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Sharon McCallie-Steller and The Transition Beyond Mountain Valley

Posted on by Sarah Shebek

The discharge from Mountain Valley is not the end of the journey, but the beginning of a new chapter. For many residents and families, this transition can feel both exciting and unsettling. The structured environment that provided safety and support gives way to a less predictable daily life, where progress must be carried forward without the same immediate scaffolding.

Phase 4: The Return was designed to bridge this gap. This optional, separately billed phase offers thirty days of structured guidance to help residents and families integrate what they have learned, establish lasting supports, and thoughtfully say goodbye to the community that has been central to their growth. Sharon McCallie-Steller, MS, MHC, who helped design Phase 4, has a long history with Mountain Valley and currently serves as the director of transition services. Learn more about Sharon’s background and Phase 4:

How did you end up at Mountain Valley?

Sharon McCallie-Steller

I was in the middle of raising my family of four children, my youngest two were early teens getting through high school. I was starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel, and as my son was looking at colleges, I started doing some introspection myself about what I was really doing with my life.

Most of my career decisions had really been focused on making money and getting benefits. It wasn’t really about what I wanted, it was looking at what next job would give me the leg up that helps my family. At the time, that was an appropriate choice. But all of a sudden I was really questioning what I was doing.

One of my sons grew up with an anxiety disorder, and a lot of teachers and counselors helped us really learn how to help him. I was very participatory in all the school meetings, therapy, all the things. I started thinking about going back to graduate school, and when I was 40, I went back and got my mental health counseling degree. I looked for a job before I graduated because I have a family and I needed to get back to work.

I went to visit Mountain Valley and saw everything they did, and I felt like I was made for the job. I knew what it was like to be a parent of a child who struggled with anxiety. I was shocked they rolled the dice on me because I was a non-traditional applicant, in my mid-forties at the time, just getting out of school. I asked the clinical director at the time why he hired me, and he said, ‘you just can’t teach passion.’ I dove in and I learned so much, working as one of the first clinicians from 2014-2019, before Mountain Valley moved to Plainfield.

How did you land in your current role?

After Mountain Valley, I worked in an assessment program for boys in the foster care system, and as a therapist at a specialized boarding school. But that life was very intensive and COVID hit, so I started looking at other things. Will Laughlin ended up calling me and mentioned interest in transition work at Mountain Valley, adding some supports for families based on feedback he’d received. Will knew I had this experience, because I did a lot of family therapy and parent coaching as a clinician. He also knew I had the personal experience parenting a child with an anxiety disorder, and asked if I’d like to be part of the transition services team.

I think part of what has led me back to this moment is how can I help parents? Parenting is really hard, it’s hard in general. It dovetailed nicely, I was able to use my experiences and meld it all together to help support families post-treatment. I think a lot of times there’s a gap when someone leaves treatment and they start therapy outside of treatment. A new therapist doesn’t have the precise language of the sending program, and they don’t really know what’s gone in in the treatment center. Phase 4 helps with the continuity of care to have a bridge of someone who really understands ERP and knows how it all works. That’s an important part of what we’re doing with Phase 4 and our transition work.

Tell us a little more about how your background prepared you for this role?

I think my life experience helps me relate to parents. I have my own children, who are now from ages 24 to 36, and I’ve been through all stages of parenting. My son with anxiety struggled in so many ways, but he overcame his challenges and became a Marine. I have another son who has battled with addiction and is sober now. I’ve been through it. I’ve walked this path.

And I have a lot of experience in general. Before I went back to school, I worked in a lot of different industries doing all kinds of administrative work. That knowledge has really allowed me to be mindful of how to work with teams and succinctly put information together. Then work together to make sure we’re all moving in the same direction.

It’s kind of like I picked up all these pebbles on my way through life, now they’re in a jar and I’m using them in this work. It’s nice to feel that all the time I was doing other things, they were still valuable for what I’m doing today.

How did Phase 4 develop?

Our first round of transition services helped some families, but we found it didn’t help as many Mountain Valley families as we’d like. I wasn’t involved in the transition planning for families until the very end. We decided we should come at it from a different angle. We have three phases of treatment, and we want to do a fourth phase that’s a very specific, short-term support for families. A bridge from Mountain Valley to a more normalized environment that doesn’t have a robust therapeutic component. It might be home, it might be a boarding school, or maybe it’s college.

