Beth needed a fresh start. Her parents died when she was a toddler, and she had bounced from family to foster homes and back again. Beth had never dealt with her trauma from her parent’s death, and that made it hard to form connections with people. She started to believe that everyone was always going to leave her because she was unworthy of love. Things started to change when she moved back in with her aunt Donna.
“Donna was only 20 when my parents died and wasn’t ready to take on a toddler. Now that she is married with kids of her own, she was ready to give me a home, but I didn’t know how to connect and was making bad choices because of the friends that I had made. My aunt knew that something needed to change for me, so she sent me to YBGR.”
Beth struggled at first. She felt she was just being sent away again because of how unlovable she was, but Donna showed up every week without fail for family therapy sessions. She also talked with Beth daily, sent her care packages, and visited as often as she could. Beth slowly started to trust Donna.
“My big turning point came when I was in Vo-ag, and we were trimming the trees in the orchard. Mr. Klemple explained that we had to trim back some of the dead branches so the tree could be healthy and produce fruit. At a counselling session that day, my therapist and I talked about how I am like a tree and that working on my trauma was like trimming out the dead or dying branches so that I could focus my energy on the healthy parts and grow and produce fruit as well. It all just finally clicked into place for me. I’m continuing to make progress in my treatment, and my aunt is going to let me plant fruit trees in the backyard when I get home so that I can always remember the lessons I learned here.”
*For the privacy of the youth served at the Ranch, names have been changed. Image(s) shown here are a representation of those served at the Ranch.
