Provo Canyon School a residential treatment facility owned and operated as a subsidiary of Universal Health Services, Inc, one of the nation's leading hospital management organization. Provo Canyon School specializes in treating teen boys and girls with emotional, behavioral and learning difficulties and have been unresponsive to outpatient counseling or previous inpatient psychiatric or substance abuse programs.
Dr. Russ Gaede, another one of out dynamic therapists has done a great deal of work with youth before coming to Provo Canyon School. He received his Bachelor’s Degree in psychology at University of Utah and his Masters in mental health counseling at the University of Phoenix. Dr. Gaede then went on to complete his Doctorate in clinical psychology from Forest Institute for psychology in Springfield, MI. He is certified in marriage and family therapy and has worked at residential treatment centers before coming and continues to teach at Utah Valley College in the behavioral sciences department. Over the last four year he has taught intro to counseling, abnormal psychology, and theory of personality.
Dr. Gaede shared several highlights from the past year with us, particularly his trips with his team to various sites off campus.
On one of the trips to Heber valley campus last August, Dr Gaede took 10 girls for a three day and two night retreat. While the girls were there they did a service project where they stacked wood for locals, they took part in making their own food over an open fire and were able to connect with the other girls in a deeper way with the added benefit of the great outdoors. They also took part in an art therapy project where they were given materials to make their own journal. They decorated them with pieces of natural objects and were then given assignments to help them process their reactions and emotions from the trip. They spent some of this exercise alone and other pieces of it as a group. When this was finished they had their journals to keep and then formed into a drum circle. This exercise was especially important for them because they were able to learn about the importance of rhythm and being in sync with those around you. The girls were able to see the result of being out of sync in a group when you are part of a rhythm and how at other times it is okay to strike out and be different than other players, as in a solo that compliments the harmony. The students came back to the campus feeling rejuvenated by the experience and were very grateful for the experience. There are plans to do another retreat for the girls’ campus again in the summer of 2007.
Dr. Gaede has also been part of trips where he has taken his team of students up to the Provo Canyon Yurt for overnight retreats. Often, the students will snow shoe in for a mile and a half, gather wood, hike, play in the snow and then settle for the evening around a warm fire for a process group and dinner. On the last trip they went on the students found an igloo that someone had made, had therapy in the igloo and then set goals for themselves to see what they wanted to work on. There were lots of positive comments, “it’s beautiful out here, I wish I could stay longer,” another student said, “I learned a lot over the last two days, learned a lot about my team and my staff.” One other student added, “I think what really stuck out was that there was such a thing as sober fun.” For many of the students in his team it was an awakening to the power of sober fun and gleaning joy and meaning from the elements of nature and connecting with others.
Dr. Gaede also added that throughout the year him and his team go canoeing with the girls. The last trip they went about 2 miles down river, then had time to play in the water and have fun. It’s a great opportunity for the girls because they are learning to do new things and actually work a canoe with two people, because when you are rowing as a team you need to figure out how to set a pace, rhythm and direction together so that you can get to where you need to.
More recent they went hiking up to the big Y on the mountain right by Provo Canyon’s Orem Campus. “It’s a pretty steep hike and it took a while to get up there and we sat up there and talked about the view and they also realized that they have to work for it, both to get on the trip and to climb up the mountain.”
Dr. Gaede is busy with his team of students and excited about planning the next series of trips for the coming year, we promised to check back with him about his adventures!
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