Zack and I got together and brainstormed on how to improve our transition process. We wanted Phase 4 to have the same type of approach as our other phases. We have a checklist, we have expectations of what we’re working on. But in this phase, it titrates down so we pull support back and guide families toward their community supports.

We decided I should come in to help with transition planning right from the start, and now I meet parents just a couple of weeks into their child’s treatment. I’m supporting the clinicians, making sure we’re having our meetings and that the right people are invited. It just takes another thing off their plate.

The clinician’s job is to work on treatment, and our parent coach Dr. Lisa Rosen’s job is to do the parent coaching so parents are learning about anxiety and OCD. And my job is to make sure all of us keep an eye on the clock. Because 90 days goes very quickly when you are steeped in treatment and visits.

I’m everyone’s executive functioning brain when it comes to transition planning, and it makes it an easier transition when I take on the parent coaching in Phase 4. Parents are already comfortable with me—they’ve seen me on meetings, and I often work on the family agreement with them as their child is leaving treatment.

It’s early, but how do you think Phase 4 is going so far?

I’m excited, we have two families we’re working with currently and a couple coming up. It’s already helping parents recognize their patterns as they show up—helping them problem solve and identify those patterns in their communication. It’s a nice way for parents to not feel like they’re alone in the wilderness for the first four weeks. They have someone they can call, and access to me after their child graduates. We’re finding that having these students work with a mentor they knew while in treatment helps to reduce barriers to communication. Our mentors are having consistent and meaningful communication with the students they’re working with.

We may find that families need support for longer than the 30 days we provide, and I can help them find the next step, like a parent coach for parents or an executive functioning coach for the student for example. I can also brainstorm with their educational consultant, if they have one, to help them get more support.

I host a post Mountain Valley parent support group every other week on Tuesdays. Parents can join anytime they want, and they can talk to other parents. That group has great advice and support for each other.

I’m really kind of steeped in it. Even if I don’t have the answers, I can offer that lifeline. It’s really rewarding to be that support for parents in a time where there’s so much going on.

 What have you noticed has been most helpful for families during the transition?

A lot of my work is telling parents that they do know what they’re doing and helping them recognize old patterns. They do have the tools they need to succeed. I’m here to boost their confidence and be their cheerleader—you’ve got this, you really are moving forward. When you’re parenting a kid who struggles and has extra special needs, it’s hard to remember.

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Staff Spotlight: Camille Wrege

Posted on by Sarah Shebek

Healing Through Meaningful Activities 

At Mountain Valley, occupational therapy informs the treatment philosophy and the environment. Our program is intentionally designed to promote healing through meaningful activities, fostering a sense of community and belonging that is crucial for recovery. Camille Wrege, MS, OTR/L, leads OT programming at Mountain Valley and came to the Upper Valley from New York, where she obtained her undergraduate and graduate degrees at Ithaca College. She’s passionate about tailoring purposeful sessions for residents that help them tap into identity and give them confidence to overcome daily challenges.

Camille Wrege

How did you decide to pursue a career in occupational therapy? 

I took a trip to Costa Rica in high school and worked with kids with developmental disabilities. They struggled to access the meaningful things they wanted to do, like education or just playing with their friends. I got to work front and center with these kids before I even considered an OT program, and it was really enjoyable. I wondered if there was a job out there that could continue to help people access the things that are the most meaningful to them.

My mom introduced the OT profession to me—I had never heard of it. She had gone to school in the area and knew that Ithaca College had an occupational therapy program, so I ended up there. I’ve also always been interested in mental health, so in college I started a mindfulness club for students who struggle with anxiety. As I got more into my coursework and started learning about the body and the nervous system, I really wanted to learn more, so I focused on neuro rehabilitation.

How did you end up at Mountain Valley?

