Part of the admission process is for Summit's clinical staff to assign the student to a team. Teams are typically comprised of 6 to 10 students and we have 6 to 8 teams at any given time. Our maximum student capacity is 60 students.

Within these teams, students begin to build lasting relationships with their teammates since they eat meals, participate in activities, experience group therapy and room together in the dorms.  In the beginning, students often experience familiar challenges similar to those with his/her own family.  This allows the student to come to an understanding about his/her own contributions to these relational dynamics (vs. ascribing them completely to people or situations outside of themselves).

The team staff, known as the student’s Treatment Team, consists of a therapist, two senior house parents, and a team teacher. If appropriate for a given student’s needs, our psychiatrist or other professionals also are a part of the student’s treatment team. This team meets weekly to discuss how each student on the team is doing, to design interventions toward desired outcomes for them, and to consider the team dynamics and any helpful group interventions. Finally, the treatment team provides a built-in vehicle for staff to engage in ongoing consultation, problem-solving and even support from colleagues given our interesting and often challenging student population.

Each staff member on the team has an important role in the students’ lives. Therapists provide individual psychotherapy, ongoing clinical assessment, group psychotherapy, parent coaching, and eventually family therapy for students (and their families) on that team. Senior House Parents are with the students from roughly noon (10am on weekends) until 10pm daily, and provide in-the-moment feedback, guidance, support, supervision and intervention consistent with the plans developed by the whole Treatment Team. The Team Teacher represents academic concerns to the treatment team, and communicates specific strategies for students to the rest of the academic faculty. The treatment team has many opportunities to observe the team as a whole. Treatment team staff eats meals with their team, and help do dishes when the team is "up" on the chore rotation.  They are also involved in group therapy, team activities, community service, and block break challenge trips.  In short, students have a great deal of contact with members of their own treatment teams who know each student and their issues well.

Therapists lead special focus groups for students from all teams. Also across teams, Teachers and Senior House Parents have opportunities to work with students across teams in academic classes, clubs and off-campus activities.  Therefore, students have opportunities to develop helpful relationships with students and staff members from all teams. More detail about this aspect is provided in the section on Community Environment.