A paramount piece to Building Bridges is bringing real life to treatment and has been since opening 25 years ago.  Students can attend the high school, be involved in extracurricular activities, and have jobs in the community.  Integrating this type of community involvement into their treatment allows them to use the tools they have learned and apply them in an unstructured environment.  This process is the catalyst for deep internal change and is a beginning to their transition work.  Transition work is incorporated throughout their treatment and as they near discharge, a comprehensive plan is developed in coordination with their care team and parents.

Building Bridges; transition program is specifically for boys who are preparing to finish our program and move onto their next chapter.  The entry into this transition program is based on the primary therapist’s recommendation which is directly aligned with student’s therapeutic work.

The program begins 3 months prior to departure and is facilitated by family therapist Tammy Alexander, MS LCPC.  The outline of the program includes:

• Meeting with the boys every week for transition group therapy, where focus on intentional subjects will challenge your son to eventually design a departure plan that highlights the expectations of both him and his family. 
• Meeting with the parents in a “Transition Parent Zoom Group” every other week.  The parents will be challenged with their own therapeutic work to change how they show up for their boys going forward.  
• 30-minute calls are offered to the parents every other week to support the therapeutic work they are being tasked with throughout the process. 
• Each family will have 3 hours of post family therapy to ensure that goals are being supported in the next chapter. 
• This sets graduated families up for success at the end of their Building Bridges experience and adds another layer of success to students and families.

Building Bridges is a Therapeutic Boarding School in Thompson Falls, MT for boys 14-18 with substance and behavioral issues. The passion is creating a structure that mirrors real life with the goal to have the boys attend public school.  Building Bridges seeks to bring real life to treatment through redirection and empowerment. They strive to teach the young men to see how substance has created behaviors that have gotten in their way of pursing their passions. By teaching them how to have self-confidence and create a more positive manner they are able to see their growth through using what they learn in a normalized safe environment that will transfer to wherever their next step is.