Circle Tree Ranch

I am so grateful to Circle Tree Ranch for giving me my son back. He is now healthy, happy, excited motivated for his future and he is not only invested in his recovery, he is interested and engaged in it in a way that I didn't know was possible. I am blown away at how much he has changed in the three months he has been there. I did a lot of research on Rehabilitation Centers; including conducting many interviews. I only found a handful of facilities that I felt genuinely were in business to help people as opposed to making money off of desperate people. I let my adult son choose from these and he chose wisely CTR based on his personality. It turned out to be a lovely open place with really good energy. I felt great about his choice! He is very happy he made this choice and calls it a "great place". He has replaced the substance abuse with maintaining a healthy body and mindset. He still knows that he has to keep this momentum going and has taken the next step by entering into sober living.My son can be a hard one to crack and they didn't crack him; they got him to want to be sober and to love it. That doesn't mean that it was easy for him. It wasn't; especially at first with the withdrawal symptoms and mood swings that occur for awhile even after detox. He felt like quitting several times, but this is a determined group of compassionate people who were obviously very skilled at keeping him on track. I think one of the biggest problems with many rehabs is that they are not compassionate for the people they are serving. CTR treated my son with dignity. I can't thank everyone at Circle tree enough. Thanks to Karla. Roki, Eric, Mark, and everyone else there that touched my son. You are all angels to me.

My mom lives and works there. She grows food for the community and enjoys it very much. Amity has saved many people I know personally. The owners are not money motivated. They are community motivated.:)

Amity saved my life more than once. I can't say enough about how wonderful the staff are, MOST of them really do care about their students and ive seen countless acts of selfless kindness from them, They will all go out of their way to make a newcomers feel at home. But the best part is how huge and sprawled out the place is. Tons of ways to get exercise, they even have a MUAY THAI gym with a full time instructor. I haven't heard of that at any rehab. If you need to clean up, Amity is the place to be.

Two years ago I spent my first summer after graduating from college as one of Amity's first interns. I worked with the Foundation in diverse ways, learning much about the therapeutic community model and the rare beauty of Circle Tree Ranch as the six-week internship passed. After studying Art History and Anthropology, I was surprised to find that my passion for learning about cultural heritage and working with contemporary artists would be so applicable in a healing environment like Circle Tree Ranch...not to mention that the space itself is gorgeous and extremely inspiring, especially after living in New York City!I used my experience in the arts to help create programming for the kids and mothers at the Ranch and to work with students who practiced unique art forms like beadwork, stone painting, and jewelry-making to represent their work in the Amity Foundation's Dragonfly Gallery in downtown Tucson. My experience was truly a well-rounded one and I gained invaluable lessons about how non-profit organizations work, as well as how amazing, determined individuals can and do come together to build a strong and healing community- one that brings peace and positivity to everyone involved, regardless of personal history. I returned this winter during my Christmas break from graduate school to volunteer for a month. My time was spent mostly in their Center for Social Entrepreneurship where I worked with students and staff to brainstorm about innovative ideas for potential projects and businesses. Amity, as both a community and a philosophy, continues to show me that there are ways to bridge my interests in social change, creative expression, and wellness. For that I am forever grateful! Miss you Circle Tree Ranch!!

Dear Terry, It has now been over two years that our son has been drug-free. We want toexpress our deep gratitude to you and the staff at Circle Tree Ranch, for all youhave done to help him develop a sense of self-esteem and desire to live a constructivelife. Our son had been to numerous drug treatment programs since the age of 15,however, it was only at Circle Tree that he found the help he truly needed. He is now 30 years old and living in New York City where he has a job, an apartment and good friends who are supportive of his sobriety. We believe that the supportour son has been able to find for himself now, would not have been possiblewithout the warm, caring, structured sense of community that Circle Treeprovided. For years we were worried that we would lose our son and now we have the kind of relationship with him that we always dreamed of having. Thank you for giving us back our precious son.

When I came to Amity Circle Tree Ranch on Jan. 5th 2013 I was sick, broken, beat down and HOPELESS!!! I have struggled with addiction not only personally since the age of 12, but also grew up in a crack and alcohol infested home. I have been to rehab, detoxes, 12 step programs, hospitals, and jails more times than I can count and have never been able to maintain any amount of sobriety or have any real "quality" recovery for that matter. I was imprisoned by not only my addictions to methamphetamine, heroin, and alcohol but abusive relationships and self-hatred. I hated myself so much and how much of a failure I thought I was that that I allowed myself to be beat and emotionally tortured on a daily basis. I didn't believe that I was worth much more than the existence than I was surviving in. My daily routine consisted of having a drink first thing when I came to, getting well, go cop more, hustle, get well again, hustle some more, go cop again, all the while drinking as much vodka as I could, maybe pass out, maybe not, REPEAT!!! And it seemed to NEVER END!!! Every day was like the one before it, weeks, months, years passed and every once in a while I would get a moment of clarity and wonder where had my life gone? What had I accomplished? Was that how I was going to go out- with a needle in my arm, estranged from my family, alone in the streets of San Francisco with only the clothes on my back? In the wee hours of the morning trying to find a vein which could take hours sometimes I couldn't help but cry out to whatever was out there HELP ME!!! I kept saying to myself I don't want to die yet when I haven't even lived. I didn't think I could take much more when one day my family reached out to me after several years of me asking for help and offered for me to come to Amity Circle Tree Ranch. It took a few months to finally get me there, but I finally arrived Jan. 5th 2013. I can't say everything was perfect right away as I was still very sick, but slowly things started to get better. Amity was like no place I had ever been before and for that reason I was skeptical at first. But that being said nothing else I had ever tried before had ever worked and I was desperate with nothing to lose so I decided to stick it out and it's a good thing I did because my time at Amity was the best thing that ever happened to me. The staff at Amity showed me an unconditional love and acceptance like nothing I had really ever experienced before. Even though I felt really different and ashamed, no one treated me that way. The other clients too were very loving and accepting. Amity has a sort of magic about it that is almost indescribable. Slowly I began to come around and open up in groups and eventually in front of the whole community.I had an amazing counselor named Josie Cortez that ran our lodge (group). She was very nurturing but forthright and didn't sugar coat things for me. As a group we all worked through curriculum books focusing on different things such as childhood traumas, violence, affection, resentment, triggers etc... All of the curriculum was very thorough and I got to really learn and understand myself on a whole new level. Along with that came the growth of self-esteem and eventually self-love. I am by no means perfect today but with the help of Amity I have come A LONG WAY! And continue to progress as a person and am achieving new goals constantly. Since I have left Amity in Aug. of 2013 I have gotten stable housing, my first job in 10 years, joined a MMA class, am going to school to become a chemical dependency counselor, practice healthy eating and exercise and have remained 100% clean and sober all the while. I know that I ultimately had to put in the hard work to achieve these things but I whole hardheartedly believe that I could not have been this successful had it not been for Amity Foundation and all that they have done for me. I really can't say enough about Amity and all the blessings and teachings they have given me there are honestly too many to mention. I would recommend this place for ANYONE who is suffering and wants a new way of living.Peace and Blessings Kari L. Smith

