Philosophy

Everything at Daybreak Canyon hinges on two things, the 5 Pillars of Daybreak Canyon and Sustainable Business practices. As the first Green Residential Treatment Center in the country, we are committed to being the most sustainable business we can be. These practices dovetail with our multi-systemic holistic approach to treatment.

When we work with troubled boys we focus on developing strengths or ultimately stewardship within the 5 Pillars of Daybreak Canyon. Each youth will be guided as they work on goals for self, family, community, conservation, and spirituality. Daybreak Canyon believes that when a young man develops stewardship in each of these areas, he becomes a well rounded, healthy, productive individual.

There are several components to our treatment program. As a business we are committed to conserving and preserving resources. We also believe in a Triple “P” Bottom Line; People, Planet, and Profit. We view youth as our most valuable resource and the opportunity to work with troubled youth and help them regain their future matches our overarching business philosophy.

From a treatment perspective, youth have the opportunity to live in an environment with all of the green initiatives at Daybreak Canyon. By design Daybreak Canyon has not implemented every last possible green idea we have, instead youth have the opportunity to come to the program and help maintain, develop, and perfect the green systems in place. By playing such an active role in keeping our green environment going, it gives us the perfect forum to work with youth on understanding cause and effect. In real time with real applications youth learn how decisions today impact things in the future, and many times at Daybreak Canyon the consequences are immediate (such as if the compost does not get taken out regularly than it really starts to stink!).

The structure of our program comes from a therapeutic milieu that includes a level system. Daybreak Canyon’s system is based on the Teaching Family Model. Boys are given positive and negative points based upon the use and application of 14 social skills. There is a strong emphasis on CBT as well, as we really focus on working with youth to understand how their thoughts drive behavior. Boys can receive positive points through positive praise interactions as well as doing chores, work projects, education, recreation, recreation therapy, counseling, group counseling, and taking care of issues related to the 5 Pillars. They receive negative points during teaching interactions for the same activities.

One of the strengths of our program is our emphasis on families. You can read more about it under the family section, but the best part might be our family classes. We offer a series of classes that are the exact same training we use to train our staff. This gives parents the opportunity to learn the exact same social skills their child is learning and also the skills to engage in teaching interactions and positive praise with their child. Prior to discharge we develop a behavioral plan with parents that outlines rules, chores and other responsibilities, privileges, and consequences so that when the youth returns home parents are speaking the same language we speak at Daybreak Canyon and they can create a home milieu similar to ours and the one their child was comfortable in while at Daybreak Canyon.

Our clinical work with individual counseling and family counseling focuses on CBT as well as a variety of other techniques. We have significant experience with RAD issues, attachment issues, Executive Dysfunction, as well as some of the coresponding addtional problems such as depression, substance abuse issues, and grief and loss issues.

Finally experiential therapy plays a key part of Daybreak Canyon. Located at a setting that embraces the outdoors, we use a wide variety of outdoor activities to help youth develop self esteem, new leisure pursuits, communication, team work, and challenges youth to accomplish difficult tasks. When you come you have to ask us to explain our program fishing records, current record is a 18 inch rainbow taken out of our stream!