The Ranch Program
The Ranch Program is the core therapeutic program at Spring Lake Ranch.
Average stay: 7-9 months
Individual and group therapy, as well as multiple recovery programs, available weekly.
Choose one of four work crews: Farm, Gardens, Shop, or Woods.
Psychiatric and nursing staff provide medical care.
700+ pristine acres in the Green Mountains, right on the Appalachian Trail, with a spring-fed lake.
Therapeutic Work Program
Community is the antidote to the isolation of illness and addiction. To depend on others—and have them depend on you—is an experience often under-appreciated in a quick-fix society. Life at Spring Lake Ranch centers around the upkeep of a diverse Vermont farm. Each day, residents and staff work together to keep our community going. The core Therapeutic Work Program combines psychiatric and clinical care with five hours of meaningful work each day.
Residents choose one of four crews:
- Farm Crew takes care of our animals, including cows, chickens, and pigs. They collect more than 40,000 eggs each year, deliver dozens of piglets and calves, and keep our pastures healthy. They also take on seasonal tasks like haying, mushroom cultivation, and spinning and felting wool.
- Gardens Crew tends our food and flower gardens, oversees our teaching kitchen, and manages our year-round farmers market booth in Rutland. In the winter, when the garden beds are sleeping, they stay busy in the sewing room making mittens, scarves, and other woven goods.
- Woods Crew manages 700+ acres of forest—felling, limbing, bucking, splitting, and hauling the wood needed to heat our buildings and run our substantial maple sugaring operation, which the crew leads each year as winter turns to spring.
- Shop Crew residents learn carpentry and small motor repair. They build and repair furniture, fix Ranch tools, and keep our engines running. They make wood products for the farmers market and even build the occasional boat!
Community Involvement
The heart of our program is our accepting and supportive community. Residents live and work alongside staff, sharing three meals a day and plenty of opportunities for recreation. They build self-esteem and self-efficacy by making meaningful contributions to the community, receiving gratitude, support, and feedback on a daily basis.
From the moment residents arrive at the Ranch, they are encouraged to brainstorm ways they might harness their skills and interests to get further involved. A fitness buff could advise other residents on staying in shape. A meditation enthusiast could invite others to share in morning practice. A budding writer could take over production of the Moos-paper, the Ranch’s paper of record.
Advanced Crew Experiences (ACEs) also allow residents to develop their own special projects, like painting a mural or cataloging historical photos, that enrich not only the day-to-day, but the longterm life of the Ranch.
Advising Teams
The Spring Lake Ranch approach is one of teamwork. Resident teams are made up of not just a clinician and psychiatrist, but also a dietician, program coordinator, crew manager, and staff mentor. This brings a depth of therapy that residents value greatly. This group supports the resident in creating an action plan with goals and strategies specific to their needs.
We employ a system of guided self-discovery, helping residents proactively manage their own wellness. By working with a consistent advising team familiar with the facets of their daily functioning, and with input from the larger community, residents learn to recognize and manage the symptoms of illness and hallmarks of addiction, reducing the impact of these forces on their lives. The self-responsibility they learn at the Ranch helps them realize the dream of a richer life after discharge.
Clinical Treatment
Robust psychiatric care at the Ranch provides a wonderful complement to work therapy. Each week, residents meet one-on-one with their clinicians for hour-long therapy sessions and take part in a diverse schedule of weekly group therapy and recovery programming. Recent offerings include Hearing Voices, Processing Group, Life Skills, Smoking Cessation, Yoga & Mindfulness, Wellness, AA/NA/MA, SMART Recovery, and Spirituality in Recovery.
The rich environment of the Ranch allows for more integrated and genuine therapeutic relationships. Clinicians are part of the daily milieu in the community, which includes working on crew, family-style meals, celebrating holidays, and lots of opportunities for fun. Through these daily interactions, clinicians gain deeper knowledge of residents and can see the “whole person,” not just the diagnosis or what is presented in session. This in-depth model allows for treatment that is individualized and quickly adjusted to meet resident needs.
Though our approach is largely humanistic, we recognize that psychiatric medications, used properly and thoughtfully, are an important tool for wellness. We handle all types of medications in close concert with our psychiatric team and clinical staff.
Recreation
Residents are provided the opportunity to try new things or rekindle old passions. We recognize that residents need time for their own interests, to find a sense of self often lost to illness, and to learn to handle unstructured time.
The Ranch setting lends itself naturally to outdoor pursuits—Vermont is well known for its hiking, snow-shoeing, cross-country and downhill skiing, camping, and lake activities. The Ranch hosts multiple off-site skiing, camping, and backpacking trips each year.
Spring Lake Ranch has its own hiking trails, private lake, tennis courts and disc golf course, as well as a fitness center, indoor basketball court, and game room with billiards and table tennis. An art room, musical instruments, multiple libraries, and plenty of quite spaces are available for our creative-minded residents.
Weekend activities are planned by staff and residents, often taking advantage of all that Rutland County has to offer—coffee shops, restaurants, local shopping, art classes, mini-golf, concerts, and community events. In the summer, residents frequently take trips to Vermont’s famous local snack bars for maple cremees and other treats.
Housing
Warm, comfortable housing provides space for privacy and more opportunities to connect. Each resident has their own private room within a house that sleeps two-to-eight residents. Bedrooms are simply but thoughtfully furnished, often with Ranch-made furniture. All houses are staffed with program coordinators who work on crew and live with the residents, offering round-the-clock support.
Our houses are more than just places to sleep. They are each a smaller culture within the Ranch where residents gain additional tools for wellness. House meetings, outings, and other residence-based activities further encourage deep community connection.
Program Cost
Spring Lake Ranch is a private-pay facility. Thanks to our donors, we’re able to offer financial aid to subsidize the cost of care. We encourage residents and their families to apply.
Our day rate for the Ranch Program is $525.
Day rates include Therapeutic Work Program, room and board, clinical counseling, and psychiatric care. Learn more about billing and insurance at Spring Lake Ranch.