The iconic American poet, Robert Frost, once said “The best way out is always through.” We cannot skirt around our responsibilities in life. Taking the easier, softer way may seem like the right idea at the time. However, eventually, all those shortcuts end up failing and we pay the price. This is particularly true with recovery.
“Going through the motions” in life will only get you so far. Yes, you may accomplish some of your goals, but your journey toward those goals will often feel hollow and joyless. In our opinion, that is no way to live life.
Here at Clearview Girls Academy, we do not believe in a cookie-cutter “in and out” recovery. Our goal is to help our students not simply succeed while at our center, but to become leaders once they leave. We utilize five levels of recovery to accomplish this goal.
What Are the Levels of Recovery at Clearview Girls Academy?
The five levels of recovery at Clearview Girls Academy is a system we implement to keep our students active and growing throughout their entire stay at our ranch in Montana. These levels build on each other until, eventually, they form a unified foundation that helps our students reengage with their families and community.
Some of the goals of this system are to help our students reflect on the decisions they’ve made thus far. Specifically, they are encouraged to reflect upon the actions and behaviors that may have brought them into our care.
We also want our students to understand that they are responsible for maintaining a safe space for themselves and others. We also want them to be able to identify and accept their current situation. It is the concept of “living in the moment” that is so critical at this particular level.
Lastly, we want our students to recognize their goals and values. They can then take these values out into the world beyond our doors and react to situations more responsibly, communicate more respectfully, and connect with others in a leadership role.
Level 1: Safety And/or Refusal
Even before level one, we ask our students to reflect on their lives leading up to their time at Clearview Girls Academy. This reflection will help them to understand that while we cannot change the things that happened in the past, we can take responsibility for them. We can also change our behaviors and reactions when similar situations arise in the future.
Specifically, level one is meant to keep our students safe and responsible while they are here. We want to simplify life and impart to them the importance of following rules and directions for the benefit of the entire community.
Level 2: Identity
The second level is all about acceptance. When we accept our situation, we can then begin to grow from it.
The American author, Ralph Waldo Emerson, once said, “Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail.” That is really what this step is about as well. It’s about accepting responsibility for our actions or reactions and creating goals to make positive adjustments in the future.
Level 3: Identity Authenticity
In the third level, our students begin acting out those values they laid out for themselves in the previous steps. They utilize these values as they begin taking on leadership roles within the Clearview Girls Academy community.
Through repetition of action, these values will become like second nature, and our students will soon find themselves acting out their values in everything they do. The goal is for them to also start contributing positively within the community.
Level 4: Leadership Identity
In level four, our students begin identifying what does and doesn’t fit their values moving forward. They then cut down to their core values and begin focusing specifically on them.
Here our students also learn how to work symbiotically with the rest of the community. They will discover that sometimes their values conflict with what is best for the community. It is at this point that they will learn to find a balance between their self-interests and the welfare of the community at large.
Level 5: Teach and Transition
Finally, we get to stage five. Here our students learn how to take on firm leadership roles within the community. They will begin utilizing the tools they have learned to help other students grow and get to the next level as well.
This phase is what helps our students enjoy a healthy transition back out into the world at large. They can use the tools and resources they have acquired to connect positively and healthily with family, friends, and the greater community.
The English writer and philosopher Aldous Huxley once said that “Experience is not what happens to you, it is what you do with what happens to you.” That is what recovery is all about at Clearview Girls Academy. It is not the destination that helps us recover. It is the journey.
There are five levels of recovery at Clearview Girls Academy. They are safety and refusal, identity, identity authenticity, leadership identity, and teaching and transition. We utilize these five levels to help our students achieve the healthiest, most successful long-term recovery possible. These levels help our students to better understand their self-identity, better empathize with others, and better achieve a healthy recovery transition once they leave our doors. Our goal is to light your daughter’s path to recovery, but ultimately she will be the one who has to walk it. These five levels will help her take the next right step and help her change course when needed. Please call Clearview Girls Academy today at (888) 796-5484 for more information.
