Diamond Ranch Academy

I attended this facility for eight months. Diamond Ranch Academy did not treat my addiction whatsoever, did not allow me to do my schoolwork, forced us to pick tumbleweeds in the rain and snow until our hands bled, made me sleep on concrete floors, and constantly reassured all of us how we were pieces of $#*! along with the reminder that our parents truly resented us; not to mention the strip-searches in front of male employees (I am a female and was fifteen at the time). There is not a single fellow peer who attended this program with me that does not have some form of PTSD from this experience and a huge distrust with their parents and authority figures afterward. I am the only one that has attended college- which would not have been able to happen without years of expensive therapy to deal with the atrocious memories of this place. If your child is here and you have not received a negative letter or phone call from them, that is because they are not allowed to with fear of being thrown in RFI, kind of like the SHU is prisons. The Diaz family is a disgrace to the therapeutic boarding school reputation. Also, do your research! At least four children have died here from suicide.

My year old son has been going to Diamond Ranch Academy for 5 months now. My husband and I both think this is the one of the greatest decisions we've ever made in our lives! My son LOVES being there and has learned so much since he started. He has become way more social and comfortable with other kids and every one else as well.

Each day of the week Diamond Ranch Academy plan an activity for the kids to learn from, or just to simply have fun with. The activities are amazing, My son especially loves art classes.The facility itself is very clean and secure,
As parents, we love seeing a smile on our son's face when he is dropped off and picked up.It tells me that he is comfortable at school and having a great time there. We feel very lucky to have found Diamond Ranch Academy, and happily recommend it to parents who have children who may need emotional healing to develop their self esteem. It is really a wonderful, caring place.

Diamond Ranch Academy was a livesaver for my son and our family. A year ago, my then 16 year old son was failing out of, and cutting classes at, his third high school in three years. He was struggling with personal, academic and mental health issues and my wife and I had reached the end of our rope. Our sons future, our family life and our other kids were all a mess. Not knowing what to do, and having little information concerning DRA other than calls with a few of the family references, we made the difficult decision to send our son to DRA. After 5-6 months, we began to see a change our son started to feel better about himself, he started to return to his normal personality, he began to have hopes for his future and he learned the mental, personal and educational skills needed to make those hopes a reality. Now, a year later, he has left DRA, is a week or so away from getting his high school diploma, and has been accepted into a four year national college. Without DRA, its wonderful staff and our sons hard work, we would not be in this situation today.

It will not be an easy decision to send your child to the Diamond Ranch Academy. Certainly, I had not experienced many things more painful than to see my son leave in the early morning with two strangers, and to realize that I was entrusting him to the care of an institution and people that I had researched but not seen personally.

I cannot assure you that your child will have a positive and successful tenure at the Diamond Ranch Academy. But I can assure you that there is one individual there, Rod Peterson, the director of the art program, who helped my son to realize a talent that no one (not even my son) realized existed. For that I will be forever grateful.

Mr. Peterson mentored my son. He advised my son. He remained steadfast in his belief in my son, and he directed him responsibly, patiently, and with genuine care. Even after my son left the DRA, after the faculty and staff's responsibility toward my son had terminated, Mr. Peterson continued to address my son's interests, potential, and needs. He attended a Utah State High School Art Awards Ceremony in Springville, Utah, with my son. He later entered one of my son's paintings in a separate competition in St. George. He demonstrated through his actions that he believed in my son, and I fervently hope that because of these actions, my son will believe in himself.

Mr. Peterson's art program at the Diamond Ranch Academy is a site of safety and creativity, work and self expression that provided my son with that one link that he needed with "life" to continue at the Diamond Ranch Academy, and ultimately to have some success. The DRA Art Program is a testament of the value and the importance of art as a medium to touch the soul of a boy who closed off other media. Mr. Rod Peterson is a testament of the value of a caring professional who knows how to reach those individuals who may feel abandoned and alone. He is an example of all that is good in the beauty and wisdom of art.

Before we decided on Diamond Ranch Academy (DRA), we were desperate parents. Our son was on a downward spiral, and we had to make a quick decision. We took a leap of faith, and decided on DRA having only spoken with staff. It was difficult, but we are certainly thankful for our conversation with Dan, and the ultimate decision we made to send him to the school.

We cannot say enough about our teen's experience at Diamond Ranch Academy (DRA). From the transport to the campus, to the graduation celebration 11 months later, the experience was beyond what we had expected. While there are many, many aspects of DRA that are worthy of discussion, the one aspect of the Academy that underlies all the others is the quality of the staff. The moment our son entered DRA he was greeted by and thereafter interacted daily with individuals who were one-hundred percent committed to his success. The therapeutic experience at DRA is second to none. But, equally important is the availability of extracurricular activities in which the students are encouraged to participate. Many teens, our son included, would have never been able to enhance their self-esteem through theater or athletics in a regular high school setting. However, DRA makes available to students a wide variety of activities that allows them to grow in strength and character. It is only up to the students to decide where and how Diamond Ranch Academy would want to participate. Watching our son compete in wrestling, perform a solo, and have a key role in a play, may have been the proudest moments of our lives. His achieving these milestones were only brought about through the dedicated work of the staff in building his self-esteem and his confidence. For that we will be ever grateful.

