2022 Journeys Magazine
Stories of Hope
Adult Program Graduate: Grace
"It's so hard, but you have to trust the program. You have to trust the staff. You have to trust your ability to hold on or let go and learn these new skills and embrace them and realize that you can make a life worth living."
"Today our daughter is doing much better. She’s confident and more mature. She’s taking responsibility for herself at a rate that I think is really healthy."
As parents, when your child needs help, in the moment you are willing to sign everything away to get them what they need. Skyland Trail helped us find the right balance so that we didn’t have to do that AND so that our daughter could get the full treatment she needed. Financial aid was definitely a part of that equation, and we are very thankful for that.
Today our daughter is doing much better. She’s confident and more mature. She’s taking responsibility for herself at a rate that I think is really healthy. Returning to North Florida after treatment, we didn’t have many local resources to support her mental health. So we were really appreciative of what we learned at Skyland Trail. We feel more educated and feel like we can support our daughter in some of the decision-making that she goes through. And I think that she is better educated about her condition and is able to take more responsibility for herself. This year, she finished her senior year of high school and then decided so take some additional classes to help her prepare for her next steps. I think she’s on her way.
Adult Program Graduate: Quentin
"Once I started meeting everyone, and once I started going through the curriculum, I started realizing that... I do belong here, I am worthy of treatment, and this is going to work for me."
"One of the things that a lot of people ask is, 'What led you to Skyland Trail?' It’s never as simple as one thing...But really what led me here was running. Running from myself. Running from my mistakes."
I had been stuck in this logical mind for most of my life, and I kept on messing up. I wasn’t able to understand why. A big part of what I learned was that the emotional mind—the other side—was something that I had completely discounted. I hadn’t been paying attention to my emotions whatsoever, I was missing a bunch of variables in this equation I had been trying to fix.
For me, just that idea of approaching the reality of what it means to be a person was helpful. I do feel sad sometimes. I do get mad. I do get jealous or lonely. And being able to not only feel that but express that, was very, very different than how I had been living.
Adult Program Graduate: Samantha
Samantha V. is a Skyland Trail adult program graduate, artist, and recipient of the 2023 Marjorie West Wynne Alumni Art Fellowship.
"I really found a lot of community and belonging at Skyland."
I realized how intertwined my creativity was with my mental health journey. The more I worked in groups, on skills and on looking within myself, and the more I challenged my mind and my emotional capabilities, the more I saw my creativity change.
And vice versa, the more I challenged my creativity and "let go" in my art, the more I saw the ties to what I was doing in groups on a day-to-day basis.
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DID YOU KNOW? On average, adult clients admitting to our residential program participate in treatment for about 2 to 4 months, usually stepping down to day treatment as part of their journey.