After I graduated, I started working in several different settings to gain experience. These included mainly older adults settings, a nursing home, assisted living facility, and a hospital. I loved working with people who have neurological impairments, like stroke or Parkinson’s. Although I really enjoyed that, I wanted to explore some other populations. I did a 360 and worked with the early intervention age, kids from age 0-3. That was cool too because I was still working on neuro rehabilitation and the nervous system, but it had a lot more to do with developmental delays and regulating. The job was pretty inconsistent though, and I wanted something that was more team-based and collaborative.

I love the outdoors, so I started looking for OT jobs where I could be outside, maybe with animals since I grew up on a farm. When I was searching, I also had a mental health focus in mind and Mountain Valley popped up. I’ve been here ever since.

What does a typical day look like? 

I work closely with the residents in a mix of individual sessions and groups. I lead groups on Mondays and Fridays that have a lot of different themes, but they’re usually focused on engagement and meaningful occupation. We have wellness themes that focus on sleep, nutrition, and mood. We also have physical wellness groups, where we play sports like soccer and talk about the importance of movement. I really like to emphasize the importance of maintaining your health because that’s a huge part of regulating your nervous system and mental health in general.

Other groups focus on executive functioning, social skills, life skills, and connection. I do a lot of identity groups because this is a very important developmental stage for these kids, where they just aren’t sure who they are. It’s a lot of focus on who you want to be and how you want to present in the world. I usually average 10 or so residents in my groups.

Individual sessions can look a lot of different ways, but I try to keep them as functional as possible. I’m not a talk therapist and I try not to stay in the office too much—I like to go out and engage in functional activities and incorporate the skills and strategies we’re working on. For example, if I’m working on executive functioning skills with a resident, I might be coming into their room and helping them with the sequencing and problem-solving that goes into cleaning it up. I also love taking kids off campus to help them interact with strangers, people they wouldn’t normally interact with like cashiers or baristas.

It’s neat because you can take what they’re working on in therapy, like social anxiety, and combine some exposures with the hard skills from OT. I’m always collaborating with the clinicians and coming up with creative intervention ideas. But no matter what, I’m trying to relate it back to the individual based on what’s meaningful to them. Motivation is key.

Tell us about a meaningful experience you’ve had with a resident? 

Recently I worked with a resident who’s on the autism spectrum and really struggles with feeling like he’s not capable and his identity in general. A lot of times in OT I like to do arts and crafts, hands-on things for motor skills work. This resident struggled with some motor skills and giving up if he’s not getting it. It’s devastating to him—it creates panic symptoms, and he shuts down. He’ll ask to leave the activity and be alone.

I noticed that one day in group and was able to see what was going on. After group I talked to him, and he was fully in a panic attack. I walked him through what we call the zones of regulation, just a simplified way of discussing the nervous system and all the states you can be in. We talked about his current state and tried to help him build more body awareness in that moment. A lot of people on the spectrum don’t have the interoceptive awareness to name what’s going on in their bodies.

After we spent some time together, he was able to go back to the activity that caused the panic attack and complete it. He was able to recognize that he could feel very intense feelings and challenge himself to be outside of his window of tolerance. It was a good session and it felt more meaningful to me because it was very in the moment and functional. We were able to work through what was impairing him in the moment, and that’s what I love about OT.

How would you sum up occupational therapy in a few words? 

OT is very holistic, but the scope of the practice is so big that it can feel kind of confusing to define it. For me it’s about promoting engagement in meaningful occupations. That can look like so many different things. I’m always encouraging people to keep asking questions about how OT can be involved, the impact of it, and what it looks like in real time. I love promoting our field and the impact I get to make on a daily basis.

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Alumni Spotlight: Sara Fairbank

Posted on by Sarah Shebek

Sara Fairbank is from McLean, Virginia and attended the Potomac School before joining Mountain Valley in 2019. After successfully completing the program, she enrolled at Georgetown University and completed a degree in nursing. Today she’s a registered nurse serving the D.C. area, with plans to pursue a graduate degree and make an even bigger impact in the field.

Sara Fairbank

What brought you to Mountain Valley?

I’ve always had anxiety, but my last year of high school I became pretty depressed, and my anxiety was much harder to manage. I finished out the school year but then immediately enrolled at Mountain Valley. I had a good experience—of course it was tough, but I was growing a lot and learning a lot more about my anxiety. I 100% think it was the best thing for me.