For those considering a therapeutic boarding school for their teen, we would highly recommend Diamond Ranch Academy. We believe in the program, and more importantly, we believe in the staff. They are second to none.

My response to Unknown U is while its true that theirs is a group of struggling teens at DRA, it is also true that Diamond Ranch Academy are the same kinds of kids they hung out with on the outside. These teens are mostly unhappy kids who don't realize their way isn't working for them. DRA provides an environment with less distractions and negative influences, so teens can be safe and take advantage of opportunities to learn new tools that do work for them and positive life lessons that many won't obtain any other way. There are no guarantees. It may be years before a DRA graduate can really appreciate all the rich and fertile seeds that were planted, but they're there when they're ready to sow them. It's a special privilege to go through the DRA program and if there are scars they aren't as deep as those that come from continuing along a downward path of destruction. It's every parents responsibility to intervene when their child is in trouble, to keep their child safe, and to recruit as much support as possible. With DRA the family works with a professional and sincerely caring team who provides advice, positive redirection and long-term support for the whole family. My hope for you is that you become all that you're meant to be because I know it's in you - you had glimpses of your power and strengths during your stay at DRA

To any of the parents visiting this site, if you are looking at these reviews, it probably means that you are having a very difficult situation with a loved one and are investigating what to do in order to help them. I am writing this review in support of Diamond Ranch Academy and their staff. I have a very busy life but I wanted to take the time to write this, as I wished that I had been able to read a review like this when I was searching for help for my daughter. From my perspective I understand what you may be going through. The last few years of my life have been some of the most stressful and difficult I have experienced in my entire life. My 17 year old daughter had become completely depressed, defiant, isolated, withdrawn and began to develop negative coping skills in order to deal with her mental health. Each day as I interacted with my daughter I never knew which daughter was going to be there, I felt like it was a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde situation. My daughter's condition was also taking a toll on my marital relationship and also was affecting my other children. Her life seemed to be spinning out of control and I felt like she was becoming a vortex of destruction to all in her path, including most importantly herself. I felt like we really needed to do something to help my daughter before her behavior led to an implosion of everything around her. We had tried everything possible we knew to try to help her, including outpatient therapists and reading multiple self help books. However, despite our best efforts, we felt like things just kept getting worse and I was beginning to lose hope.

We started to look at multiple options including intensive inpatient therapy and intensive outpatient therapy. None of these seemed like viable options, until we discovered Diamond Ranch Academy (DRA) and we began to see some hope. One of the largest things about DRA that really stood out to me was the saying at DRA of Healing families one child at a time. This really stood out to me, as DRA was aware of not just helping the child but also helping to heal the family of that child. The fact that DRA understood that it was not just the child that needed help, but by helping that child to develop the skills to overcome their negative behaviors, it would also help to heal the family of that child that was also hurting.

As my wife and I were contemplating this decision, I have written below some of the personal issues and thoughts that I had to address to myself.

Issue #1: "If I send my child to DRA, it will be as if I admit that I had failed as a parent." This was one of the more difficult thoughts I had to work through for myself. As I watched my daughter, I felt powerless to help her. I felt like perhaps if I had done something differently, she would not be in this situation. I felt that perhaps I had failed her as a parent and that by sending her away it would be as if I were giving up. As my daughter has been at DRA, I now see that the opposite is true. I have learned that sometimes we need help from others that are experts in areas where we are not. By sending your child to DRA, you are not abandoning your child and you are not a failure as a parent. In actuality, you are still showing hope in your child that there is a chance and that you have the humility to ask for help from others. You are turning your child over to experts who have helped many many children to turn their lives around. I have come to realize that in sending a child to DRA, you are actually exhibiting great courage to make this decision and being a great parent. It is also demonstrating hope in your child that Diamond Ranch Academy still have the potential to change and that you are not giving up on them.

Issue #2: "Why did this happen to us and it will be a complete embarrassment once everyone finds out. As my daughter has been at DRA, I have discovered that many, many families are in similar situations and don't know where to go for help. One program at DRA that I found particularly helpful in this regard for me, were the parent 101 and parent 201 classes. These classes were excellent as we met with many other parents who were in similar situations and I realized we were not alone. I felt like my wife and I no longer were suffering in silence but were actually understood by many people with whom we shared a common bond. I remember in the parent 101 class, sitting in a circle with other parents who also had children there, sharing our feelings about our children and expressing our love for them. It was at this time that I felt like someone understood what I was going through as a parent and it allowed me to let go of the weight that I felt I had been carrying during all this time, due to my daughter's struggles. Furthermore, as friends and family found out about us sending our daughter to DRA, we have only felt supported by them. In fact, we are often now asked about the DRA program as many other families are still struggling with the same issues we faced. We shared some of the books DRA uses with our friends, including The People Code and found that many of our friends and family read these books and wanted to know more.

