The Envoy Group

The Envoy Group makes families and their struggling or at-risk teens the center of its work.

Since 2006, we have assisted families in their search for an appropriate therapeutic boarding school, residential treatment center, or short-term wilderness therapy program for their struggling or at-risk teen. We have helped thousands of families over the years at no charge to families for our services whatsoever. We have visited and assessed over 100 programs across the country, have met the owners and staff, and receive regular feedback from parents who have placed their children. We’ve also been in your shoes, and we work every day to bring hope to parents who don’t know where to turn or who to trust in one of the most stressful situations any parent, grandparent, or guardian can experience

Assessing Your Struggling Teen’s Potential Need for a Residential or Therapeutic Boarding School

While we are not therapists, psychiatrists or doctors, our experience in dealing with families with struggling teens every day allows us to recognize regular patterns of behavior that are consistent with the potential need for a residential or therapeutic boarding school. We can help you determine if the behavior your teen is exhibiting warrants placing your teen in a therapeutic program. We can also help you determine whether your teen needs a basic boarding school with structure and academics, or a more therapeutic setting with master’s-level therapists and higher levels of supervision and security on campus. If your teen doesn’t need a therapeutic or residential boarding school, we have parent training opportunities happening across the country that can help your family better manage your situation at home.

Connecting You With Residential and Therapeutic Boarding School Services That Will Potentially Best Fit Your Needs

We can provide suggestions that will in our opinion best fit the needs of your teen. Our mission is to provide information to parents about therapeutic and residential boarding schools that best fit their needs, and our commitment is to never suggest programs that in our opinion will not be effective* in changing the course of your teen’s life based on the information you provide us about their current behavior or diagnoses from a licensed therapist/psychiatrist.

Connecting You With Seasoned Transport Services That May Help Make the Transition Easier for Your Teen

Not all transport services are created equal, and not all are experienced or equipped to properly handle transportation of your teen to the residential or therapeutic boarding school program you have chosen. We have connections to transportation services we have had experience with in the past who have transported for several of the families we have served. We can connect you with families that have used the transport services we like to suggest so that they can share their experience with you.

Researching Other Boarding School Programs Beyond Our Suggestions That You May Be Looking Into

Our industry connections and regular feedback from parents allow us to find out information about programs quickly and effectively. Our commitment is to help parents with any program, not just the ones we regularly suggest. We can help you determine whether or not the program you are looking into is a good program that will effectively address the needs of your struggling teen.

Helping Families With Adult Children Over 17.5 Years of Age

We often receive requests from parents who have children over the age of 17.5/18. Most therapeutic and residential boarding schools programs will not enroll students who are above the age of 17.5 due to state laws and regulations. While we do have some boarding school programs that do accept teens over 17.5 (though the list is relatively small compared to those that don’t accept adults), we also have connections with adult rehab programs that are very effective* in helping students who want help in overcoming their addictions and destructive lifestyle patterns.

HOW MUCH DO THERAPEUTIC BOARDING SCHOOLS COST?
Therapeutic Boarding Schools don’t generally post their cost online because they want to discourage you from falling into the temptation of price shopping. The reality is that the cheapest program is not necessarily going to do the most good for your struggling teen. It is a sacrifice, but you need to ask yourself, “If my son or daughter were to die tomorrow, what will I wish I had done?” Unfortunately, over the years we have heard several heartbreaking stories where parents did not act in time to help their teen. Read More »

I CAN’T AFFORD A THERAPEUTIC BOARDING SCHOOL BUT I STILL NEED HELP, WHAT SHOULD I DO?
We recognize that the cost of therapeutic boarding schools is sometimes above and beyond the amount you can afford for your teen. Most families expend all of their savings and usually need to get help from family members and their faith community in paying for care. Your health insurance policy may also help pay for some aspects of care. However, if you cannot afford at least $1,000 per month in care, there are a few low cost alternatives that will at least offer the chance for your struggling teen to get out of his or her situation. Our low-cost list is a list of boarding schools we have researched over the years, though we do not have any professional relationship with them.

Our ethics are guided by Biblical principles and integral faith. All of our staff members are active members of their church communities and are accountable to their families, leaders, pastors, and church communities. We want you to feel that you can trust us, and we recognize that’s not always possible given the nature of the internet. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact us via phone and we’ll promise to have that conversation with you.

The Envoy Group is an independent entity that is not controlled by any one program, though we do maintain strong professional relationships with the residential and therapeutic boarding school programs we engage. The programs we choose to work with sponsor our endeavor to educate families and distribute information about the therapeutic options available to them via a marketing cooperative called the Refer & Share Network.

Each program in our network must meet our standards of excellence, and must be fully competent, graciously compassionate, and entirely ethical. The network we have created allows our network partners to send families to us so that we can help them find more appropriate programs if the teen in question does not fit their own, regardless of the level of care a family requires or their ability to afford a program.

The Envoy Group assists any family that comes our way with any appropriate program, not just the ones we have personally visited, assessed, validated and regularly suggest. Our network partners agree that we will help families with any program, not just their own, providing us with the resources we need to suggest programs to families at no cost. As such, there is no obligation whatsoever for families to heed our suggestions.

One of the problems we constantly see in the therapeutic boarding school referral placement world is a lack of integrity and weak ethics. Our goal is to push the industry toward a healthier, more open, and less competitive atmosphere built around helping the families we serve as highest priority rather than making money. We think we’ve found a way to do that successfully.

Things We Will Never Do

• We will never charge families for our services
• We will never allow programs to pay for our assessment of their program, or allow them to pay for our travel expenses while visiting their programs
• We will never suggest programs we know are under investigation for violation of licensing, federal or state laws
• We will never suggest programs that we know are operating outside of the bounds of the laws of the state in which they are operating
• We will never suggest programs that we feel are not being effective in doing what they were built to do
• We will never suggest boarding school programs that antagonize or discourage expanding or exploring the faith that potential residents’ parents brought them up in
• We will never suggest one program over another for the purpose of financial gain
• We will never pay our referral specialists incentives for placement, we will always pay a salary

Things We Will Always Do

• We will always help families no matter their financial status or ability to pay for a program
• We will always help families gather information on programs that are not a part of our network
• We will always maintain integrity and openness in the work that we do

We will never suggest one program over another for the purpose of financial gain, nor will we ever steer a family toward one particular service. We will always provide more than one suggestion based upon your needs. In the course of conversation, we may weigh the advantages and disadvantages of one program against another in an effort to assist you in finding the best fit for your family’s needs. The information we provide to you is 100% free, and you are under no obligation whatsoever to heed any of our suggestions.

While we strive to maintain our ethics and our integrity at all times, we recognize that we are human and make mistakes. If you feel that we have not held up to our ethical standards at any point in the process of helping your family, please contact us directly and the CEO of The Envoy Group, Garret Bolthouse, will be happy to speak with you. He has made a commitment to work with you to find a possible solution to our breach in ethics.