I think I challenged myself to grow, even though it was difficult to make it through and come out the other side. I had to use my new coping skills in an environment that caused me so much anxiety before. The relationships I made at Mountain Valley were very valuable and it was a great program for me.

What are you doing today? 

I’m a clinical nurse at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital. During nursing school, I started working there as a student nurse technician and I’ve been with them ever since. Today I’m on the adult medical intermediate care floor, we see pretty much everything with adult patients but it’s one step below the ICU.

I’ve always loved science, but I also love working with people. Compared to physicians in the hospital setting, I get much more time with my patients. On my floor I work with three or four patients a day, and I get to have a personal connection with them.

Tell us about a memorable connection you’ve made with a patient? 

When I was still on orientation, we had one relatively stable patient. We were fully staffed and had extra time that day to talk. He shared with us that he’s an artist and loved drawing. To thank us for everything we did he drew me a cartoon of Spiderman that says, “Thank you Sara.” It’s a physical reminder of the impact I have, so I definitely want to frame it.

How do you think Mountain Valley made a difference in your life? 

Mountain Valley gave me the tools to advocate for myself in a very important way. I had a lot of anxiety in nursing school, and while my time at Mountain Valley didn’t reduce my anxiety, it gave me the tools to work with it. I was able to communicate my needs with my professors to help me complete nursing school successfully, which was essential since I started during the pandemic.

What are your future goals? 

I’ve thought about becoming a nurse practitioner, but I think I’d really like to pursue teaching. I might go back and get my master’s in nursing education. I promised myself when I entered healthcare that I’d be relatively open with my patients, using therapeutic communication and relating to their experiences with anxiety. I’d love to get more involved as an alum with Mountain Valley and volunteer more of my time—my experience there was transformational.

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Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Hero’s Journey

Posted on by Sarah Shebek

A few years ago, we implemented a three-phased model to guide and structure the treatment experience at Mountain Valley. The purpose of this restructuring was twofold:

  1. To improve the fidelity of the care we provide by delivering Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) therapy — and other core therapeutic content — through an evidence-based, standardized process.
  2. To create a therapeutic narrative with a clear “beginning, middle, and end” that helps guide residents, their families, and our care team as they navigate the often unpredictable journey of treatment.

To support this second goal, we chose Joseph Campbell’s “Hero’s Journey” as the framework for our therapeutic narrative. The Hero’s Journey naturally reflects so much of what Mountain Valley is about: stepping outside of your comfort zone into the unknown, confronting challenges and fears head-on, and emerging from that process as a more integrated and actualized version of yourself. This arc mirrors both the practical process of exposure therapy and the profound transformation we witness in the young people who complete our program.

As the primary creator of this three-phased model based on Campbell’s framework, I see this heroic journey unfolding in each resident’s experience. But rarely do I hear it reflected back to me so clearly by residents or their families.

At a recent graduation ceremony, I was fortunate enough to experience exactly that. A father, seated beside his wife and daughter and across the room from his son on graduation day, stood to deliver a heartfelt speech. With tears in his eyes, a lump in his throat, and his family’s arms around him, he spoke about the Hero’s Journey his son had been on.

His words were deeply validating — he so eloquently articulated the parallels between his son’s process and the journey Campbell described. But more than that, his speech was profoundly moving. To witness a father express to his son that he truly is the hero he always believed he could become is something difficult to put into words.

So rather than attempt to describe it further, we’re honored to share his speech here — with his permission — so that others, too, can bear witness to the life-changing transformations that take place within the Mountain Valley community.

Phin

There is a Haitian Creole saying, “Dèyè mòn gen mòn.” which  translates roughly as “Beyond mountains, there are mountains.” Today we gather not just to mark an ending, but to witness a profound transformation — a completion of one heroic cycle and the beginning of another.

When Phin first arrived at Mountain Valley, he was answering what Joseph Campbell called “the call to adventure.” But this wasn’t the adventure any of us would have chosen. It was a call born from struggle, from the recognition that the ordinary world  — our world of schedules and expectations and well-meaning plans  — had become uninhabitable for him. Like all true heroes, he had to leave everything familiar behind to find what he needed most.