Issue #3: As I was researching DRA, I encountered some of the negative reviews that have been written about DRA. Before I sent my daughter there, I expressed some of these concerns with Andrew and some of the other staff at DRA. I was impressed by their straightforwardness and openness in addressing these concerns. They even went beyond that and offered to give me several referrals of parents that had children in the program. The parents I spoke with gave very positive reviews of DRA and the staff there. I decided to trust my feelings and send my daughter there. Since she has been there, I can't say enough in support of the professionalism of all of the staff that I have encountered at DRA. The DRA staff do an exceptional job of keeping parents in the loop and letting parents know how their child is doing. I have also visited the facility several times and have always been impressed by how open everyone is and how positive all the staff is toward my daughter. Most importantly, they truly seem to care for her as a person and want to help her to become her best self. During our weekly phone calls with my daughter, she had the opportunity to speak frankly about her feelings about the program and was not censored in any way. Beyond that, we received both verbal and written communication weekly from the girls program director who kept us appraised of how my daughter was doing. My experience with DRA has been completely positive. I feel like the negative websites and reviews out in cyberspace regarding diamond ranch, misrepresent the program and are not a valid review of what DRA is about.

DRA is a well rounded program. The last semester at home before my daughter went to DRA, she failed almost all of her classes in school. At DRA, she has excelled academically due to the low student teacher ratio and all the assistance she has in learning the material. In fact, she was able to make up for the semester she lost, and worked all summer to the point where she graduated high school earlier than any of her friends at home. She also did most of her college prep work at DRA including taking the SAT and ACT, with her scores improved compared to her scores at home. She was also accepted to college and will start college 2 weeks after her high school graduation from DRA and completing the program. This was an amazing result to me as prior to her attending DRA, I was concerned she would not even graduate high school and did not even see college on the horizon for her.

Furthermore, while she has been at DRA, she has had the opportunity to participate in a variety of activities that she otherwise would not have, including soccer, dance team, drama productions, and even participated in the Shakespeare festival at SUU. These opportunities have allowed her to have a much richer experience and have made DRA feel very similar to any other high school, so she did not feel like she was missing part of her youth.

The therapists at DRA have helped my daughter and myself tremendously. As my daughter has been learning a through therapy, I have also taken the time to learn what she is learning. I have read some of the books that she has read. This has really helped in our phone calls as we understand what she talks about and also have learned the best ways to interact with her. I have also discovered some of the weaknesses in my own life and how to begin to correct those. By doing this, I have found that it has significantly strengthened my relationship with my daughter and I understand her better now than I ever have understood her.

As we finish the program at DRA, I know the transition home and to college will have some ups and downs. However, I now feel that DRA has given my daughter and myself the skills needed to navigate the hills and valleys that will inevitably come. I truly cannot express enough thanks to all of the staff at DRA for loving and caring for my daughter and by so doing to help her heal. I feel I will always be indebted to DRA for everything they have done for my daughter and also for myself. For the first time in many years, I again feel hope and feel at peace for my daughter; something that I was not sure I would feel again. I fully express my support of the program and wish to thank them for everything. But in the end, I did not write this review for them, but for you, any parents that find themselves in a similar situation as I was.

From our first inquiry almost 6 months ago, DRA has been there for our family. We believe with all of our heart that DRA saved our son's life. He will agree that he needed to go there too. It hasn't been easy but worth every step. EVERY Staff Member at DRA has been helpful, caring and accessible. Diamond Ranch Academy offer programs for the parents along the way, encourage communication between the kids and their families and help with timing the transition back to home/college. Sending our son away was the hardest thing we ever did but knowing he is in loving care and getting healthy makes it all worthwhile.

Our son has been at DRA for almost 7 months, he just turned 14. Although we miss each other, we are so happy we made the decision to send him. The staff and kids are great. We feel that our son is in the best most capable hands. Diamond Ranch Academy are doing for him what we were not able to do for him. He is becoming a confident, caring, responsible young adult. We just came back from a visit and are thrilled with how much he has progressed. We see changes in him every time we visit. He is excited about the school now and is proud of how much he has accomplished. We are looking forward to his first visit home. It scares me to think what would have happened to him if we hadn't sent him to the academy. Thank goodness we had this option. I am so eternally grateful for this school and to the staff! It is a very hard to not be with him during this time but he will be returning home soon a healthy, non medicated, responsible, caring, young adult.

I have witnessed my son transforming into the young man he was intended to be from the beginning. It's easy to say, "he's like a new person", but it's more than that. He is the person he has always been, just more effective and healthy. I was losing my son and now I'm getting him back. I am not sure if DRA is for every child, but it is the only place for my son.