In Balance Ranch Academy is located outside Tucson, Arizona and was founded by Patrick and Betsy Barrasso about nine years ago. The Barrassos had originally started an outpatient clinic in Tucson serving mostly adolescents with substance abuse problems. The clinic is still functioning but they soon learned that outpatient services were just not enough for many young people. In 2004 they founded the Ranch Academy on a ranch property an hour or more outside Tucson close to Tombstone AZ working with adolescent males with an emphasis on substance abuse. They now have about 50+ students in this residential program. In 2006 the continuum of care was expanded to establishing the In Balance Transitional Living program in a suburb of Tucson for young men ages 17-24. All are thriving as indicated by both the Ranch and Transitional Living doing very well in the most recent Woodbury Reports annual survey.

I started the day at their downtown offices which also operate as the center for the outpatient clinic. It was a comfortable and modern suite of offices where I met with clinical director Shannon Petrovich and admissions director Betsy Barrasso who described the overview of their continuum of care programs. I got the picture that this is a very sophisticated program with a lot of thought and experience going into all the elements of the program to give a total healing experience for the boys. Everything the staff does is oriented toward healing substance abuse problems and learning sober living, while being able to also handle many co-occurring disorders.

My time was too short to get a full understanding of all they do but I can outline some of the major elements. They use several treatment modalities in order to ensure that the individual needs of each student are met. One important element is their use of Positive Peer Culture (PPC). They were trained in this by one of the gurus of Positive Peer Culture Larry Brendtro. This takes peer pressure which in mainstream society is too often negative, and turns it around to where in their programs the peer pressure is positive. From this, they emphasize that the students are "agents of change." This also encourages students to take personal ownership in the programs and their own recovery.

They use twelve-step recovery throughout their programs. Part of the reason is for the future, wherever in the world they might go, they will be able to find a recovery group to help them. They also build on the spirituality found in twelve-step recovery. This takes form in a number of spiritually based ceremonies such as frequent camping trips to learn to connect with the lessons from nature as well as for similar purposes the use of sweat lodges, medicine wheels, and use of drums, masks and shields helping to symbolize their spiritual journey brought down to concrete activities.

Experiential activities are extensive. I was told they have about 120 expeditions each year, and frequently do rock climbing, fun runs, snowboarding etc. These are usually framed in a narrative of metaphors to help each student grasp a lesson(s) they need to learn. Their equine-assisted therapy and horsemanship is often an important part of this, again learning lessons valuable to gaining control over their own lives by learning boundaries, relationships and the multitude of lessons that can be learned through interactions with horses.

They have eight clinicians who conduct specialty groups. The boys are grouped into four of what they call milieus with each assigned a therapist. This grouping brings the boys experience down to a smaller number that is a little more intimate as well as having the practical advantage of being able to better keep track of every boy, especially in how he is doing.

Working with the family is important with parents frequently coming to the ranch and participating in weekly phone or skype calls with parents interacting with their sons. This allows the staff to work with the whole family getting them all on the same page so far as supporting and validating their son's progress in recovery.

They are making significant changes in their academics. In the past they had been working from the high school curriculum provided by Keystone and the University of Nebraska. However, they are dropping those two services and are developing their own multimedia classes which can not only appeal better to the young student, but can allow them to focus more precisely on the specific academic and emotional needs of the students.

After this introduction, Betsy took me on the long drive out to the ranch. It is out in the middle of nowhere, and the first sight is rather unique. The property the Barrassos bought had been a dude ranch of some kind, and the owner had built a old style western town, something like you might see on a western movie set. The inside of most of the buildings had been converted to offices, dorms, etc. All the old style western buildings had been renamed to the function they served in the school, and had been cleaned up, painted etc. Other than that, it looked much like the old almost ghost towns dotted around the West with false fronts and wood boardwalks. One exception was the new academic building, something more than 4,000 square feet for offices, classes, and an extensive cafeteria. In addition there were several utility buildings and a large riding arena.

The buildings were more or less clustered around the graveled driveway with an impressive giant sculpture in the middle - a medicine wheel on top of the twelve steps.

A couple of students toured me around the facilities, showing off the dorms (they were clean and neat), the function of the various buildings and talking about their experiences and what they had learned. The students were articulate, well dressed, positive about the Academy and being older students, talked some about their plans for the future as well as shared their stories of how they came to be enrolled at the Academy. While we were touring, a number of students returned from a several day horseback ride looking very much like they had been on the trail several days. Tired, dirty and they had a top priority of getting a shower, but not until after they had cared for the horses. Despite all that, they looked like they had the self-confidence and satisfaction from an adventure well done.

I had lunch with the staff, and from their introductions I learned most of the staff had been with the Academy for a number of years. Longevity is always a good sign of quality work in a school. The group sounded dedicated, confident and satisfied.

That afternoon we returned to Tucson to visit the Transitional Living program in a modest suburb. The collection of buildings were designed to blend into the neighborhood so it looked like just another residential home. It is close to the University of Arizona and several other colleges that the students might take classes at. It was a very comfortable collection of a house and a few other buildings that had every appearance of being a home. The boys I met with were open about their story, their plans, and seemed to be participating in many of the same activities as their peers not in a program (music, non-violent video games etc.)

The young men graduate through three phrases in their time in the program, each designed to enhance their ability for success for living independently. They do many of the similar things the boys at the Ranch do in experiential outings, physical fitness, snowboarding, counseling and service activities. A highlight for the young men are several trips to annual weekend 12-step retreats called Fellowship of the Spirit (F.O.T.S.), and Regional meetings of the Young People in Alcoholics Anonymous (YPAA). These are fun and rewarding experiences that seem to be a highlight of the young men.

I felt their reputation they had earned among Independent Educational Consultants as shown through the results in the Woodbury Reports annual survey was well earned. Good things are happening in both programs.