In those early days, I’ll admit, I saw this departure through  the lens of my own fear. I grieved for dreams I had crafted for him, dreams that perhaps said more about my own longings than his true calling. But heroes’ journeys rarely unfold according to the maps drawn by those who love them from a distance.

What I’ve witnessed over these months is Phin’s passage through what Mountain Valley teaches us are the three sacred phases of transformation. In the Departure, he faced the terrifying truth that his old ways of being were no longer sufficient. He had to shed the armor of perfectionism that had become a prison, release the strategies that once protected him but now isolated him from life itself.

During the Initiation — the trials and revelations that form the heart of every hero’s journey — I watched him discover strengths he never knew he possessed. With the guidance of staff who became wise mentors, and alongside fellow travelers who understood his struggles in ways that even family cannot, he learned to sit with discomfort instead of fleeing from it. He began to see his neurodivergent mind not as a liability, but as a different kind of wisdom. Most remarkably, he started to trust his own capacity for healing.

And now we celebrate the Return — not because the journey is over, but because he has gained something precious to bring back to the world. Phin returns to us transformed, carrying new tools, deeper self-knowledge, and perhaps most importantly, the unshakeable understanding that he can navigate whatever challenges lie ahead.

To the extraordinary staff of Mountain Valley: you have been  more than clinicians and counselors. You have been the wise elders every hero needs — those who can see potential when the hero himself cannot, who offer both challenge and sanctuary, who know exactly when to push and when to simply witness. You helped Phin remember that he is both the author and the protagonist of his own story.

To Phin’s fellow residents: you have been his companions on the quest, his band of brothers and sisters who shared the trials and celebrated the victories that only you could truly understand. You have shown him that healing happens in community, that vulnerability is a form of courage, and that we all rise together.

But here’s what I’ve learned about the Hero’s Journey that no book quite captures: it never really ends. Life offers us countless opportunities to answer new calls to adventure, to face fresh trials, to return again and again with deeper wisdom. What changes is not the presence of challenge, but our relationship to it. What transforms is not the absence of struggle, but our  capacity to meet it with courage, curiosity, and hope.

Phin, as you prepare to leave this sacred mountain and return to the valley of everyday life, know that you carry within you everything you need. You have proven your bravery. You have demonstrated your commitment to growth. You have shown us all what it means to transform suffering into strength.

The story you have written here at Mountain Valley will become the foundation for every future chapter. And as your father, I am filled with a pride that goes beyond words — not because you have arrived at some imagined destination, but because you have shown the courage to keep traveling, to keep growing, to keep becoming who you were always meant to be.

This ceremony today is not just a celebration — it is a recognition of the sacred work you have done and a blessing for the sacred work that lies ahead. You are ready for whatever comes next, because you now know the deepest truth of the Hero’s Journey: you already contain everything you need to write a life of meaning, connection, and joy.

The adventure continues, and we will be cheering you on every step of the way.

MOVING MOUNTAINS

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Staff Spotlight: Ashley Metz

Posted on by Sarah Shebek

Mental Health Matters

If you’ve been at Mountain Valley sometime over the last eight years, there’s a good chance you know Ashley Metz. As one of the longest-tenured employees with the company, Ashley is passionate about mental health and has her own inspiring story to back it up. After she felt her life crashing down during college, Ashley sought help, finished her degree, and ended up completing a master’s degree to become a licensed clinical mental health counselor. Ashley started working as a residential counselor and also served as residential supervisor and director before moving into her current clinician position two years ago. She credits Mountain Valley for helping guide her through her own healing journey—and she’s helped heal countless others along the way.

Ashley Metz

Tell us a bit about your background? 

I was born and raised in Western Massachusetts and went to college in Worcester. I was quite lost, and it took me six years to graduate with my bachelor’s degree. I ended up taking some time off for my own mental health.

My family—my mom especially—experienced trauma when I was growing up. In high school I was more depressed and coping with substances. I was smart and a good kid, so I scraped through, but when I went to college it all hit me. The anxiety was much more prevalent than I realized, and I was having panic attacks in class for the first time. I also have ADHD, but I wasn’t diagnosed until later in life.

