Heartlight Ministries

One of God's greatest blessings to our family was that Heartlight had an opening for our daughter. My wife and I spent several months researching therapeutic boarding schools. I consider the decision to choose Heartlight one of our wisest and bravest decisions. Regardless of the challenges and the decisions you are facing as a family raising a teenager, Mark Gregston and his staff are gifted in employing Christ's healing in this broken world along with best therapeutic clinical practices. Choosing Heartlight was not an abandonment but a partnering with Heartlight to raise our daughter to her fullest potential as a child of God.

Can never thank Heartlight enough for giving me my daughter back! When you got her, she was dropping out of high school, deep in drugs, and had no self esteem. The girl that came back home is not the same girl! Drug free, loves herself and heading off to college! And not only did you help her, but us as parents and all of us as a family. Words can never express our gratitude!

i was at Heartlight for 13 months and graduated the program with flying colors. Ever since Heartlight I have become a great person with a new found self-esteem. I attend a university where I'm on the deans list and I surround myself with great friends. That being said, this is no thanks to Heartlitht but to myself and the patience of my parents. Both of my parents say if they could do it over again they would never send me back there. I can't imagine how hard it must be on a parent to decide to send their child there but let me tell you, it's the wrong decision. It's been two years since I've graduated HL and although I had a more positive experience than most I still wake up most nights with nightmares of being sent back to Heartlight. Being taken away from your home and sent to a place where leaving is out of your control is a traumatizing experience for any teenage. The staff that work there are very manipulative and will say whatever it takes to make you give them their money. They know the parents are very vulnerable and scared and they take advantage of that. Out of all of the people who I've known who have graduated the program only 3 have come out better than they were before, and the rest way worst. The 3 kids that are doing well that I stay in contact with were sent there for family problems only. They had no history of any drug related issues. The kids who were sent there for drug issues all left Heartligt and went crazy doing more extreme drugs than they had before Heartlight. Mark Gregston is never involved other than at family/parent retreats but loves to take credit for the very few success stories Heartlight has brought. Trust me, it's not worth your money.

Our daughter is 15. She was at Heartlight for 4 months. She had permission to attend my sisters wedding in New Mexico. We mailed our daughter 100$ to fly with. We know there can be delays so we sent her enough money to eat and buy magazines or books to read. Heartlight confirmed it was ok to send her money. They did not board her second flight and only gave her 15$ out of our 100$ we sent for her. She did not have a phone to call us. She was delayed 8 hours with no food or water because they only have her 15$. You can not even buy a meal at the airport for less than 20$. We called Heartlight and told them what happend. They did not call us back and apologize To us. They kept the money we sent for our daughter. They have emailed us wrong files on other children and all their information when it was supposed to be our daughters information. They are very unprofessional and I think the enter program is a scam. Our daughter did not change at all after being there. She never received any doctor appointments as promised. We were promised she would be tested for bi polar disorder. That never happend. She came home with a self made tattoo. We have no idea how she did it. They force the kids to eat until they are sick. Our daughter gained 40pounds in 4 months is not healthy. I have no idea how they are still in business. We are a Christian family and believe this entire program is just a way for the owner to be a millionaire. They only have councling 1 hour a week. We are still in shock that no one has apologized. It's a shame that they use God in this program to make everyone believe this program works.

I love Heartlights parental involvement, if anything is to work for our teens we have to set the example as parents first, they allow parents to be involved, to grow and learn with their teen. Mark Has a wonderful vision, and through prayer and training for his staff they brought an amazing ministry to our son, who was having some serious struggles! I would send him again if I had it to do over, and I would be more involved as a parent. Thank you Heartlight, you gave us our lives back in a greater capacity!

We spent so much time talking with counselors and staff and teachers while our daughter was at Heartlight that they became like family to us. We never sat and wondered how she was doing. The regular counseling reports and school progress reports kept us current on every step of her progress, and if we had questions the staff was just a quick email or phone call away. We stayed closely involved with all that was going on. It was a blessing to watch our daughter blossom under the care of the staff at Heartlight Ministries.

Heartlight has given us back our precious girl. She was lost in a world I can barely comprehend, but now she is whole again. She is the loving, responsible girl I always dreamed she would become. Even better, she accepts that God has a purpose for her life. God’s dreams for her are much grander than mine.

The admissions counselors spoke with me at length about my daughter’s situation before we enrolled her at Heartlight. Still, it was my first visit to campus that made me feel comfortable with sending her there. Besides the gorgeous views and the spacious facilities, there was a sense of peace and confidence in all of the staff. I met a few older students who had been in my daughter’s shoes just a few months before and heard how they have learned to walk with God since coming to Heartlight. I trust the staff at Heartlight to let God do His good work in my daughter’s life. She is in good hands!

Our daughter had been through a short-term program before with mixed results. We did a lot of research before we found Heartlight. When our daughter finished the program there, she had a new heart. We are incredibly thankful for the ministry and the caring staff of Heartlight. We believe it is the best among many outstanding Christian programs.

Our son has been home three months now after a year at Heartlight. We are so thankful for everyone who worked with him while he was there. He talks all the time about his mentor and the friends he made and all the fun things he experienced while he was there. The follow-up care has been great. We’ve had a few bumps in the road, but the counselors who have kept in touch and all the resources they’ve offered have made his homecoming much smoother. Thank you for your commitment to families.

Heartlight is a great program for teens and their families but Heartlight is much more...They have many different resources for parents. If you are a parent of a troubled teen, you need to contact them. They have resources that you can use in your own home. You can also attend one of their parent conferences that they hold to try to help keep your teen out of a program. They also can recommend other programs when Heartlight is full or not a suitable fit for your teen. Whatever the circumstance-the care about your situation and will get you help! THANK GOD FOR ALL OF YOU AT HEARTLIGHT.

Heartlight is a wonderful program with great resources that has helped many young people turn to the Lord and get their life back together. Even if the parent can't get their child in to HL, they will try to help and get them into another excellent program.