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Mother
Responds to Ivy Ridge Stories
Malaica Valiente
Davie, Fl
malaica@gmail.com
To Whom It May Concern:
It has come to my attention some controversial reviews that
you had written about a specialty school named Academy of
Ivy Ridge and even thought I believe in freedom of press this
country has, I also thought it would be a good idea for me
to tell you who I am and what has happened to our family since
my daughter entered the School.
I am a highly respected professional in the music business;
I had lived in New York City for ten years, now I reside in
Florida. I am a mother of three children, single mother I
may add. Two years ago, my now 14 year old daughter begun
to show very irrational actions.
I brought her to AIR April 7th 2004. After almost one year
of slowly loosing touch with her, not being able to connect
and loosing control of my life as well and my other two children.
It is amazing how one child can disrupt the entire family
system. And we think it is a just “bad answer” or seeing them
smoke or try drugs. For me, it was more than that, it was
loosing it all; my health, my job, my relationship with the
other children, it was my whole life.
Then I realized that it is not enough to try, to want to
be there for her, to do the ultimate, to try to change things
around and all over, to make it better the next morning when
you wake up. We bring them to this world; no one gives us
manual, or tells us how to do it. It is not enough to say
that we give them love, comfort when we can, provide them
with all they need. Then I used to hear people say how good
of a mother I was, I never hit, hurt or did anything intentionally,
in fact, I had worked so hard all my life so we can have a
home. So what went wrong? What happened here? I have come
to realize that yes I have to come to terms that “I cannot
now”, that for now “I have to let go” and I found through
a lot of search the program. It did not take me long to enroll
her in AIR and to come up with the loan and whatever it was
to do to get her there.
Let me add that I am not from this country, but from the
far Latin South. I had faith in professionals who know how
to handle it, they have done it for years with so many successful
stories. Ever since XXXXX has been there, there has been never
one time any complains from her about abuse, not eating right,
etc… Soon after arriving, my daughter realized that what I
did for her was to give the chance to live the life she was
born to live. She did not love the strict rules, but soon
thanked me because “she was safe” she had professionals helping
her 24/7
Then I went to the seminars and tried it for myself. Let
me see if this is all true. I struggled in Discovery a little
because it was very intense. I learned how serious this was
and how a part our family was, how we were living in one house,
but so disconnected and so alone for so many years. Then I
did second seminar, Focus, and made it so much easier. Along
with the seminars came into my life amazing people that I
love so much and mean so much today to me. I realized that
there is way out of all this mess! This is major. I had a
way out of all of this misery and getting through!. and weeks
went by when suddenly I started reading letters that were
saying to me “Mom, I will never forget what you did by sending
me here, you have given me another chance to live, I feel
so good here…” I don’t recall any letters really before that,
remember I was catching on my relationship with my other kids
and my sleep.
XXXXX has been there for over a year. I just returned from
seeing her for Mother’s Day weekend. Our whole family is finally
healing and walking the talk. She has explained to us how
the program has taught her to look and find that excellence
within herself, her beauty , to realized that there are working
and non working choices, not right and wrong answers. In the
program, she realized that it is not enough to live a mediocre
life, but to stand strong on your integrity, to be around
people who stand for your excellence, not your crap. It is
not just her, but our whole family changed.
It is very simple in the program, you call you make the arrangements,
they take your child (let’s say all the specifics fall into
place), then immediately they call the whole entire family
to be 100% of the program, or the program may not work. They
are not fixing your kid, they are teaching your whole entire
family.
It was only through this program that I started to think
about me and my own life, where I chose to quit my job of
8 years that paid well, to go into something new, very scary,
but that will give me the air to breath, the time to see what
it is life has to offer or to smell the morning breeze. Not
only I got a new job, I got a great job. Great boss, more
freedom, my life has totally changed ever since this program
started. One can say it is coincidence, but I learned different.
What we resist persists. The only way out of something is
to actually go through. What we fear, we create. I have also
learned not to settle on my own lies and excuses not to step
out and create something different for me
I could not have done this without AIR, without the seminars,
the support, the family rep and the staff and AIR who stand
out for XXXXX day after day and that they never give up on
her, they never give into her crap, but into her excellence,
into the amazing human being she is. And this goes for all
of the kids, all the kids in all the programs. Do I struggle?
Or will I ever struggle over and over again? Of course, but
how can I not acknowledge the tools that I learned to over
come the struggles, or to simply go along with them and use
them to grow.
When I read negative articles about the program, I go ok!
Being in the music business I am very used to this type of
commentaries and let them go. Because they mean nothing to
me and to another thousands of peoples whose program has changed
their lives. So you can continue to talk about how bad they
are, or how someone said this or that. I can just tell you
I have been a part of it for over a year, very close and all
I can say is: Thank you Ivy Ridge, Mr. Jason, every family
representative, the dorm parents, the night and day supervisors,
the teachers, the staff, the support groups, Premier for the
great seminars for giving us such great tools to work with.
And to let everyone know that something magnificent has happened
to me and to hundreds of others, no matter who they are, where
they are from, how long, how short or where they are in the
program. And you know why? Because we’ve found a way out!
Going thought it and this is huge. I have a daughter who laughs
so hard and loud, who is happy to be alive, to love herself,
to know she is capable of anything, to stand up for herself
and others, and that her family is right there for her along
this journey and we will never give up on each other.
I think you may want to look into what you are writing about.
The program is all across the country and has been saving
families for years. Is it perfect? Nothing is perfect. Does
it work? Yes Sir, it does work wonders. So here to non-perfect,
great program, to united families, healthy and happy. Cheers
to you, if yours is the case.
Regards,
Malaica Valiente
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