Success Stories
> Ashley
Ashley :: "I felt like a winner - not many people thought I could do it but I did".
Pressley Ridge's Supported Transitional Living (STL) Program in Ohio is committed to enabling adolescents to reach their fullest potential. Ashley (20 years old) successfully graduated from Life Skills High School and will be transitioning into her own apartment next February. Ashley spent most of her life in residential placements where she had experienced a lack of permanence, stability or consistency of care. Two years ago, she entered the STL program wearing gothic clothes, multiple piercings, and a fascination with self-harming behaviors. Ashley had nearly fifteen adult psychiatric hospitalizations in her young life. Still, Pressley Ridge welcomed her with open arms, praying that we could help her change her thinking errors. We began utilizing the "Massaging Numb Values Intervention of LSCI" in our interactions with her.
It was not easy. Every step she took forward she would take twice as many backwards for self-punishment. The turning point, according to Ashley, was when she learned that she had enough credits to graduate from high school this past December. She stated, "I felt like a winner - not many people thought I could do it but I did". She also stated that "it felt really good walking across the stage and looking at all the Pressley Ridge youth and staff supporting me and yelling my name very loud". As director of the program, I sat and I cried because she had a smile on her face and she was experiencing the ceremony and ritual principle of Re-ED for the first time. Ashley will now be leaving the program with a new sense of confidence because she has developed independent living skills, coping skills, and she has experienced healthy relationships from which she will draw strength as she takes her next steps in life.