 603-989-3500.  In-home visits can be scheduled within 24 hours, and can occur anywhere in the US.

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