Solstice Group — Introduction

Asheville North Carolina (Journey Home East)
Bat Cave (Hendersonville PO) North Carolina (Equinox)
Layton Utah (Journey Home and original Solstice Program)
Weaverville North Carolina (Solstice East)

This page is in the process of being revised, updated, and completed.

"Solstice Group" is not, to the best our knowledge, a name taken by these programs, but is our descriptive shorthand for these programs as a group.

The Solstice Group of programs is a growing group of adolescent and young adult clinical settings focused on trauma and related mental health challenges. It began with the original Solstice program for girls in the northern suburbs of Salt Lake City, Utah, and has also established itself in the Asheville, North Carolina area. Their identifying theme is "The Hero's Journey." Their primary focus is on trauma and related issues. Paradoxically, they seem to have a very strong commitment to attachment issues, although they are not currently confident that they should seek students with full blown RAD and DSED. They do understand that attachment is a product of trauma, not of adoption. They are truly skilled at addressing attachment as a factor complicating other pathology.

Our reviews are generally either about an umbrella group of programs or individual programs. The Solstice programs are part of Family Help and Wellness (FHW). This link is to a review page about that organization. At present (July 2017), the Solstice Group consists of Solstice (West), Solstice East, Equinox, Journey Home (West), Journey Home East, Fernwood Academy, and Timbersong Academy. These programs have some clinical commitments and culture in common. We will address all of that here. The individual reviews of those programs will address unique features. Asheville Academy had considerable interaction with Solstice East as they shared space during their start up phase. At present Asheville Academy is connected to the Solstice Group only by reason of both being FHW programs and sharing Timbersong Academy as their academic resource.

Some History:

After Solstice East and Asheville Academy had time to get to know each other, Dr. Gillett, the executive director of Solstice East, became simultaneously the executive director of Asheville Academy. At that time the executive director of Asheville Academy, Bryan Tomes, became the head of Timbersong Academy, then the academic operation for both Solstice East and Asheville Academy. As of January 2017 Solstice founder Kyle Gillett, has opened Equinox, the first foray of Solstice into providing services for boys. Bryan Tomes is co-owner, co-founder, and admission director at Equinox.

Finally, the Solstice group has also opened Journey Home, a transition program, in Utah, and Journey Home East in North Carolina.

Our full review of these programs as a group (for members) is on the page originally created for Solstice (West). That page still gives the most information about those characteristics that Solstice affiliated programs have in common. We also now have a separate page for each program, which is intended to address what is unique to that individual setting.

Please read our full disclaimer. You are responsible for verifying our information before acting on it.

Relevant review pages below (except as noted, these links go to publicly accessible "Introduction Pages" and, in turn, each links to the member-accessible full review pages):