Vive

 
Boulder, CO
US

Founded in the year 2000, in Boulder, CO, by David Herz, Vive has opened additional offices in Los Angeles and Menlo Park, CA, and has plans to open an office in the Dallas/Fort Worth, TX area in the near future. In addition, Vive has begun offering transition and aftercare services to families located anywhere in the continental US and Hawaii through its Journey On program, which uses traveling mentors and parent coaches to deliver services. Vive is one of the programs that seems to be on the cutting edge of the current evolution of emotional growth/therapeutic boarding schools to integrate community-based programming.

Vive! works with both adolescents and young adults who need some kind of local intervention before residential placement becomes necessary, or who have completed an intensive residential program and need help with the transition back into normal living. Although there is no minimum or maximum length of time specified, the average length is about 12 to 15 months. Each participant lives at home or—if a young adult is transitioning to independence—in an apartment, with the main contact with the program coming from regular visits with a mentor and a family coach (both trained therapists). Work with the parents is also an integral part of the program. The three main areas of the program are to provide a transition or aftercare support, to provide early intervention, and to teach the basics of independent living.

Founded in July 2001 as Confident Living, Inc., Vive! is a privately held company based in Boulder, Colorado. The Vive! program has helped hundreds of troubled teens, pre-teens and young adults step onto a healthier, more productive life path. Vive! helps teens become responsible, caring and contributing members of their families and communities while empowering parents to strengthen the entire family.

Based on increasing demand, Vive! began the expansion of its service area beyond the Rocky Mountain region in 2005, and recently opened offices in San Francisco and Los Angeles, California . We attribute our high success rates and company growth to the soundness of the Vive! vision, the uncompromising service we provide to our clients, and the dedication, integrity and passion of our staff.

Diagnoses, Conditions and Triggers

Q: Can Vive! help my family if my daughter has been diagnosed with a severe psychiatric or psychological condition such as bi-polar disorder?

A: Sometimes, of course, psychiatric and psychological disorders require periods of intensive in-patient treatment. While Vive! is not a substitute for residential treatment in extreme situations, the Vive! program is an excellent complement to this kind of treatment, and can be invaluable in facilitating your child's successful transition home from the inpatient program.

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Q: My teen was diagnosed with AD/HD three years ago. Can Vive! help him?

A: Attention issues such as AD/HD not only affect performance at school, but behavior at home, at play, and in a child's relationships. The frustration that this causes often leads to low self esteem and behavioral problems as well as academic under-performance.

Vive! mentors work with adolescents and young adults to demystify the causes and symptoms of ADD and AD/HD, and to develop strategies for addressing these symptoms. With the help of our mentors, young people with attention issues can learn not only to manage this learning difference, but to capitalize on the strengths that can accompany it. Many people with AD/HD learn to engage their heightened capacity for such things as multi-tasking and hyper-focusing.

Vive! also works with the family to help address the emotional impact that this difference can have on the family system, and to offer practical solutions to support the adolescent's efforts to better manage his or her life-both at home and at school.

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Q: What if my son is on psychotropic medication? Do you integrate your work with clinical professionals such as psychologists and psychiatrists?

A: Vive! is committed to active collaboration with other involved mental health professionals to ensure that our program complements and is complemented by other forms of therapy as appropriate. A collaborative relationship between Vive! therapists and other practitioners can streamline the healing process.

Your Vive! Mentor works with your son in the context of his real-world, day-to-day environment. The Vive! Mentor-who is a trained, professional therapist-is thus in an ideal position to observe your son and provide critical feedback to help his physician make well-informed medication decisions.

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Q: Do you work with teens where a history of abuse or other trauma is suspected of triggering the problems?

A: Yes. Vive! Mentors and Parent Coaches understand the delicate nature of these cases and work with sensitivity to the situation. Regardless of triggering factors, the goals of Vive! therapists remain consistent:

• To rebuild the trust and confidence in the teen that will promote responsible choices and the development of healthy relationships

• To help the family create a home environment that is physically and emotionally safe, supportive, and appropriately structured in order to optimize the teen's healing process

• To work in collaboration with other healing professionals as appropriate to provide the most potent, seamless healing solution possible.

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Drug Abuse and Criminal Activity

Q: What if my child is engaging in behaviors that are against the law? What if the situation involves law enforcement and the courts?

A: Criminal behavior is common in teens who don't have the confidence and skills to make healthy choices. Unfortunately (though understandably) it is also common for parents to quickly bail their child out of these situations, sometimes literally.

A crucial component of the Vive! program involves coaching parents to help teens face the real consequences of their actions; brushes with the law and the justice system often serve as a wake-up call to teens, and almost always have the effect of making the teen more receptive to the guidance provided by his Vive! Mentor. In short, Vive! can help turn a very difficult situation into an opportunity to accelerate positive change in the teen's behavior.

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Q: Does Vive! work with teens who are abusing drugs?

A: Yes. Many of the teens we've helped were involved in drugs and/or other substance abuse. Lacking the confidence to take healthier risks that are part of becoming an adult, many teens turn to drugs and the drug culture because it provides them, on both psychological and social levels, with an artificial sense of confidence or escape.

Vive! Parent Coaches help parents remove the factors that enable the teen's drug abuse; removing these factors creates a type of discomfort that often compels the teen to turn to his or her Vive! Mentor for help. With the Mentor 's guidance, the teen begins to build confidence to make better, healthier choices.

In cases of serious drug abuse, we might first work with your family psychologist or educational consultant to help your child enter a rehabilitation program. From there we can help your child gain the confidence to pursue healthy, productive activities in their real-world environment, such as finding a job, pursuing a passion, or re-engaging school.

Vive! has established a strong culture of collaboration and teamwork. Vive! employees are unified in their passion to provide the highest level of care to families in pursuit of healing and growth. We are also unified in our enthusiasm for being part of a growing and innovative company.

The central, unifying entities around which all Vive! activities revolve are the families we serve. To serve these families effectively, Vive! works from a three-tiered team structure that drives the quality and consistency of our services in all of our locations. These Vive! teams work cooperatively to ensure that Vive! achieves its overarching mission of helping families achieve positive, lasting results in their real world environments.

Practitioner Teams

Practitioner Teams work directly with client families during their engagement with Vive! Practitioner Teams are composed of a Clinical Team Leader, a Mentor and a Parent Coach, who work collaboratively with each other, the family, and any other involved professionals or programs to help the family define and achieve its growth objectives. Vive hires only master's-level therapists with the training, experience and passion to bring healing to struggling adolescents and their families.

Regional Support Teams

Vive! provides each regional office with a Regional Support Team, whose primary responsibilities are to provide logistical support to Practitioner Teams, ensure the high quality of local Vive! services, deliver a high level of customer service to client families and referring professionals, and expand Vive!s reach in the local community. Each Regional Support Team includes a Region Director, a Referral Relations Associate and an Admission/Administration Associate.

Central Support Team

The Central Support Team is located at Vive! headquarters in Boulder , Colorado . The Central Support Team provides guidance, direction and the necessary resources for the Practitioner Teams and Regional Support Teams to meet and/or exceed the expectations of Vive!'s client families. The Central Support team also monitors and supports the quality, consistency and effectiveness of the Vive! program across all Vive! locations.

Vive

Crisis and Transitional Care

800-261-0127