“The greatest discovery of all time is that a person can change his future by merely changing his attitude.”
Oprah Winfrey
The Farmhouse experienced a lot of change this week. We had several growth ceremonies, a lot of kids leaving and going home, some on visits, and some for good. This week has been filled with both joy and sadness, heavily. Between the field trip on Sunday to the Rockland Breakwater and the three growth ceremonies we’ve had, there have been a lot of complicated feelings. We are both happy and sad for the people that are going home. We are happy they are growing, but we’ll miss them very much.
The upcoming Family Connect event has a lot of kids excited to see their families and to go off campus. We talk about the activities that are planned and eating off campus, but some are more anxious than excited. There have also been lots of mixed emotions regarding the new privileges, which focus more on behavior rather than phases of the program. It’s a new system, so everything isn’t perfect, but it’s gotten people to have more control and consistency with their program.
The therapeutic groups this week have been really helpful to a lot of students, especially Seeking Safety. This group in particular has given us a new point of view on how we feel emotions, and how we act on them. It has also given us perspective on each other, how to recognize when someone is feeling a certain way, and how best to support them. There are many groups at the Farm House; there are Adoptions Group, Alcoholics Anonymous Group, DBT, Social and Emotional Learning. These groups help people not feel so alone in their journey at Ironwood, and they give support when it is needed. All of these groups have gotten people really engaged and interested during this week, and they have helped us resolve certain issues that the upstairs group was having.
This week, the Farmhouse group has had fun, laughed and cried in healthy ways, received perspective, came together as a community, and supported each other during hard times. Overall, this week has been extremely beneficial to many people’s Ironwood journey, and we have received advice that will help us in the present, and advice that will also go a long way into our future.