Timberline Knolls

More about Timberline Knolls

Timberline Knolls is the leading residential treatment center for women with acute eating disorders, mood disorders, substance abuse, and trauma. We are a pioneer in co-occurring treatment.

Timberline Knolls Residential Treatment Center offers a nurturing environment of recovery that helps each woman in our care to strengthen herself from within. Every member of our accomplished team commits to embodying our core values by serving our residents and their families with uncompromising care, relentless compassion, and an unconditionally joyful spirit.

Timberline Knolls is located on 43 tranquil acres in the suburbs of Chicago. Residential treatment at Timberline Knolls includes a state-approved school for adolescents and 24/7 medical care. Our intensive, holistic residential treatment model results in a depth of recovery transformational for residents, and fulfilling for our staff. The team at Timberline Knolls is comprised of medical and clinical experts in treatment for eating disorders, drug and alcohol addiction, mood and anxiety disorders, and co-occurring disorders.

We treat women and girls ages 12+ with a combination of private therapy and group sessions, teaching them skills they will use long after they graduate from Timberline Knolls.

Treatments Offered

Every woman at Timberline Knolls Residential Treatment Center follows a treatment plan developed just for her. A woman's treatment team considers all the available knowledge about her history. They consider her relationships with her friends and family, as well as her desires and wishes for the future. Together, the resident and the treatment team design an individualized therapeutic program to help the resident help herself. This collaborative process gives residents a sense of investment, empowerment and ownership of her recovery process. We use a variety of holistic and empirically-based treatment techniques, including expressive therapy, dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT), family therapy, individual therapy sessions, 12-step programs, trauma awareness and recovery groups, dietary support and consultation, educational services, and 24/7 medical care.

Rehab Activities

As Timberline Knolls is a holistic treatment center, we offer a wide array of experiential treatment options to treat the whole woman - mind, body, and spirit. These may include:

• Art therapy in a historical art studio that supports painting, sculpture and other medias
• Equine therapy (equine assisted psychotherapy)
• Pet therapy (animal assisted psychotherapy)
• Dance/movement therapy
• Empowerment group (experiential trauma recovery)
• Self-defense in our on-site fitness facility
• Outdoor recreation such as volleyball, basketball, soccer, badminton or gardening on our 43 acre campus
• A.A. and N.A. meetings

Family Involvement

Family therapy engages both residents and members of their families in efforts to increase communication, and to support each other in recovery from an eating disorder, substance abuse, or other challenges.

Family therapy at Timberline Knolls focuses on more than just building an atmosphere of healing to support the woman after she leaves our treatment center. Our treatment approach also emphasizes supporting her family members in their own process of healing and recovery from the effects of the disease on each of them.

Family therapy begins with an initial meeting between a resident and her family therapist. Typically,this session focuses on establishing trust and obtaining history from the resident. Insights gained help the therapist to make a preliminary assessment of her family dynamics, and to determine which members should be included in family therapy.

The family therapist also attempts to build trust and obtain history from one or more members of the family. These sessions can allow for honest discussion of family rifts or sharing of sensitive history that may be critical to understanding the entire family system and to establishing effective boundaries.

The resident and all members involved will offer their input on goals to be achieved in family therapy during a woman's stay at Timberline Knolls. Family therapists help to identify areas of family functioning that have been impacted by the disease and build an alliance with the entire family to facilitate healing in those areas. Family therapists also help the family to identify and build upon their unique strengths as a family unit. Additional family members, such as grandparents, adult siblings, and long-term partners may be brought into sessions as issues arise.

Highlights:

• Treatment: Addressing each woman's physical, mental, spiritual, emotional, and social needs
• Continuing Eduction: TK Academy for young women during the school year
• Length of Stay: As few as 30 days, others may stay six months or more.

Admissions Process

There are several critical steps to the admissions process; we realize this can seem overwhelming. Our experienced staff is prepared to respond to women and families who may be in crisis and in need of immediate help.

When you call, one of our licensed admissions counselors will ask you some questions about your situation to start assessing whether Timberline Knolls Residential Treatment Center might help. This typically takes about 30 minutes.

Initially, the admissions counselor will ask about current symptoms and challenges, as well as past treatment history. We also inquire about the prospective resident's environment and social support system - her family, friends and situation at school or work.

For school-age women, we will also request to connect with her current or most recent school. The educational staff at Timberline Knolls Academy will be part of the process of assessing the woman's need for support in the classroom. Some women choose to visit and tour the Timberline Knolls campus. Parents or spouses find this very reassuring, too, particularly if they haven't previously visited other residential treatment centers. The admissions team will collaborate with our admitting psychiatrist and other clinical staff to review all information provided as soon as possible.

When we believe our residential treatment center is clinically appropriate and we are prepared to support a woman's needs, we will extend an offer of admission. This will include placement in an age-appropriate residential lodge, along with a projected intake date. Our admissions coordinators will work with the woman or her family to help estimate financial responsibility, and assess the contribution their insurance may make toward residential treatment. Upon request, they can also provide information on third-party financing options.

Treatment and Philosophy

Treatment is holistic, individualized, and nurturing. Our integrated treatment programs prepare women and their families to move forward to a new, productive phase of their lives. Timberline Knolls' treatment philosophy is to help each woman take ownership of her own lifelong recovery journey by addressing the unique realities of her disease and by learning to respond to emotional adversity with healthy thoughts and actions. We champion the life inside of every resident -- in her strengths and weaknesses, with her skills and deficits, and ultimately in the power of her recovery from disease.