I had a lot of anxiety around this need to perform—my mom always wanted us to do better. My sister and I have, and we’re very proud of that. But I struggle with this fear of failure every day, to be honest, and undergrad is where it all came crashing down. I was smoking and drinking a lot, and I wasn’t secure in myself. I got my validation from others. When I wasn’t getting validation I turned to extreme behaviors, and finally ended up being hospitalized for about two weeks.

That was a wake-up call. I moved in with some friends after that and they supported me through the next steps in a rehab program. I got to this point of “What am I doing with my life?” and met my husband Charles right after that. He helped save my life and he provided the secure attachment that I really needed.

How did you end up at Mountain Valley?

Charles got a job coaching soccer at Colby-Sawyer College. We had bartended together, but when we moved up to New Hampshire, I thought maybe I should try to be an adult. I stumbled on Mountain Valley and even though it was a long drive from our place, I was really intrigued.

I had done therapy myself at different levels and I decided to shadow there to see if it was a good fit. I was expecting very ill kids—instead I see these shy, nervous kids who are afraid to step outside. It was not what I was expecting. Then I saw my first graduation and thought “this is really cool.” I was so outside of my comfort zone. I started working at the old campus as a residential staff member, and now I’m here eight years later.

What has your growth process been like?

It’s such an interesting dynamic being on residential staff. It’s almost like an older sibling, in a lot of ways. Especially because when I first started, my younger sister was the age of the kids I was working with. I started to get to know the clinicians better and when we moved to the new campus in Plainfield, we were a tightly knit group.

The longer I worked at Mountain Valley, the more I realized that the clinicians were really cool people. I’d had this stereotype of what mental health professionals were like and they weren’t like that at all. They were people I wanted to hang out with. I decided to go back to school so I could become a clinician, but I was scared because of my experience in undergrad. Mountain Valley offered to help pay for some of it, which really impressed me.

When I started my graduate program, I found I actually liked my classes, and it made a world of difference. It’s a miracle I graduated from college, and then I got a 3.9 GPA in grad school—I was so proud. I think it also shows how important your mental health is when you’re doing these really big things.

I tell a lot of the kids I work with my story, “Dude, it took me six years to graduate because I needed to stabilize and get my feet under me.” My GPA shifted so dramatically because I was in a place where I wanted to be in school. I felt confident in school and secure in myself. I’d like to think Mountain Valley helped heal me.

Why do you think Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) works? 

I think it seems counterintuitive, like why would I do the things are the most triggering to me? But I love it because it’s applicable to literally anyone. Every single person on campus can do an exposure, all day, every day. I love that we as clinicians can model it in the moment with our kids.

For example, I love to travel but with all the media around plane problems, I started having panic attacks about flying. The exposure would be for me to fly anyway and sit with the discomfort that shows up. I brought that experience into work and into group, and shared it with my kids. There are real life examples all the time.

When it comes to severe anxiety and OCD, it’s really difficult. We’re asking them to face their biggest fears, things that I probably wouldn’t have done at their age. It’s so cool to see them face it and build that courage—it surprises me every time and they surprise themselves every time. More importantly, we debrief and reflect on the experience. That piece is so important, because what comes out on the other side is confidence and security.

What’s one of your favorite success stories as a clinician?

We had a recent resident who was really sick. She was so isolated and afraid of the world that she didn’t leave her bedroom for long periods of time. The only time she would leave for over a year was to go to the pet store to buy cat food. Getting her to Mountain Valley was a long road—it took years. She had become very paranoid and thought everyone was out to get her, including her parents. There was a lot of mistrust and she thought we were a cult, that we were brainwashing her. 

I like to think one of my top skills as a therapist is building rapport, so I can usually connect with kids pretty quickly. But not this one—she gave me a run for my money. She finally bought in and went from saying that she didn’t want any friends and wanted to live alone, to becoming the most popular girl on campus. It was her first time having friends, really.

When she left Mountain Valley she was proud of her experience. Now she has a part-time job, she’s starting her senior year, and she just got her learner’s permit. It’s so special watching such special kids learn to love life again.

What are your future goals? 

Before I became a clinician at Mountain Valley, I worked a residential supervisor and I loved the mentoring part of the job. It felt like therapy a lot of the time. I was program director for a little bit, then I moved to the clinical team. I’ve had all these different roles and being a therapist is my favorite, but I miss that mentoring piece.

