Hope Ranch/Star Meadows Academy
Whitefish, MT

New Resident Psychologist At Hope Ranch

Dr. Victoria Creighton has recently joined the therapeutic staff at Hope Ranch/Star Meadows Academy. She comes to us from Montana Academy, a program that she deeply respects and where she found 'great mentors' for her work with struggling teens.

Dr. Creighton received her doctorate in Clinical Psychology from Wheaton College, Wheaton, ILL. After that she worked at Montana Academy for six years before joining our staff.

She joins our staff at a time when Hope Ranch is intentionally strengthening its commitment to relationship-structured therapy. Her input has been valuable in organizing our students into teams. Each team has a therapist as team leader, a residential or teaching staff member as co-leader. Altogether there are eight staff members on each team comprised of eight girls.

Dr. Creighton believes deeply in relationship-structured therapy. She values the "direct and honest feedback" that students can receive from their peers in teams. In a real process group girls call each other to be more real and to behave differently. She states, "Unless a child feels "seen", it is difficult to effectively set limits or consequences".

With the addition of Dr. Creighton to our staff, we now have two PhD level clinical psychologists on staff. There is one therapist for every eight girls.

Anyone needing more information may contact our Admissions Counselor, Jim Carpenter at jimc@hoperanchmt.org or our development staff at www.hoperanchmt.org.