Located between the mountains and the sea, in a leafy park-like campus that includes an elegant three story home and an athletic playing field, Echo Malibu offers comprehensive treatment to teens dealing with addiction or behavioral, emotional or psychiatric problems. This is a place that builds people up and that will never "tear someone down."

Treatment at Echo Malibu is individualized and intensive.

• Many treatment centers offer one or two individual therapy sessions per week; Echo Malibu offers one-one-one therapy every day.

• Many treatment centers employ one or two licensed therapists; Echo Malibu employs only licensed therapists and other professionals.

Every teen that comes to Echo Malibu faces unique challenges and so every young man or woman at Echo Malibu will work with these clinical experts to develop their own therapy plan, and since they're going to work daily and intensely on making progress, the therapy can make a real difference.

Teens at Echo Malibu stay in a comfortable, private, and very well supervised residence. Private rooms are available on request and teens are not expected to perform "chores" but rather to focus their energy on getting better and a full involvement in therapy and social programs.

Program Elements

The foundations of treatment at Echo Malibu include:

• Educational improvement
• Spiritual growth
• Social skills improvements
• Emotional Growth
• Family involvement
• Physical health

Education

Many troubled but very bright teens come to Echo Malibu after getting behind academically. Echo Malibu offers an on-site, sober and structured classroom.

Individual teaching and tutoring services and an individualized lesson plan allow for accelerated learning and strengthening of remedial areas.

Family Involvement

No recovery organization can equal the strength and influence of a loving and compassionate family.

Parental and familial involvement is a vital aspect of the teen recovery process. Parents will participate in parenting effectiveness seminars, learning better ways to handle the challenges of adolescence, and family as a whole will participate in both individual family and multi family group therapy sessions.

Spirituality

Adolescence alone can be a trying period, an adolescence burdened by very adult problems such as substance abuse or mental health challenges can weaken the spirit immeasurably.

The spiritual component of the Echo Malibu program strives to have teens rediscover and embrace their inner strength; teaching through program elements such as yoga, meditation and relaxation sessions how to harness the calm and wisdom of our deeper selves.

Emotional Health

Emotional difficulties often result in behavioral manifestations, such as drug or alcohol abuse, and for this reason it is vital that psychiatric and emotional disturbances get correctly diagnosed and treated.

At Echo Malibu, unlike at many teen treatment centers, young people work exclusively with licensed clinical therapists.

Clinical interventions include:

• Psychiatric and psychological evaluations
• Individual and group therapy
• Expressive arts therapies
• Art and music therapies
• Animal assisted therapies
• Drama therapies
• Dance or movement therapy
• Poetry therapy
• Others

Social Health

Sometimes, teens uncomfortable in social situations resort to substance use or inappropriate behaviors as coping mechanisms; and so teaching teens appropriate skills and techniques for social situations is an essential aspect of relapse prevention.

Teens are taught skills such as:

• Anger management
• Conversation
• Revealing emotions
• Problem solving
• Drug refusal
• Social relaxation techniques
• Many others

Additionally, young people who have been abusing drugs or alcohol recreationally sometimes need a reminder of how much fun sober life can be; and so it is also important that teens at Echo Malibu enjoy themselves as much and as often as possible.

Fun social activities at Echo Malibu may include:

• Trips to the beach (only one block away)
• Surfing lessons
• Mountain hiking
• Sports
• Museum or movie outings
• Amusement park outings
• Horseback riding
• Drug and alcohol free parties
• Many more

Physical Well Being

Drugs, alcohol and a lifestyle of substance abuse all weaken the body. Teens at Echo Malibu benefit from a month or more of physical and nutritional strengthening.

Some physical enhancement activities include:

• Sports and exercise
• A nutritional evaluation
• Biofeedback
• Yoga
• Acupuncture
• Massage

Legal Assistance

Teens facing marijuana or other drug possession charges who make a legitimate attempt to better themselves while in treatment have access to a legal team that will act as legal advisers and advocates within the legal system. Long developed relationships between Echo Malibu and the court system allow counselors to speak on behalf of clients in court with weight and substance.

The Echo Malibu Philosophy; Empowerment - Choices - Hope - Opportunities

1. Young people at Echo Malibu are equal partners in the creation of a treatment plan; they are given the power to devise a personal and meaningful path to recovery

2. A series of bad choices can lead youth astray. Teaching young people how to make better choices and helping them to understand how their choices today affect their health and happiness tomorrow gives teens the tools they'll need to continue their evolution to happy and responsible adults.

3. Nothing great can happen without hope. Unless each teen that comes to Echo Malibu leaves treatment hopeful of a better life, treatment has failed. So many young people walk through our doors despondent and hopeless, seeing their future already written and unchangeable. It is our job to convince them otherwise, to inspire them to their great potential.

4. Every person that comes to Echo Malibu is given a unique opportunity to make a 180 degree turn for the better. Opportunities often come at difficult times, and those that thrive in life recognize and capitalize on the chances they're given. Teens at Echo Malibu are given the opportunity to leave the past in the past and move forward to something new and better.

Why Echo Malibu Instead of Boot Camp?

Therapists at Echo Malibu recognize the uniqueness and inner beauty of all teens that come to improve themselves. These young people do not need "tearing down" they need hope and confidence and a belief in their own intrinsic ability to live a better life.

Kids in boot camps tend to improve dramatically, while under the supervision and control of (intimidating) adults, but once left to their own devices and left without supervision; they quickly revert back to past ways of living. Push ups and punishments do not teach decision making skills, if anything, they lower already wounded self esteem.

Echo Malibu concentrates instead on teaching better life and decision making skills and tries to inspire these young people to strive for a better path. Imparting the kinds of skills that can last for a lifetime, regardless of who's watching!