I can see myself serving as a supervisor for unlicensed clinicians or even licensed clinicians. If I ever leave Mountain Valley, I hope to create the kind of community and support that exists here, because not a lot of therapists get that. I love teenagers a lot, but I could see myself shifting to serve more of a college-age population. That’s when I needed help the most, so I want to use my experience to make a difference.

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Alumni Spotlight: Amelia Teta

Posted on by Sarah Shebek

Amelia Teta is from Boston and attended Mountain Valley in 2017. Teta was an active student-athlete at the rigorous Boston Latin School before suffering two concussions. After that, she struggled with anxiety and depression and ultimately received a diagnosis of OCD. When she felt like she was hitting rock bottom, her family found Mountain Valley. She successfully graduated the program, completed high school online, and will soon be a licensed occupational therapist focused on helping patients live to the fullest. 

What brought you to Mountain Valley?

When I started high school, my anxiety ramped up to the point where I felt like I was dying. I ended up faking more concussions to stay home from school and my parents enrolled me in two different day programs instead. The goal was for me to re-enroll in high school during eleventh grade but there was just no way, I was a disaster. I had my new OCD diagnosis that was barely managed through biweekly outpatient appointments. My family worked with an educational consultant who recommended Mountain Valley. My parents told me I got to make the decision—I knew it wasn’t going to be fun but that I had to do it. A week later, I was there with my bags.

Amelia Teta

What are you doing today? 

I just took my last final to complete my classroom work for my degree in occupational therapy. I got my bachelor’s degree in children, youth, and family studies at Lesley University, and I am finishing my master’s degree at the University of New England. Up next, I have two placements  in high school mental health and at an outpatient pediatric clinic.

When I attended Mountain Valley, the program didn’t have any occupational therapists on staff, and I didn’t really know anything about it. But I’ve always known I wanted to work in health, and one of my good friend’s moms is a physical therapist. She told me, “Amelia, I’ve known you since you were five. Go watch every video you can find about occupational therapy and tell me you don’t want to do that.” At Mountain Valley my biggest fear was suffering, and when I found out there was a job I could do to help people relieve any bit of suffering through things they love, that was life-changing. Occupational therapists can help people do anything they care about. 

How do you think Mountain Valley made a difference in your life? 

The question at Mountain Valley was always, “how are you going to build this worthwhile life?” It made sense in my brain and helped me have a checklist to stop the unorganized waves in my mind. My therapist told me, “You are here in this body, and you’re going to live your life. How are you going to make it so it’s worth the pain and suffering, and it’s worth it for you to do it?” 

So I focused on what I love and how I can achieve it, even if I can’t see straight and I’m depressed. Before I joined Mountain Valley, my OCD thoughts of “what if something bad happens” would keep me from doing what mattered. I decided that no matter when I die, I’ll do everything I can to help people around me, love them, and support them. Making that choice to fully engage in life is anxiety-provoking but it’s worth it for me to live out my values.  

What’s next for you? 

I have a fiancé and she’s been a huge support for me. She encouraged me to apply at the University of New England and it’s the best decision I’ve ever made. If you had asked me three years ago if I could live away from home outside of my routine, it would have been my worst nightmare. She pushes me to travel and think outside the box. 

I think it would be cool to do some travel work as an occupational therapist, maybe in a high school or pediatric setting. The long-term goal is to work in perinatal health, from when someone gets pregnant to a year or two after their due date. As an OT, I can help work with them on building up confidence and good habits, go into the home and make their spaces more functional. After birth I get to hang out with the baby and do all the early intervention stuff that I love. That is the lifelong goal. 

Why do you think a family should choose Mountain Valley? 

It can be really scary think about dropping off your kid with a bunch of strangers, especially when it’s far away. But if it’s the best decision for your family and child, you know it in your gut. The joy I had doing the work was the most joy I’d experienced in a long time. It’s hard, it can be terrifying, and it works. 

