Client Review on Pacific Quest

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I write this review from the perspective of a parent considering various treatment options. Potential PQ students, I hope you'll find this helpful too.Sending your child to Pacific Quest, or a similar intensive therapeutic environment, is a huge decision. In my research, I found a horror story or two about each place I considered. My son needed a drastic intervention in his life, quickly, and most of the options involved sending my child in to a frozen, dark wilderness in the middle of winter. Then I found Pacific Quest, which offered an intensive, therapeutic residential program, minus the hostile physical environment. In fact, it's just the opposite: Hawaii and the PQ program provide nurturing conditions, ideal for a re-boot (that's not to say it's a cushy, spa-like experience). They have a comprehensive approach blending psychiatry, counseling, and wellness in to a program with wilderness components, stages and rites of passage, and horticultural therapy (which I called "yard work" at first...but it's good stuff). I wasn't quite sure what I would find when I picked my son up at the airport, twelve weeks after I sent him to PQ. I knew he had a bumpy time in the program, but the person who emerged was like the kid I had once a long time ago--open, reflective, curious, not so defensive, and even a little optimistic. He had found a place, a tribe, acceptance. He talked about feeling ok about himself--something he hadn't felt in a long, long time. My son had a transformative experience, but I wasn't sure if it was going to "work." I'm still not sure, really, because his struggles with depression, spectrum issues, and potential to abuse substances aren't likely to ever simply go away. However, he has tools and skills that are helpful to prevent and cope with stressors that trigger negative behaviors. He knows what it feels like to be well-ish, that it is very different from how he was when he arrived at PQ and that he didn't like feeling that way, and that there are very real, concrete actions under his control that can help him feel well. But PQ isn't going to be THE "fix" for him and perhaps others. It does, however, provide near ideal conditions to begin a transformation. My son's therapist started suggesting that he would benefit from a transition program about 4 weeks in to PQ's 12 week program. I was pretty floored by this. I thought PQ WAS the intervention that was going to change him, save him, fix him, etc. But it became clear that 12 weeks wasn't going to be enough to solidify long lasting behavioral change. PQ is a safe, nurturing, contained environment that removes much of life's negative inputs and distractions leaving the student little else to do but work the program. Some can return to normal life straightaway, but mine needed a looser, but still structured environment as a stepping stone before taking full control of his vessel. Again, the idea that I would be investing in a PQ2 took some time for me to settle in to. You might want to start wrapping your head around that possibility now... and saving for it. I've bet the farm on the long game. Some specific aspects of the program I appreciated:*The parent manual provides a wealth of information that I referred to constantly, with lots of resources. *Many other parents and students have had the same or at least similar concerns/questions/experiences/fears/issues and someone at PQ knows how to handle it. *Weekly calls were on time with reminders sent in advance.*The technology for video calls worked and we tested in advance to make sure we didn't waste therapy time to troubleshoot.*Weekly photos - your child is ok!*Our therapist, Mark White, went the extra mile with my son (and his parents) who is not an easy nut to crack (and his parents are a known to be a little challenging as well). I am forever grateful. *The rites, rituals, and integration of Hawaiian culture and language is warm, touching, and affirming. I experienced it a little bit through the manual and parent program. My son blossomed in it.