Clinical Services
An alternative to Inpatient and Residential Treatment
Our clients live in their own homes, a normal place to live… and begin life in a new community. Just like most people, our clients usually want to live as independently as possible. By setting up life in an ordinary home, from the outset, we’re linking their urges toward healthy living to a wide range of natural therapeutic activities.
Please contact our Admissions Department for any further questions.
Maybe community is around us and we just don’t recognize it – and then it gets dropped into our lap when it’s the right time. And it’s so beautiful that this community exists and is here for us. It has changed my life… I am forever grateful for that and this community and I just wanted to say thank you for having this community and for creating this space… to be able to learn and to grow like this.
– Windhorse Client
The Windhorse Approach is based on four fundamental principles:
The First: At the heart of our work, is the knowledge that people are fundamentally healthy and sane. Confusion and illness are secondary to one’s health, thus more workable than we might believe…or fear.
The Second: A person and their health is inseparable from that of the environment. If a person can be skillfully worked within a relatively healthy environment, then the strength of their intrinsic health and sanity can emerge and recovery will be more possible. At its most basic level, Windhorse work is about creating comprehensive therapeutic environments that invite everyone involved to their intrinsic sanity. This includes the client, their family, and the clinical team.
The Third: Recovery is the path of discovering and synchronizing life with one’s own health and sanity. This is about starting where you are. Though there may be people in your life serving as sane reference points, genuine recovery is not about becoming someone else’s version of you.
The Fourth: No matter how disturbed a mind has become, recovery is possible. We don’t give up on anyone.
Team Roles
Our teams are comprised of a variety of complementary roles:
- Housemates may be part of a fully developed team. Their job is simply to live in the home, supporting a well-functioning and uplifted domestic environment, and providing a more ordinary relationship opportunity for the client.
- Team Counselors spend blocks of time with the client, usually 2 – 3 hours in length, generally once or twice per day, in a broad range of activities with the intention of working toward a balanced life. This includes keeping an uplifted home, good dietary practices, exercise, being engaged in the community, school, volunteerism, and work.
- Team Leaders keep the team activity organized and harmonious. They organize the schedule, manage logistics, and attend to the relationships within the household, thus playing a key role in the overall functioning and harmony of the team.
- Psychotherapists have specialized training in complex and extreme mind states.
- Psychiatrists are collaborative with the client and are integrated into the team.
- Team Supervisors attend to the overall activity of all aspects of the therapeutic process, including the family work.
One of the biggest things Windhorse has offered to me is the sense of real relationship with people and real friendships. When I was in other treatment facilities.. they just didn’t work for me for various reasons, but Windhorse, having the sense of companionship and friendship over time got me to open up more to people and seek the support I needed and be able to actually feel comfortable processing things with people and make it feel more real, because it is real. That’s where Windhorse has filled a void in my life.
– Windhorse Client
Prospective Clients
One Size Does Not Fit All
We see our clients as unique individuals, fundamentally healthy and sane. We don’t reduce people to just being a bundle of problems that need to be fixed.
Families
Experiencing a loved one’s struggle with mental health challenges is unspeakably difficult.
Our Admissions Team can help you find the right resources, whether you work with us or not.
Professionals
Why Windhorse Community Services?
We tailor our approach to the individual situation to create optimal conditions for a genuine path of recovery.
A Windhorse Team
Our teams are comprised of a variety of complementary roles:
We frequently help someone move here from out of state, collaboratively working to establish a good home. The client lives in their home or apartment sometimes with a housemate. Their relationship is similar to that of ordinary roommates. There are a number of clinicians on the team who spend time with the client on a regular basis, sometimes doing one or more “shifts” per day. This time is spent doing a variety of activities that promote a balanced life–from keeping the house in order to helping them be involved with interests and exercise—encouraging as much independence as possible.
These activities are elements of an individually tailored environment that helps the client live in an ordinary way with healthy relationships and meaningful pursuits. We encourage and support the client to be employed whenever possible, to see friends and family, to be part of the Windhorse community’s rich variety of activities, as well as engaging in the greater Boulder community. The client’s schedule includes meeting with a psychotherapist, also seeing a psychiatrist if medications are used.
Who is typically drawn to be a Windhorse client?
Our community has been an excellent fit for a very broad range of people;
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Some with lives that work well, but for whom a period of difficulty makes it necessary to have flexible, compassionate support.
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Others may feel more lost in more extreme difficulties, and need a more comprehensive approach to developing, or regaining, a life they feel good about.
While excelling in making therapeutic alliances with highly sensitive people, we are particularly helpful for complex types of life disruptions. These can include conditions that would typically be diagnosed as:
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Psychotic disorders
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Mood disorders
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Personality disorders
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Autistic spectrum disorders
- Anxiety disorders
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Various kinds of trauma
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And co-occurring challenges, possibly with complicating physical problems
How long does a team typically last?
Depending on the types of challenges that need to be addressed, a team may last as briefly as 6 months. But often, a therapeutic process will be eighteen months to two years. We also have teams that have an indefinite time path, lasting as many years as needed.
