Our History
Their vision was to create a home-like residential treatment center with a highly-structured-but-intimate approach for people with serious emotional, psychiatric, and behavioral challenges.
Like any child, or any destiny, we simply meet what unfolds before us, holding fast to our values and intentions to heal.
As pioneers of the relational and restorative model, they believed that to make long-term, significant change, we would offer shared experiences of daily life and relationship—like working, studying, playing, and sharing meals together—joined with therapeutic modalities like individual therapy, group therapy, family therapy, expressive therapy, art therapy, adventure programming, and animal and land based programs.
These clinical interventions centered around a milieu model where the educational, milieu, and nursing staff all work together to support our residents.
Our vision proved successful—and clients healed. Over time, Wellspring became a stable home base offering long-term mental health residential programs for girls and young adult women, and school programs for adolescents.
Family involvement is a cornerstone of Wellspring’s relational approach to treatment and education. A family’s willingness to learn new skills and make supporting changes in the family system is essential for individuals to sustain the gains they’ve worked so hard for.
Founding the Arch Bridge School
We founded The Arch Bridge School, Wellspring’s private special education school, in the summer of 1990. Arch Bridge evolved quickly as the number of younger residents increased and the need for more structured academic services became apparent.
To serve the needs of these residents, we expanded the school to include the underserved population of special education and emotionally-challenged day students from local school districts.
In 1997, the school was approved by the State of Connecticut as a Private Special Education Facility, and is also approved by the states of New York, and New Jersey, and Massachusetts on a case by case basis.
Educationally and emotionally, the Arch Bridge School is on the leading edge in many of their philosophies and designs. Culturally, Arch Bridge’s family atmosphere and unyielding commitment to excellence would be the envy of most schools.