Greetings, my name is Ron Arvizu. I came to Amity Circle Tree Ranch in 1992. When I came here I was a very dysfunctional individual. I had managed to accumulate many years of incarceration and drug and alcohol abuse. Before my arrival I did not have the skills to function in a normal healthy environment. I had many layers of anger and defenses in place, it was very hard for me to trust and to listen, to take guidance from people with life skills experience. I needed to be habilitated because though I had both of my parents, I also have siblings two brothers and three sisters, I never felt that I belonged in my family. I sought out acceptance on the streets of Tucson, I ran around with a pretty rough crowd. I started drinking alcohol and smoking marijuana around the age of twelve. Eventually I was sent to reform school the juvenile courts deemed me incorrigible before the age of sixteen I was incarcerated for 37 and a half months, those were my formative years. As an adult I was in and out of city and county jails for various alcohol and drug offenses, eventually I ended up going to prison three different times. Rehabilitated here at Amity Circle Tree Ranch I certainly was! I learned how to trust, how to feel empathy how to feel compassion, how to respect others and their property. I learned how to respect women and my male friends also. Once my personal walls started coming down, I learned how to develop my voice in a healthy productive manner. I learned how to deal with life situations in a non-criminal way.I learned how to live life without having to resort to drugs/alcohol. I learned how to be part of the solution and not part of the problem, before, I was an enabler, now I know I cannot please all of the people all of the time, there are always going to be people who do not like me for some reason or other, I do not let that get in my way, I keep those and all people in prayer. I left Circle Tree Ranch in 1992, I came to work here almost three years ago, I feel that I contribute to this community in some way, I also conduct Sweat Lodge ceremonies twice a month, sometimes more if a special need arises. I am considered to be an "Elder" in the community. If I hadn't learned how to use my past negative life experiences as tools, to implement and teach from them, my life could be classified as " Wasted". I speak to the Community at large when there are community gatherings, oftentimes running parts of my story in an honest and passionate manner, you see I had to take the plunge and be brutally honest in groups while here as a student, Circle Tree Ranch provided me with a safe arena in which to do this. I encourage students to take advantage of this opportunity to do likewise, I often can be found speaking with students on a one on one basis, or in small groups offering words of advice, wisdom if you will, letting students know that I do understand what is going on with them, if I don't, I can direct them to someone who does understand, thereby as a team member working with the team to build community building skills. In summary, this is just a small part of what I learned during my stay here at Circle Tree Ranch as a student.

Amity Foundation Circle Tree Ranch has changed my life and reunited my family. When I came to Circle Tree Ranch in January 2007 I was a a broken man who had lost his spirit. I began to heal from my wounds during my time there as well as reunite with my family who I had distanced myself from. I found a new path in life that has lead me to be happy and whole again. I am now a father and husband with a good career who got his life back at Circle Tree Ranch. Due to the things I learned while I was there I have been able to become a good man that my family can be proud of. I was able to regain the trust and confidence from my family and friends. One of the best choices I have ever made in my life was the one to come to Circle Tree Ranch. They helped encourage me to change my life in a way that I can only describe as amazing. If you are looking to get your life back on track or reshape your life as I have done this is the place to do it. I had gone to other high end rehabilitations centers prior to this and they were all unsuccessfully. It wasn't until I came to Amity Foundation Circle Tree Ranch that I was able to get the help that I needed to be happy today.

Circle Tree Ranch has changed my life and reunited my family. When I came to Circle Tree Ranch in January 2007 I was a a broken man who had lost his spirit. I began to heal from my wounds during my time there as well as reunite with my family who I had distanced myself from. I found a new path in life that has lead me to be happy and whole again. I am now a father and husband with a good career who got his life back at Circle Tree Ranch. Due to the things I learned while I was there I have been able to become a good man that my family can be proud of. I was able to regain the trust and confidence from my family and friends. One of the best choices I have ever made in my life was the one to come to Circle Tree Ranch. They helped encourage me to change my life in a way that I can only describe as amazing. If you are looking to get your life back on track or reshape your life as I have done this is the place to do it.