In late 2020, Red Mountain Sedona launched its Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) staff training initiative. As a mindfulness-based, trauma-informed therapeutic program for young adults, this training venture is a critical component of Red Mountain’s mission to provide staff at all levels with on-going, comprehensive training, and professional development experiences.

First Aid is a familiar concept that describes behaviors designed to provide immediate health assistance to someone in need. MHFA, a relatively newly developed protocol established in 2001, helps users to recognize and intervene in mental heath crisis situations.

Though the Red Mountain staff consists of licensed therapists, all with Master’s or Doctorate degrees, the staff is also comprised of a variety of other individuals with various educational and professional backgrounds. Because of this, Maureen White, one of Red Mountain’s co-founders, felt it was important for all staff to receive the MHFA training to ensure that every department can support crisis prevention efforts in a streamlined and consistent way.

The MFHA training is provided by an in-house facilitator, Taryn Quenzer, a primary therapist and executive functioning specialist. Taryn’s background is in education; however, years before she joined the Red Mountain team, she saw the way her students were impacted by trauma and mental health concerns and realized that many of them were from low-income families, who did not have access to counselors or therapists.  Taryn went back to school to get a Master’s in Professional Counseling “to become a better teacher,” she said.

Being trained as an MHFA facilitator was important to Taryn. “For me, it was about empowerment,” she said. “[As a teacher,] I had a clear plan of what to do when I saw these signs.” Taryn sees the MHFA training as an asset for direct care staff and parents as well, as it can help non-clinically trained individuals to feel skillful when they see someone in distress.

To learn more about MFHA visit https://www.mentalhealthfirstaid.org/. To learn more about Red Mountain Sedona contact Deara Ball at deara@redmountainsedona.com

About Red Mountain Sedona  

Red Mountain Sedona is a mindfulness-based, trauma-informed young adult “Launch” program, located in beautiful Sedona, Arizona.  Red Mountain specializes in helping young adults between the ages of 18-28, address the social, emotional, and behavioral issues holding them back from successfully transitioning into adulthood.  Through a truly holistic program that provides structure, individual, group, and family therapy, life skills training, recovery support and mindfulness-meditation, yoga, and martial arts instruction, Red Mountain Sedona helps students gain the stability and maturity needed to move forward in life.  For more information on Red Mountain Sedona call (855) 998-5272.