MOVING MOUNTAINS

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Staff Spotlight: Alison LaFollette

Posted on by Sarah Shebek

Clinical Expertise in Every Setting 

Mountain Valley’s Clinical Director, Alison LaFollette, PhD, traded testing in the deserts of Utah to directing a clinical team in the woods of New Hampshire. She arrived on campus a little over a year ago and works alongside an excellent team of clinicians and staff to further the development of the clinical program. Before she made the big move, Alison spent 10 years in Utah, primarily focusing on comprehensive psychological and neuropsychological evaluations with adolescents and young adults.

Alison LaFollette

What brought you to Mountain Valley?

“In my training I specialized in working with anxiety and depression in young adults. During my master’s program I worked at a career counseling center, and in my PhD program I worked in community mental health and a university counseling center. For my postdoctoral work, I was at a psychiatric inpatient hospital treating acute cases of anxiety, depression, mood disorders. After that, I taught for two years at a liberal arts college in Salt Lake City, teaching master’s level clinicians in the mental health counseling program. I left that position to begin my work in comprehensive evaluations at wilderness therapy programs, therapeutic boarding schools, and residential treatment centers.

All that experience gave me a lens for examining complex cases with many co-occurring disorders. You need to think critically and carefully about clients and what would be in their best clinical interest over time. I think that experience applies well to Mountain Valley. While we primarily treat OCD and anxiety, often that’s not the only thing happening for the clients coming in. They might have co-occurring depression, trauma, or be on the autism spectrum. The various experiences I have had help me think about the clients that come to Mountain Valley in a unique way. I can apply that experience in different evidence-based treatments in a variety of ways with our clients.”

What do you like best about working at Mountain Valley? 

The residents that come to the program. We have some really interesting conversations together in therapy, but also just casually in the community. Most of the residents who come to Mountain Valley are working hard to figure out how to improve their functioning in a variety of ways, and they have a nice openness to different techniques. I think that’s a fun part of the job—while our program is heavily influenced by exposure response prevention (ERP) we also dabble in different evidence-based practices, like cognitive behavioral therapy, and residents get to find different things that resonate with them.

Watching residents apply their new skills or have meaningful exposure experiences in real-time is definitely the best part of the job. A lot of times in outpatient therapy, because of the limited timeframe, you don’t always get to see that change happening right before your eyes. But at Mountain Valley, you get to see that change from the time of their intake to when they graduate.

What is a typical day like for you? 

A typical day is quite busy. In my role as clinical director, it means that I’m spending a lot of my day trying to support the therapists that are on my clinical team. That might be thinking about their case and how to proceed with it or engaging in case conceptualization. I coordinate with the residential director and meet with the executive director to determine how to improve our clinical programming. Sometimes I’m in therapy groups during the day with the clinicians, and generally I’m checking on the overall health of the residents that are in our care.

What do you think is the biggest misconception around OCD?

I think when a lot of people use the word OCD, they use it in a very casual way to describe being organized or liking things clean or wanting to do things in a specific way. It’s not that those things can’t be OCD, but when its’s talked about in the mainstream it often doesn’t take the diagnosis seriously. The level of OCD a person has can really impact everything from getting up in the morning to their relationships.

Another misconception that OCD is very visible, but often it’s not. A lot of times the compulsions are happening mentally, and that can make it hard to recognize. It might look like someone is trying to control things, and when they’re told to let go, that’s the thing they’re fearing the most. You have to target it in a specific way to help them realize what happens when they step outside of things that are in their control.

What’s your goal for a resident when they graduate from the program?

In my mind, it is an improvement in functioning and living in accordance with their values. Sometimes the resident can function to a degree and it’s only because of the way that they’re engaging with their OCD. It’s not really in line with their values. They can’t have the meaningful relationships they want, or pursue academics in the way that they want, or go about the day in a healthy way. My hope is that when they leave our care that they’ve learned enough skills and gone through enough exposure work that they can tolerate distress and move toward their goals.

What’s been the biggest surprise about moving to the East Coast?

Coming from Utah, the proximity to bodies of water. In Utah there’s the Great Salt Lake, which is large, but you can’t really use it for recreation. It’s been fun to be in the East where we’re close to rivers, swimming holes, lakes, and the ocean. That’s been a nice surprise and not something I really thought about when moving out here. It’s been fun to add that into the outdoor activities I enjoy.

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